they issued me a hybrid van and the electric motor cut out about two hours in.

Theres 4 parties involved. 5 if you count the end customer. Theres the county who ostensibly operates the public transportation service and manages the grant program. theres via, the company they hired to appify the service into an uberish situation. theres avis, the rental company that provides the vans. and theres me. i believe via has hired yet another company to handle their customer service, outsourcing to india, so probably 6.

I select- really, compete for on a first-come-first-served basis- shifts once a week. they are dropped on tuesday at 11. by 1130 all the good shifts are taken and only the dregs are left. when i show up for a shift, a license plate number is assigned for me, which I get to go play hide and seek for in the parking lot. When i start the shift, i go through an inspection and make a rental contract with avis. after that, i do my job, and then gas up and return to the lot at the end of the shift.

somewhere in all that is a very smooth, sensible, painless process that makes a lot of sense. that process is obscured by so much bureaucracy and mismatched incentive and ugh.

so yes, i handle the rental. i hope that clears up some of the confusion.