From left, Joann Barrus, Jeff Daversa, Destini Malta and Gary Mabee in front of a Fancee Wheels vehicle. Fancee Transportation, a medical transportation service, has opened a new, but similar service called Fancee Wheels. Fancee Wheels features 100 percent handicapped accessible vans that will transport people in need. P-J Photos by Jordan W. Patterson

Jeff and Lisa Daversa announced in April 2016 they were expanding their Fancee Limousine business, last month that announcement came to fruition.

Fancee Limousine swapped their former name for Fancee Transportation, last winter, as they transitioned into a medical transportation only business. Now, the company has created a second business called Fancee Wheels.

The new business incorporates 100 percent handicapped accessible vans for medical transportation. Jeff Daversa said the expansion was directly related to the demand of wheel chair transportation in the area.

“We found out there was a big demand for wheel chairs service in the community because there is shortage of them,” Daversa said. “That’s why we started another business up with the wheel chairs.”

Fancee Transportation, formerly known as Fancee Limousine, began in 1995. It all started when Jeff and Lisa were walking through the Chautauqua Mall where they stumbled upon a limousine being showcased in the center of the shopping center. Daversa made an offer and the salesman laughed and declined Jeff’s offer. A month later, the salesman called Jeff and Lisa to tell them the limousine was theirs: Fancee Limousine was born.

After having success in the limousine business for over 20 years, Jeff and Lisa noticed a decline in services. Jeff attributed this decline to the local economy changing over time.

“We did very good in the limousine business,” Daversa said. “We had offices in Erie, Warren (and) all in this whole area and that started turning down.”

Around five years ago, Jeff and Lisa started making standard medical pickups on top of their limousine service. After business with medical transportation increased and the limousine demand continued to decline, Jeff and Lisa halted all limousine services and transitioned into Fancee Transportation that would exclusively make medical pick-ups in December of 2016.

Prior to that in April of 2016, Jeff and Lisa had announced they had aspirations of managing an entire fleet of vans that could handle full-size wheel chairs. Now, the medical transportation service has finally acquired their first wheelchair-accessible-van and are one step closer to their goal of managing an entire fleet.

Fancee Wheels and Fancee Transportation take those in medical need to wherever is required through insurance companies and occasional private pay-outs. Daversa recalled several instances where individuals asked to be transported out of state. While most pick-up destination’s are at medical facilities, Fancee Transportation is occasionally asked to provide transportation for special occasions.

Currently, Fancee Transportation has 33 vehicles in operation with 33 drivers. In total, Fancee Transportation has 45 employees. Jeff said that they will start transferring people from Fancee Transportation to Fancee Wheels and then start hiring back into Fancee Transportation. Eight of the 45 drivers have the requirements and certifications to drive the new van.

“We learned the demand for the wheelchairs is a big demand and the competition is real low because of regulations to have those vehicles are very high,” Daversa said.

Daversa said he hopes to acquire two new vans in the coming weeks and have five by January. Within the year, Daversa hopes to have 15 wheel chair accessible vans in operation. The State Department of Transportation inspects these vans every six months to ensure the vehicles are keeping up with regulations.

It took Jeff and Lisa almost an entire year to acquire the licenses to operate this type of van. Now that they have the license, purchasing the vehicles will be easier.

Daversa said while the business changed lanes to adapt to the economy, he also was inspired to help the community that was in need of additional medical services.

“I think the work is very important because these people that are handicapped, in wheel chairs particularly, there’s no other way to get them to the doctors, ” Daversa said.

Daversa’s primary passion is helping the community and providing people with jobs at his and his wife’s company.

Fancee Transportation and Fancee Wheels offer 24/7 services every day of the year but asked that reservations be made three days in advance. To find out if a particular insurance company qualifies, call Fancee Transportation at 483-3661 and Fancee Wheels at 665-7075.