Wheelchair-accessible rental market growing
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Posted on: May 14th, 2008 by Andrew Roberts
Andrew Goodyear started one of South Florida’s first wheelchair accessible van rental companies in 1990 and said that owning such a business is both rewarding and lucrative.
In the late 1980’s Goodyear took a flight to Florida and found that there were no transportation options open to him at the airport. As a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic the rental car agencies at the airport, including Hertz and Avis, had nothing to offer him.
“In 1990, I decided to start a wheelchair-accessible van rental company, because there was no such animal here in South Florida,” Goodyear says. “Since so many are travelling these days with power chairs and scooters, having access to a wheelchair-accessible van is really important.”
He was able to open a franchise of the company Wheelchair Getaways and opened Wheelchair Getaways of South Florida in West Palm Beach in 1991.
According to president of Wheelchair Getaways, Dale Richardson, all you need to open such a franchise is “a strong desire to help the handicapped.”
Wheelchair Getaways started in 1988 and is currently owned by Dale and Jennifer Richardson. They have only two competitors on the national market: Accessible Vans of America (AVA) and Wheelers Accessible Van Rentals.
According to John Anderson, who operates a Colorado based Wheelchair Getaways franchise, non-accessible car hire firms such as Hertz, Avis and Enterprise, often refer rentals to him.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 51.2 million people in the United States reported a disability, including 2.7 million people over the age of 15 who reported using a wheelchair. The Bureau predicts that by the year 2030, almost a fifth of the American population will be over the age of 65, an age where the likelihood of having a disability is high.
“The baby boomers are getting older and they don’t want to hang around the house because they are used to going places,” Richardson says. “So our market is increasing exponentially, and there is a huge growth opportunity.”
