Hiring a driver for a grandparent
Does anyone have any suggestions for how to find and hire a driver for older adults? We want to hire a responsible and experienced driver to drive one, sometimes two older people to a variety of destinations. This would be to medical appointments and grocery shopping but also to enjoyable places, like Tilden Park and the botanical gardens for walks.
We are thinking of starting around 4 hours a day, something like 10a.m - 2 p.m., initially one or two days a week, but may want to increase the number of days in the future.
In particular I'm curious if anyone has had success hiring elder-friendly drivers through caregiver listing services like Care.com, craigslist or elsewhere. We have explored ride services like GoGoGrandparent and HopSkipDrive, but we are looking for something more consistent and flexible (not having to set up a ride way in advance).
Also, it would be very helpful if you have suggestions for how to vet a safe driver, as well as suggested hourly pay. Thank you. Laura
Parent Replies
One possible resource that uses trained volunteers:
https://www.ashbyvillage.org/
I know that care.com has an option for “elder care” and you can choose “driving” as a requirement.
I haven’t used care.com for grandparents, but I did find a great babysitter on there who drives my daughter to different activities.
My grandmother used GoGoGrandparent for 5 years in her 90s with great success (she was actually their #1 customer for a while). You don't need to set up rides in advance - they just call from their phones and they will send a car just like the rest of us use Uber, except for you don't have to use a smartphone to do it. The service also lets a family member get updates every time they call a ride, get picked up, and dropped off, so you can track their whereabouts. The drivers get an alert that they're picking up an elderly person and they were all incredibly lovely to her. It's worth a second look.