Our Team

Five Star Special Transport is co-owned by Gregg and Drew Swanson, who are father and son. Gregg has many years of experience managing, owning and operating multiple businesses from large to small. Since 2014 Gregg has served people with special needs as a certified professional guardian and fiduciary. Drew graduated from Multnomah University and has over 8 years of successfully operating his own business. The two of them make a great team to deliver reliable, highly professional service.

Our STORY

As a certified professional guardian Gregg has experienced first-hand most of the wheelchair and disabled person transportation services available. That revealed to Gregg that there is a great opportunity to provide this service with excellence. That insight, combined with Drew’s entrepreneurial spirit and heart for serving people, led them to begin to plan a special transportation service that just does it better. After months of careful planning and testing to ensure the service was up to our standards of excellence, Five Star Special Transport began public operations in December 2019.

FAQ

How do I request a ride? The easiest way for you to request a ride is right here online by clicking the “Request a Ride” button. When you request a ride online, you will be able to know if we can accommodate your request right away. Though, if you would like, you can request a ride by emailing us, texting us, or calling us and we will get back to by the end of the business day.

How much notice do you need when scheduling a ride? The more notice we have, the better! If you request a ride 4 or more days in advance, you are in the green. If you request a ride 2-3 days in advance, you are in the yellow. If you request a ride 1 day or less in advance, you are in the red. However, we can sometimes do same day appointments! You can call us and press option 0 and we have an automated message that tells you our availability for that day and the next! Keep in mind, our availability displayed by the recording is assuming it is in Vancouver, WA. If you are a hospital needing help with discharges, we usually keep some time slots open in the afternoon to help you with that.

Do you serve people outside of Vancouver, WA? Yes! However, all of our flat rates are unique to Vancouver, WA. Also, if you live outside Washington, unfortunately we are unable to serve you. But, if you live in Washington and need transportation somewhere outside of Washington, we can serve you for an additional cost. You can contact us for a quote.

Do you transport people to places other than their doctor’s appointments? Absolutely! We are happy to take our riders wherever they need/want to go as long as it has been planned in advance.

Am I able to ride along with someone you are transporting? If the person we are transporting is in a wheelchair, we can transport you in our front seat for no additional cost. If the person we are transporting is not using a wheelchair, we can usually reserve the right vehicle for you to make this happen, but there is a chance that one of you would need to sit in a secured wheelchair during transport.

I don’t have a wheelchair. Can you supply me with one? We can supply you with a wheelchair for an additional $15.

How does payment work? We send an invoice to you via mail, send you an invoice via email with an option to pay online, or we can take card payments over the phone. All payment is processed the weekend after we complete our service.

Are you able to help lift clients? Unfortunately, no. We can offer a step stool, a hand to hold on to for balance, and a spotter in the event they lose their balance, but we are unable to lift them or maneuver their body in any way. Our wheelchair riders also need to be able to sit up straight and keep themselves up straight.

I am in a wheelchair and I have steps going into my house. Can you get me inside? Your house will need to have wheelchair accessible ways for us to roll you inside. We are not able to carry you up stairs as that would be dangerous for you and our driver. However, if you just have one step going into your house, our drivers are trained to wheel you over the step. You will need to sign a liability waiver though. If you are able to walk up the stairs with just a hand for stability, we can also help you with that. If we come to your house and find that there is no way for us to safely get you inside, we will need to call paramedics to come help assist you.

When are you open for business? Our office is open from 8am-5pm Monday-Friday, but we do offer transportation from 7am-7pm Monday-Friday for no additional cost. If you need transportation outside of those hours, it may be subject to a rate increase by 1.5 until we have more business during those hours. We typically only serve people needing dialysis on Saturdays, but if you need a ride on a Saturday, feel free to call us and we may be able to work it into our schedule.

Are you able to transport extra large wheelchairs? We can transport wheelchairs up to 32 inches wide.

I have a powerchair. Can you transport me? Yep! As long as you are comfortable driving your powerchair (or allowing us to drive your powerchair) up and down our van’s wheelchair ramp.

This is an emergency! Can you transport me to the ER? Unfortunately, we are not set up to respond to emergencies. While our drivers are first aid and CPR certified, those skills are only utilized as a last resort. If you are experiencing an emergency, please call 911 and request an ambulance.

Can you take me to an appointment and wait until I am done? Yes we can. Though, if you want us to wait we will need to charge 75 cents a minute. For all quotes that we give you for rides outside of Clark County, since we plan to wait for you to get done anyway, our quote will include 1 hour of wait time.

How long does it take you to pick me up from my appointment? One of the things that we have done successfully to set ourselves apart from other companies is to minimize or completely eliminate wait times! Though, sometimes you will wait about 15 minutes if we are serving another customer. It is very rare to have to wait any longer than that.

I need to cancel my appointment! Will I be charged? We do not like charging you cancellation fees. We like to charge you for the services we actually give you! But, unfortunately, it is sometimes necessary. When you book an appointment with us, we reserve about an hour and a half time block on our schedule for you, if it is a round trip. We reserve more if it is a ride outside of Vancouver! If you cancel on us less than 24 hours before your appointment, we are often not able to replace that business. Our driver is then sitting around for that time making $25 an hour with no money coming into the business. Therefore, we do charge up to half the amount of the cost of your ride if you cancel on us less than 24 hours before your appointment. Our booking system automatically sends you email and text message reminders of your appointment, so you should have ample time to cancel your appointment well before the 24 hour mark.