The Black Hole of the Van

At the beginning of the year, we had trouble with the transportation company picking up Alex.  Namely, they weren't coming to pick him up.

That got resolved but I realized his driver was not doing this out of a love for kids or a deep desire to get out and serve his community.  He is in his seventies, I would guess, and clearly doesn't like the job.  There is only one reason to work in your seventies at something you don't like: he needs the money.

Now I'm discovering an entirely new set of problems.  Namely, this driver will not take any step beyond showing up at our house and shuttling Alex to school.  Alex's water bottle fell out of his backpack last Thursday.  It was in the trunk.  I know this because I spotted it on Monday and pulled it out.  I showed it to the driver and he said: "Oh yeah, I found that last week.  You wouldn't believe what I find in there."

No, the part I can't believe is that he wouldn't tell us he had found it.  Especially since it has Alex's name clearly written on it.

Hats, gloves, water bottles.  All of this stuff is disappearing into the black hole of the van and never seeing the light of day again.

I've tried speaking to the transportation company.  Aside from the black hole issue, Alex is crammed into the back between two car seats.  It's pretty narrow back there and can't be comfortable.  That's not fair to him.  But according to the transport company, everything meets industry standards.  According to the school board, there isn't a problem.

It is a short distance at least.  He's usually in the van for less than five minutes each way.  But it is still frustrating that we can't rely on the driver to do more than the bare minimum.