Archives for National Bus Trader

We have all witnessed this spectacle: A beat cop comes upon someone sleeping in the street, or in a subway car, and prods him with a nightstick until he goes elsewhere. This stroke of the wand might possess some magic if it actually gave the victim a home or a meal. Instead, he will only move out of sight to fall asleep somewhere else. But at least he will not be driving a 38,000 lb. motorcoach. Fatigue and Exhaustion In a recent FMCSA-sponsored examination of motorcoach operating environments and duty cycles, one of the most common complaints among drivers involved

Just glance at some of this Summer’s motorcoach headlines: Security assessment launched UMA asks for border bill changes (more inspections) Higher fuel taxes Higher fuel taxes ASCAP, BMI music agreements complete NTSB drops recorders from list Newly-mandated engines to consume 3-5% more fuel If you can’t find the common theme, here are a few more clues: Americans with Disabilities Act Hours of Service Regulations Insurance premiums Driver shortages Manufacturing changes Litigation The common theme is clear. It is rising costs. To the degree traditional solutions even worked, they have pretty much been exhausted: Adding some larger coaches to the fleet

Comparing their relative safety to that of other vehicles, a number of motorcoach features come immediately to mind: Mass, monocoque construction pneumatic suspension, and fully-padded, forward-facing seats. Yet incidents like these still occur: Traveling in freeway traffic, a motorcoach braked and swerved to avoid a collision, and a passenger flew into the dashboard and stepwell. Another passenger had just boarded when her motorcoach pulled out into traffic from an airport terminal, knocking her off her feet. A third motorcoach emerged from a toll booth, and before it had merged into traffic, a passenger was knocked down while walking toward the

Some things in life defy classification. With poor reading skills or blurry vision, one could easily mistake “motorcoach” for “miscellaneous.” So too could an excellent reader with perfect vision. Only it might not be a mistake; just an illusion. Motorcoach service is not so much a chameleon as it is a blur. This reality has enormous consequences for safety, and even stronger implications for liability. All Things to All People Most public transportation modes have distinct vehicles, passengers and service characteristics. In contrast, motorcoach services encompass and overlap every other public and private transportation mode’s passengers, and deploy many of

COVID-19, Shenanigans and Liability Part 1: Wheelchair Securement  A ancient cliché declares that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Such things matter most when things are their worst. In the best of times, the public transportation industry’s weakest link is wheelchair securement. In the worst of times, this link is crumbling.  71% of wheelchairs transported on fixed route transit vehicles are not secured.    Before COVID-19 arrived, a study found that 71 percent of wheelchairs transported on fixed route transit vehicles are not secured. Back then, securing a wheelchair simply made the vehicles run further behind. Without committing other safety compromises to offset the time

The regulations and practices which govern passenger safety for most motorcoach, transit, pupil transportation and paratransit services are well-established and clearly-defined. Critical passenger and driver functions covered include boarding and alighting, crossing, loading and unloading, wheelchair securement, passenger securement, and riding seated versus standing. These functions rightfully receive the greatest attention in accident prevention, since they are involved in the vast majority of fatalities and serious injuries. Executing these functions is far more complex, and far less clearly-defined, when the operating distinctions of motorcoach services become blurred, and assume many characteristics of other modes – or appear to from the

In my review of more than 80 public transportation-related accidents and law suits, one almost universal theme has been the absence of any log review. This failure has generally combined with another common theme: A vehicle running behind schedule. The relationship between these two themes is easy to both understand and demonstrate – as is the acknowledgement that they constitute a genuine safety problem. But in a courtroom, the fact that system management failed to notice the vehicle running late – and worse, failed to even look for it – translates into a liability problem as well. Faster than a

It did not take long for the corporate forces exploiting September 11th to reach the transportation industry. Already, the Federal transportation budget is calling for an increase of eight percent for improved security and safety. The USDOT’s proposed FY 2003 budget requests $59.3 billion – increased substantially over prior years to help provide improved security and safety for the country’s overall transportation system. Naturally, the largely-unsubsidized motorcoach industry will receive little of those funds earmarked for security. Yet our decentralized structure is like to render our costs for it disproportionately greater than those of many other transportation modes for the

Sometimes an outstanding safety record is not enough. Now is one of those times. Facing more new risks and costs, the U.S. motorcoach industry is urgently examining what to prize and what to jettison. One element we cannot continue to indulge is our renegades – a small cadre of operating scoundrels who jeopardize our survival, undermine our credibility, and increase our costs. These operators’ characteristics appear to correlate little with company size, ownership structure or any other broad variable. A rare incident illustrates the problem. The Burning Bus A minibus transporting 20 foreign dignitaries to a gambling mecca as part

True or False: Our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees F. Flowers know to bloom when it grows warm. Everyone needs a good eight hours’ sleep. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise Everyone has a 24-hour sleep-wakefulness cycle. Answers: False. 98.6 degrees F is only an average. Our body temperature varies by about 1.5 degrees throughout the day. False. Flowers know when to bloom by measuring changes in the amount of daylight. False. Eight hour’s sleep is a crude rule-of-thumb. Some people need 10 or 11; Thomas Edison required only two (though he