Caltech’s chauffeurs are (from left) Jesse Bustamantes,
Davy Stone, Elsa Echegaray, Johnny Noyes,
Henry Riley, Raul Turcios, Marcos Carretino,
and Billy Sandoval.

Caltech after dark: Chauffeurs do it at night

By Javier Marquez

6:30 p.m., leave Caltech campus

The Lincoln Town Car flies down the 210 freeway, so silent and smooth that it’s hard to believe it’s moving, but a glance at the speedometer confirms that we’re traveling at 63 mph.

It’s a white car with a blue roof and it is part of a fleet of six cars that collects Caltech’s itinerant professors, administrators, and visitors and delivers them wherever their business may take them, at any hour of the day and on any day of the week.

On this particular day, arrangements have been made for Ahmed Zewail, Pauling Professor of Chemical Physics and professor of physics, to be picked up about 30 miles away in Claremont, where he has presented a lecture to an auditorium of undergraduates, and taken back to his Caltech offices. He is expecting his ride to be there at 7:30 p.m.

The drivers of Caltech’s Chauffeur Service know that the limits of their job extend far beyond operating the vehicle and opening its doors. Raul Turcios, the driver on this trip, is wearing a navy blazer and dark trousers, a uniform that he and his fellow drivers slip in and out of so often that they’re known around Transportation Services as “the chameleons.” This is the first of five after-hours trips covered by as many drivers; the latest scheduled pickup is at the L.A. airport at 11:30 p.m.

“We all made a commitment early on when we asked to be on this rotation and a lot of times you make your plans around the week that you work,” he explains. “You become real close with the person in front and behind you on the rotation. You build a pretty good bond because the guy behind you supports you and can get you out of a jam. Plus you’re a backup to the guy in front of you.” On any given day, five drivers cover the assigned trips, with three reserves in case of unusually heavy demand. Today, Turcios was one of the reserves.

The familiarity is probably what helps the Chauffeur Service run so smoothly, and why drivers remain drivers for so long. Elsa Echegaray, the only woman on the team, has been a Caltech chauffeur for
17 years, and Davy Stone for 11. Over the years, they say, the passengers develop a sense of family with their drivers.

“Dr. Zewail has known me personally for a long time,” says Turcios, who has been a chauffeur for over a decade. “A lot of professors know us by name and all the drivers appreciate that. Many of the faculty have expressed that they feel good with the way things work. We’re known to be reliable, and they know we’ll be there. Another thing they like is that our motto is ‘We never say no.’”

6:43 p.m., traveling east in the 210 diamond lane past heavy but swiftly moving traffic

The driver’s face is often the first familiar one that Caltech’s globetrotting faculty see after a long flight and days away from home. For visitors, the chauffeur can be the first Caltech representative they meet, so he or she must make a good first impression. That means being on time to greet the arriving fliers or getting them to their planes without any delays.

Good drivers must have a feel for traffic patterns, anticipate trip times, memorize alternate routes, and be able to second-guess flight schedules. Their gear includes a cell phone to communicate with Central Planning back at Caltech, and a map book is their Bible. The radio is almost always tuned to the traffic report.

Turcios says he enjoys acting as a tour guide, especially for first-time visitors to Los Angeles. He will tell them where the ocean is and point out the Hollywood sign. “They get the biggest kick on the ramp from the 105 east to the 110 north, which is really high. There they get a great view, from the ocean sometimes as far as Mount Wilson.”

The first-time visitor may also need a more detailed orientation, which the drivers provide gladly. This may include delivery of the guest’s keys, directions to their campus building, a tour of the campus and the supermarket, a lesson in working the security gates, and even directions to the nearest parking lot.

“That’s something you don’t get from an outside service,” he says.

7 p.m., arrive at Claremont Colleges and wait outside the designated building

Our early arrival allowed enough time for a false turn down Claremont’s dark lanes. From the street, we spy Zewail having dinner with a group of students inside an elegant old mansion. We wait in the car with the motor humming and the air conditioner on full blast. “He likes the AC cold,” Turcios says.

Caltech has made cars and drivers available to its VIPs for more than 50 years, but the tradition came under cost-cutting fire several years ago. The administration declared that providing its own drivers and maintaining its own vehicles—albeit donated ones—was too expensive and plans were in the works to switch to a private chauffeur company. Reaction from the divisions and a few vocal professors was so negative that the current system was instituted instead. Now, the passenger’s department or division gets charged a flat fee that ranges from $45 for a trip to the Burbank airport up to $70 for a weekend trip to LAX.

A different kind of crisis visited the service in the form of last year’s terrorist attacks, which brought chaos to the nation’s air travel. Massive flight cancellations and airport closures stranded travelers everywhere, and private cars were banned from airports for weeks after flights resumed. Travelers had to be dropped off at parking lots, not at the terminals, because Caltech’s cars are classified as private vehicles. But the professors’ affection for the service became evident.

“The few people who traveled could have taken a cab or a limo inside the airport,” Turcios explains. “It was a madhouse there, yet people were loyal to us.”

Turcios hops out of the car and opens the rear passenger door for Zewail. Settled in the comfortable back seat, the Nobel laureate remarks that the Chauffeur Service is his preferred method of transportation, which he uses roughly four times a month.

“I really believe in our system of transportation, and I do feel it’s part of our family,” he says. “After September 11, I decided not to go to an outside service. I knew we were in the middle of a crisis and that there would be a little inconvenience, but they had brought a lot of conveniences to us. To me this is very special. In fact, I don’t recall in all these years taking a taxi.”
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