Getting a van
From SWILwiki
When it is time for RenFaire, PhilCon, or any time it would be useful to have a vehicle capable of moving a large number of people, a van can be requested from the college,
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Getting Van Certified
Before you can get a van, you need someone who is van certified. See List of van certified SWIL folk. This process can take far longer than is reasonable, so starting the process a month before you first would need to drive is a good idea.
Go to Ben West with your driver's license and tell them you want to get van certified. They'll have you fill out a form and photocopy your license. Then they send your license info away to your home state to get a driving record. This can take a really long time. After they get your record back and approve it, they'll contact you to set up a time to take the driving test. If they don't get back to you for a week and a half you might want to call and check up on the process.
Swat now has a page on getting van certified: [1] (http://www.swarthmore.edu/x11007.xml)
The driving test consists of an hour driving around with a public safety officer in the public safety van. It's a mix of a test and a lesson, so don't be too worried. After you pass the test you are van certified, which lasts for the rest of your time at Swat. (At least until someone crashes the van and public safety abruptly decides they need to re-test everyone.)
Requesting the Van
If you want to go to somewhere less than 150 miles away, you use the vanreq process and can take out one of the four student activities vans. They're allowed to hold 10 passengers and a driver, though they have 12 seatbelts. They all get around 12 mpg, #19 is a bit worse.
If you want to go somewhere farther away or if the van coordinator says they are out of vans, you should talk to Jennie Yim, the Student Activities Coordinator, who can rent a vehicle for you through Springfield Ford. Because it uses the college's insurance the rates are pretty good. They have 5, 7, and 12 passenger vehicles, but you need to be van certified even if you only want to rent a car. In 2006 the prices were $30/day for the car (focus), $45/day for the minivan (freestar), and $70/day for the van (econoline), all with unlimited mileage. Going to NEFFA the van got 16 mpg, going to LEAF the car got 34 mpg.
If you're going the vanreq route, as early as you can — but at least a week before you want to go — send an email to vanreq@swarthmore.edu, containing the relevant information. If you put this in the format below, they are happiest, as then they can process it more efficiently:
driver: Firstname Lastname (flastna1) ext. 1234 organization: SWIL date: time: purpose: destination:
The student van coordinator will ignore your email for a few days, and then ideally respond telling you that you can have van number N and that the form is in the mail. If you don't hear from them and there are only four or so days left, sending a "can you confirm for date foo" email is helpful. If you still don't hear anything in the next day or so, trying to contact them by phone can be a good idea.
Once you get the form in campus mail, you hold onto it until when you're ready to take out the van.
Taking out the Van
About an hour before you're going to leave, go to Ben West, give them the form you got in the mail, and they'll have you sign out the van keys. Then you can go get the van from the lot (between the fields and the train tunnel). Write down the mileage on their form. Because people only need to leave the van with a quarter tank you almost always have to buy gas before you can go anywhere. This is silly, but that's the way they've set up the system. If the van has less than a quarter tank, note how much less on the sheet and ask that this gas be deducted from the mileage charges.
Driving
Avoid backing up, don't go too fast, especially on turns. Remember that these vans are not cars. Save receipts for gas, tolls, etc.
Returning the Van
Write down the mileage, make sure you've at least a quarter tank. Leave it locked, lights off, in the lot where the vans live. Don't leave it outside Ben West. Put the form with mileage and notes in campus mail, addressed to "Student Van Coordinator".
Paying for the Van
SWIL has a transportation budget, somewhere on the order of $40. The student vans are 40 cents/mile, and the transportation budget can supply half the mileage cost and half the gas cost. Give gas receipts to the treasurer. The van coordinator will send the van driver a bill when they get around to it. Collect money from the passengers for portion of the gas and mileage that the budget won't cover. Figure collecting $25 for every 50 miles.
