We must keep motorcoaches safe

By Pete Pantuso

A recent National Transportation Safety Board study reiterates that traveling by motorcoach remains the safest form of surface transportation in the U.S. The 726 million passenger trips provided annually by the industry are done so with passenger safety and comfort in mind.

The tremendous growth
of motorcoach travel to cities like New York and now
Atlanta and other parts of the Southeast, along with
the expansion of companies including Bolt, Megabus, Greyhound Express and
other curbside carriers, substantiates the fact that traveling by safe, reliable motorcoaches is the best way to travel.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, and the states, which oversee motor coach safety, must do a better job enforcing the law, whether it’s from the curb or from terminals. There are companies on the roads that are not operating safely and the FMCSA must do a better job finding, inspecting and shutting down bus companies that operate outside the law.

Pete Pantuso is president of the American Bus Association.

The American Bus Association has decided it will not allow any motorcoach company with an “unsatisfactory” FMCSA compliance review score to be a member. We also agree with the NTSB on many points:

● We support a higher entry fee than the current $300 for a company to apply to the Department of Transportation to obtain a license to carry people.

● The NTSB says critical problems exist with some companies and drivers not being able to master the requirement to speak or read English.

● The NTSB says driver fatigue is a contributing factor in many accidents. While there may have been specific examples where fatigue was a causation factor, in most instances these have also been accidents where the companies were out of compliance with federal and state regulations, or not following the Hours of Service requirements.

● Vehicle inspectors should place a top priority on inspecting motorcoaches rather than just commercial trucks.

The ABA does disagree with the NTSB on the issue of en-route bus inspections. Bus inspections need to be done at a company’s place of business, point of origin or maintenance facility, or at the destination once passengers have disembarked. This is an important safety issue because, while the bus is being inspected, passengers would be left along the side of the road without a safe place to congregate.

The NTSB report says bad motor coach companies “engage in practices that make oversight difficult.” In other words, they break the law by repainting buses, re-registering the company in a relative’s name, avoiding weight stations, having multiple DOT numbers or operating from states that have a lax reputation when it comes to motorcoach inspections and regulation.

Motorcoach transportation is 20 times safer than driving your personal vehicle. The ABA has taken the lead role supporting two critical pieces of legislation: one would
improve motorcoach safety by making vehicles structurally stronger; another would create a national clearinghouse with detailed driver records.

We at the ABA are doing our part to make motorcoaches safer.