Would You Rent A Van With 13 Strangers?

I have done it in the past. My continuing flight from Atlanta to Columbia, SC was cancelled because of snow. I then rented a car to drive up to Columbia. I then went to the airline ticket line and asked if anyone wanted a ride up to Columbia. One person did and the trip was uneventful other than having to fight snow all the way up. My passenger told me 1/2 way there that when I asked he listened very carefully to my accent. He said if I had a southern accent there was no way in ----- he would ride with me in a snow storm, but since I had a good Yankee accent he accepted.

I'd be more likely to do it with 13 strangers than 1 stranger..... I mean what are the odds all 13 would be mass murderers :)

Thank you for the gifted article, Trotter. It sounds like they had a creative solution for a common problem, and didn’t want to/couldn’t wait 48 hours for the next flight, after a theirs was canceled. I had a somewhat similar, although less populated situation in Greece in 2018.

My husband and I had flown in to Athens the night before, reaching the small hotel at something like 8:30 P.M. We were tired, and the owner offered to call down the street and have dinner delivered to our room, but we had to place our order in the next 15 minutes, before the restaurant stopped taking orders for the night. We had a ferry scheduled early the next morning to take us to the island Hydra.

That morning, the hotel owner also shuttled us to the Athens Piraeus port, and dropped us off with our 2 suitcases. It seemed like decent weather, but reports were that the seas were too rough for the ferry, and we’d need to wait an hour for the next one, if the waters had calmed by then. An hour later, the seas were still too choppy, so we waited for the next boat, scheduled in another hour. There was a very small museum in the vicinity, and we wheeled our bags over and asked if we could leave them at the front for a few minutes, while we viewed the displays. We were initially told, “No!” as the man didn’t understand that we wanted to see the museum, thinking instead that we just wanted to drop our bags at his front desk for an undetermined time.

A few minutes later, we were back at the ferry gate (with our bags), anxiously awaiting word if we could board, along with the growing crowd. Nope, it was eventually announced that boat wasn’t departing, either. We were told that another port, on the Peloponnese, offered a shorter ferry ride, and would be more likely, with potentially calmer, more protected waters. But we’d need to arrive at that port by road. I decided we were getting a taxi, regardless of the cost, to get across the Corinth Canal, and onward to that other port. My husband called out, in English, to the other would-be passengers, asking if anyone wanted to split the cost with us. Another couple said yes, and we were soon on our way, and got to Hydra later that day. I wonder how many other people remained stranded in Athens? It was “our” Easter, and the Orthodox Easter was the following Sunday.

For the 13 people, going to Knoxville with a bunch of folks in the same situation wouldn’t be a huge risk, although I wouldn’t know the driver, and it wasn’t like he was a professional taxi operator. And I might be the most concerned about being displayed on TikTok in Farm Babe episodes.

Fun story! Thank you for gifting it to us!

I've almost done this. Stranded in SLC one early Dec when the local airport was fogged in with an inversion layer (not uncommon). On the 2nd day the pilot said we are going regardless and if Lewiston is fogged in we will land in Spokane (a bit over 100 miles away - no public transport). A person I knew slightly from work and 2 others I didn't know decided they would rent a car in Spokane and drive to Lewiston if that is what happened and invited me to join them. Unfortunately the plane turned around about 30 minutes out and headed back to SLC so another night there. By the next morning the local fog had lifted and we went as scheduled.

I'd be more likely to do it with 13 strangers than 1 stranger..... I
mean what are the odds all 13 would be mass murderers :)

The first thing that came to my mind was this Bud Light commercial.

https://youtu.be/z5uxs4wQAhI

But to answer the question, I haven't done that, but I probably would and if I do I'm going to write a Trip Report about it.

Bob, I totally agree about checking someone's accent before riding with them in the snow. There's a reason why everything closes down here when there's one inch of snow. Driving in snow is one of those skills I'm happy not to have.

My Dad did that in the 70's when his flight from Calgary to Vancouver was cancelled.
He had come off a flight from Scotland from his Mum's funeral.
He and four others got a taxi all the way from Calgary to Vancouver: 973 kilometres.
No passenger's rights or free hotels to wait in in those days!

i would do it too, but maybe not in heavy winter weather.....

Now that I'm thinking of it a bit more I had a friend and his wife who got stuck in Phoenix after 9-11. They and another couple staying at the same hotel ended up hiring a driver to bring them to the Canada/US border in Montana and family picked up both couples from there.

Seeing that Frontier flys MCO-TYS only 3 times a week explains the 48 hr delay for the next flight.

The story does not explain ( or comment) on how extraordinary a 15 passenger van is and being available on such short notice. Especially for a long distance one way trip. Kudos to Hertz

I was actually wondering how they got the baggage of 13 people into the van!

And Allan, I'm sorry I misspelled your name. I corrected it. :-)

We shared a rental car to drive 90 miles to another airport once when our connecting flight was canceled . Got upgraded to First Class on second flight.
One of my kids did a van rental with large group trying to return east the day of 9/11. They took turns driving.

Tried to do this at DFW some time last summer - 6 of us were happy to hop in a car together. But there weren’t any cars.

I'd be more likely to do it with 13 strangers than 1 stranger..... I mean what are the odds all 13 would be mass murderers

Carol makes a very good point !

Yes. Long story I won’t go into here but I once took a bus (alone) from New Jersey to Virginia with the wonderful bus driver who was returning the bus to its “home”. I was stranded in NJ by myself during the airline strike of 1966. All airplanes were grounded but a very nice bus driver offered to take me to Newport News, VA close to home. Ok, ok….I was young, naive and stupid and took him up on his offer and wanted to show my parents how capable I was. Ha. I was safely delivered to my Dad in Virginia. It was a different time and a different place and I thought I was a pretty savvy traveler. Haha. I was also 20. Live and learn but I would even today, have no problem taking a ride with 13 strangers. Of course, I would have done something terrible to my own kids had they pulled such a stunt……

I’ve watched “Trains, Planes, & Automobiles”. What could go wrong - LOL! My husband & I discussed this when it first came out, and we both said we would do it with a larger group of strangers but not 1-2 strangers.

I watched Planes Trains and Automobiles on my flight home to the States for, appropriately, Thanksgiving.

I guess this year is the 25th (!) anniversary of its release, and apparently there is also a new version with a lot of additional footage.

I hadn't watched the film since it first came out (first of all I had forgotten how damned funny it is), and I had a lot of fun googling articles about "the making of" and John Candy and John Hughes in the days after I got home.

Not exactly the same, but in my youth, I spent 9 days living and sleeping on a bus called The Green Tortoise with 36 strangers. Not sure I could do that now!

My concern would be the driving skills of the driver-I don't think most drivers would be able to capably handle a 13 person van.

"...but in my youth, I spent 9 days living and sleeping on a bus called The Green Tortoise"

You too? In my mistaken youth I got on that "Green Tortoise" Bus in Portland OR to ride it to Disneyland in Calif. I was 17(?) but that was a long time ago (early 70s). The Bus driver had a fight with a girl on the Bus and dumped the Bus (and everybody that was left) in a Supermarket parking lot south of San Francisco. He did throw down what was left of our fares so the people left just divided up the money and all went on our separate way(s).

Oh The Green Tortoise! My friend and I both went to school at UO and were just talking about that recently and wondered if it was still going.

My late husband and I both worked in emergency services. I'd never agree to getting into a vehicle with strangers.

Ya'll made me look. It lives on. I had never heard of it. Interesting. I see it is a West Coast provider, so makes more sense I had never heard of it.

https://greentortoise.com/

To the original question.....hmmmmm......maybe, but I would want to do AT LEAST a quick Google search (preferably a full background check...LOL) of the driver (and possibly fellow passengers). I would be more comfortable if there was some common link, such as people all returning from the same tour or all from my same city (after chatting casually to learn a bit about them...and then also hit Google).....depends on soooooo much, including personal desperation..LOL.

makes me ask, would you do that?

Well, they were all about to get on the same plane, with probably a greater number of strangers.

Why would a metal tube from GM, be more likely to turn someone into a mass killer than a metal tube from airbus?

Joe, I guess because the pilot is not "some random guy or gal," and operates under FAA oversight ( and flight tracking).

Regardless, in any situation, at least you will know with any shared van, the driver will not be "Toonces the Driving Cat" (for those of you old enough to remember the old SNL clips).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fvsItXYgzk

Just in our local news (these strangers sharing a rental car):

https://www.wsmv.com/2022/12/23/strangers-work-together-get-home-christmas/

I know that everything is bigger in the US than here in little old England, but where do you get a van with 14 seats and room for 14 peoples worth of luggage? And just randomly have somebody with a license good enough to drive 13 passengers?

To address Nigel's question--- https://www.busesforsale.com/do-i-need-a-cdl#florida

I did not read every state's requirement, but 16 passengers seems to be the trigger for a special endorsement.

"I'd never agree to getting into a vehicle with strangers."

Well, as I mentioned, this was the early 70's, a very different time. :)

The Green Tortoise at that time was a very "hippy" Bus line. We took the 101 Coast Hywy South instead of I5 down the coast of Oregon and into California. And there were several times where the Bus driver pulled off the side of the road just before a Bridge and everybody (well, most everybody) went pouring out of the bus, throwing off their clothes and diving into the water for a while before getting back on the bus. :)

My favorite memory of that trip was me in their big claw foot enameled bathtub taking a bath as the bus drove the Redwoods. With Bach playing over the sound system. :)

A very different time but we had a mixture of late teens, early twenties, with several couples in their 50s.