Archives for National Bus Trader

As those who reviewed the rulemaking well know (April 28, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 81), Rules and Regulations, pp. 22455-22517), the FMCSA actually increased driving hours from 10 to 11 hours for the trucking industry. If one failed to notice or apply junior high school math, the effective service area size for a single trucker’s workday was increased by nearly a fourth. Before we abstain from our next opportunity, it is worth exploring what an additional hour of driving could mean to both the safety and economic viability of the motorcoach industry – not to mention additional benefits which might

Hours-of-Service are dead, oh my. But before the motorcoach industry packs up its crayons, and the euphoria of “victory” wears off, it would be worthwhile to briefly examine the changes adopted for, and applicable to, the trucking industry, beginning on January 4, 2003. The overview that follows below is the first of several NBT articles which will explore the combined safety, liability and economic issues swirling through these regulatory changes – including a much-needed examination of missed opportunities. Table 1 depicts the basic provisions of the three new alternatives evaluated by the FMCSA in its recent, exhaustive analysis, alongside similar

Many movie fans of my generation have seen the classic “The Piano Movers.” In its most memorable dialog, shortly after their loaded moving van struck a bump at the crest of a hill, and began traveling downhill, Stan Laurel peers out the street-side window and says, innocently, “Hey Ollie, look at that piano rolling down the hill.” The viewer expects to be treated to the cacophony of an upright piano smashing to bits, with its brass harp and 200-some strings reverberating and detuning in harmony with Stan Laurel’s wimpy weeping. The People Movers Thankfully, apart from some poor and hackneyed

With innovation after innovation, buses and coaches have been increasingly equipped with a bounty of features to make passenger travel safer and more comfortable. So one would think their manufacturers could figure out a sensible way to get them on and off: When the rear door of an articulated transit bus closed on her daughter while she was alighting, the plaintiff lunged at the vertical door handles from atop of the stepwell, and successfully pushed the doors open, freeing her daughter before the bus could presumably drag her down the street. (Passengers are generally unaware of features like interlocks, which

One historical image at which I have always marveled, for its mix of genius and cruelty, was the practice of chaining oarsmen (generally slaves or convicts) to their ships. This practice undoubtedly provided considerable incentive to keep the ships not only afloat, but moving swiftly and continuously. Modern equivalents still exist in the military sector, by necessity, a primary example being submarine warfare. Unfortunately, and far less excusably, such equivalents also exist in civil cases in our legal system. Coaches and Horsemen While accident reconstruction may not be an exact science, some catastrophic accidents appear to occur despite the vehicle,

Generally, this extended column presents safety and liability scenarios which motorcoaches typically experience. Such experience is apropos, since motorcoach services are often maligned – mostly for a rare handful of serious accidents. Yet apart from bargain fares, its outstanding safety record is probably the motorcoach industry’s most pronounced feature. So, for a change, this column will identify the types of public transportation accidents and incident scenarios which motorcoach services do not have. Flashpoints of Liability While catastrophic accidents and serious collisions receive the most attention, the frequency of litigation suggests that three accident/incident scenarios are far more common to public

In past articles, I have written about the numerous roles motorcoaches have assumed in the transportation landscape, the marketing opportunities associated with them, and the challenging safety and liability issues which often accompany them. Yet practically unnoticed by the motorcoach industry, a quiet revolution has begun smoldering in both the pupil transportation and transit industries – where both the FTA-sponsored Transportation Research Board and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are, in their own fashions (the TRB through a study, NHTSA through a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking), exploring the feasibility of, and nationwide interest in, a multipurpose bus. These agencies’ rationales

These days, one rarely hears the cliché “You get what you pay for.” Every transportation professional knows that drivers, in particular, are rarely compensated for the true value of their work, at least in our society. But this reality provides little comfort to defendants. When their $7-an-hour driver kills or maims a passenger or pedestrian, they can hardly tell a box of jurors, “What do you expect for seven dollars an hour?!” The inability to place our workforce in perspective in the courtroom presents an unusual enigma: In all or most states, motorcoach operators are classified as “common carriers,” held

In the last installment of National Bus Trader, “Fatigue Monitoring Technology” presented an overview of the approaches and devices in development, and available, to prevent and detect driver fatigue. But unlike prevention technologies, fatigue detection devices raise a unique question: What happens when they work?! Chaos and Mutiny Easily imaginable fatigue detection scenarios illustrate the complex issues their successful applications raise: With the tantalizing Manhattan skyline in sight, a motorcoach full of junior high school students traveling from Boston since 6:45 A.M. sounds an alarm. The 60-year-old driver pulls onto the toll booth, and instructs the students to be quiet

Much attention has been focused this past year on the issue of driver fatigue. One important aspect of this subject is the task of detecting it. Technologies for accomplishing this feat have exploded in the past decade – particularly since the mid-90’s. These technologies have taken a variety of forms, centering on the driver, the vehicle, the physical environment, and the driving environment. The Technology Frontier Fatigue measurement technologies may be conveniently categorized in four groups: Operator-based technologies focus on measuring either heightened risk or outright impairment through the observance and/or measurement of various barometers of driver performance. Such performance