Chapter 59
4/14/2005
Ch 59 Front Page News Newsworthy Swap Drivers
Middletown Honda Showroom
Older workers have drive employers admire
Crew likes camaraderie, extra cash that jobs ferrying rental cars bring
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
First published: Thursday, April 14, 2005
COLONIE -- Uncle Bill eases his creaky, slightly stooped 6-foot, 4-inch frame into the buttery leather seats of a 2005 Cadillac DeVille.
He clutches his "tools of the trade," a blackthe trade," a black satchel with maps, trip sheets and screwdrivers for removing license plates.
That's how this octogenarian rolls.
"It's nice being able to drive a car I can't afford to buy," says "Uncle" Bill Mayer, 80, a retired real estate agent.
He's one of the not-quite-over-the-hill gang who drive for Enterprise Rent-A-Car. They deliver vehicles where needed at more than 40 Enterprise locations in New York and surrounding states.
These former retirees prove there are second acts in the current labor market and that there's nothing like hitting the open road for rolling back their biological odometers.
"It makes me feel younger to be working and spending time around young people," says Herb Schmidt, 78, of Troy, a retired superintendent for buildings and grounds at the Sage Colleges.
Some rely on the extra paycheck to supplement pension and Social Security benefits. Others drive to stave off boredom. A few were nudged back into the work force.
"My wife likes getting me out of the house," says Mayer, whose own car is a 1995 Buick LeSabre. "I feel better working, rather than sitting at home, doing nothing."
At dawn on a recent Friday, two dozen senior men and one woman -- tough-talking Stephanie Mabb, 60, who endured four back operations during 30 years as a waitress -- arrive at the rental car office near the Albany International Airport.
"Half of them are here early, drinking their coffee, waiting for me to unlock the door at 6:45 a.m.," says David Fensterer, 38, Enterprise's regional vehicle acquisition manager.
He says their work ethic blows the doors off the teenagers and college students who once filled the regional driver positions. They have less turnover, are more reliable, complain less, get fewer speeding tickets and cause less wear and tear on the vehicles.
Coaxing retirees back into the workforce is becoming a necessity for employers. Between 2000 and 2010, projections for New York state show that the number of 15- to 24-year-olds will stop growing, while those in the 50- to 64-year-old and 65-and-older categories will increase substantially.
"There are fewer teenagers out there in the labor pool and more and more seniors as baby boomers age. Employers are looking to seniors to fill their jobs," says James Ross, an analyst for the state Department of Labor. The current trend mirrors a similar one in the late 1980s, when there was a shortage of teenagers to fill entry-level jobs.
The Enterprise drivers don't mind that demographics are putting them in the driver's seat.
"It's the only job I've had where I get paid to have fun," says Mabb, of Ballston Spa, a mother of three and grandmother of eight.
There's a certain romance to a job with lingo such as a "chase" car (the company vehicle used to shuttle other drivers), "in-fleeter" (a member of the active rental fleet) and "pull car," (a car that will be taken out of service and sold to a used-car dealer, also known as UCS or used car stock).
The job's unpredictability appeals to these $7-an-hour car jockeys. One day, they might be fighting gridlock in midtown Manhattan by late morning.
The next day, they could be cruising the scenic byways of Vermont in the afternoon en route to Burlington.
"I like how it's different every day. I don't enjoy sitting at home, doing the same thing all the time," says Roy O'Keefe, 70, of Malta, a retired insurance broker. He's been at Enterprise for seven years and doesn't mind waking up at 5 a.m. three days a week, driving his 2002 Toyota Camry to the job and then driving hundreds of miles during a 10-hour shift.
"There's a great camaraderie among the drivers," says supervisor Aaron Castilla, 28, who parcels out the driving assignments each morning. "It's never boring with this crew."
One day last week, Mabb made a 404-mile round-trip to Montreal. "I was driving chase," she says, meaning she drove an Enterprise van to pick up another driver who shuttled a truck to Canada.
Although she's the only female driver, Mabb can hold her own amid the locker room atmosphere of Enterprise's early morning shape-up. Sports banter, Viagra jokes and other clubby humor fail to make the retired waitress blush.
"Oh, hell yeah, I can handle it. I give it right back," says Mabb, who drives a 2000 Chevy Blazer on her own time.
The drivers coin nicknames for each other ("Mumbles" is one that's fit to print) and enjoy telling tales of the road. One guy boasts about driving through four states in a day.
Uncle Bill, a one-time dairy farm operator with an aw-shucks grin and a Penn State cap, still gets mileage out of describing the time he was ticketed for speeding on the Northway. (The current crew has a darn good driving record, which the employer monitors closely.)
Their early-morning exchanges often center on encounters with bad drivers. The consensus is New Jersey drivers are the worst and Vermonters are annoyingly slow.
George Muller, 60, of Halfmoon, never envisioned he'd become a road jockey after retiring from AT&T as a communications technician at 55.
"I sat at home for a year, finished the basement and every other home project I could think of," says Muller, who drives a 1999 Chevy S-10 pickup and has been an Enterprise employee for four years. "I like seeing new places. And this job pays for my golf."