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'Everybody Knows Joe': Beloved Van Driver Says Goodbye to the Shuttle

"I've had guys say, 'Joe, stop the van!' get out and throw up," he laughs.

The driving itself is harder work. The nighttime shuttle covers most of central Cambridge--from Central Square to the Somerville line to Porter Square to Mount Auburn Hospital.

Andrade says he sometimes logs more than 100 miles a night. And computing the most efficient route for a vanful of students takes mental gymnastics.

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"If I stayed here another year I'd be an architect," he jokes.

The job is eight hours straight with only one 15-minute break. Andrade stays at work until 3 a.m. but is up early the next morning to take his wife to work and perform his twice-a-week day job driving a disabled professor.

"It's good for a single guy," he says. "But I've got a family and it's hard on them."

Still, Andrade says he's enjoyed the job thoroughly and will miss the students he's met.

"This is the easiest thing I've ever done," he says. "I can't believe they pay me for this."

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