Practically beginning my public transportation career as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation, I learned to hate “Wash-Speak.” Government agencies do not compound things; they exacerbate them. They use nothing, but utilize everything. They never start anything, yet implement everything. And much-ado-about nothing is usually referred to as a paradigm shift. As National Bus Trader readers may have learned from the last installment, our judicial system recently made mincemeat of the “Independent Contractor” model in a Federal Circuit Court decision, overruling a Kansas Supreme Court decision.[1] I expect this decision to be replicated around the country
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Bad Regulations and Worse Responses, Part 4: Judicial Heroism
Well, by now, the “Cat’s Out of the Bag” about Transportation Network Companies (TNCs). For this, we owe our thanks to National Bus Trader, Limo, Charter and Tours magazine (especially) and the United Motorcoach Association. The August 15, 2015 issue the UMA-sponsored Bus & Motorcoach News contained two articles about these previously-unfettered robot-controlled beasts. For those readers who may think this virus could not spread to the charter and tour sectors of our industry, think again. Just yesterday I received a call from an attorneys’ paralegal about a “limo case.” As it turned out, this “limo” was an 18-passenger
Speed and Acceleration
Have you ever found your company to be a defendant in a vehicle-pedestrian accident? If you have, you may remember an exchange like this between your driver and the plaintiff’s attorney: Q: So, before you made the left turn, you were stopped at the light, correct? A: Yes. Q: O.K. When you took off, how fast were you traveling during the turn? A: Oh, about five miles per hour. Q: And I assume that, you properly “covered your brake” during this turn, didn’t you? A: Of course. Five miles per hour! Covering your brakes? Are you crazy? No bus drivers
Bad Regulations and Worse Responses Part 3 – Invasion of the TNCs
These past five years, practically unnoticed until this last one, have witnessed the most radical change in public transportation since the introduction of scheduling software in the Early 90s: The invasion of traditional, analog services wallowing in their nostalgia by hyper- [or uber]-digital counterparts big on access, low on some concerns, and flying beneath virtually every City’s and State’s regulatory radar. The new kids on the block, self-proclaimed Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), began in taxi form roughly seven years ago, as a vision in Paris. In September, 2013, New York City’s Uber fleet contained only 500 vehicles. Last year –
Bad Regulations and Worse Responses, Part 2: The Rise, Fall and Transformation of Supershuttle
Mitchell Rouse! In the 1980s, a strapping, 6’4″-inch-tall visionary who had inherited a 50-vehicle taxicab company and, within a few years, expanded it into a 350-vehicle leviathan, along with eight small paratransit operations. With a heavily-computerized operation a decade before Windows took over the World, his dispatch office still answered every call with a live Earthling. Wilmington/Checker Cab was all about decency, respect and efficiency. And at a time when most of Los Angeles County was beginning to deteriorate rapidly into lines, menus, incompetence and traffic. Yet, as a brilliant manager with an expanding corporate mentality, Rouse was also a
Bad Regulations and Worse Responses: Part 1 – Introduction
Like every mode of public transportation, and for almost every aspect of our society, the motorcoach industry has, over the decades, been affected significantly by regulations. Some of these experiences were challenging yet produced dramatic results that, among other benefits, have saved us money. One terrific example is that modern motorcoaches dump perhaps one percent of the particulates into our environment than they did a mere two decades ago. Here, the regulations, though challenging, were at least realistic. But our industries’ (and other bus modes’) responses to it – effectively our engine manufacturers –
Safety and Liability: The Insensitive Edge – The Technology to Avoid Boarding Accidents
There are two interesting devices or configurations in buses and motorcoaches with pneumatic brakes and suspensions systems that many passengers assume are installed. They rely upon these to compensate for drivers’ errors, when they occasionally occur. I am speaking of both a “sensitive edge” and an “interlock”: •A “sensitive edge” involves a sensor installed inside the rubber edges of a bus or train door such that when either or both edges come in contact with an object – like a passenger’s arm, wrist or foot – they pop open, releasing the passenger so that he or she is not dragged
Safety and Liability: Are Increased Insurance Rates Really the Answer?
As this issue goes to press several people are already responding to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding increasing minimum insurance levels for commercial buses. You would have to be deaf to avoid hearing the resulting cries and groans from motorcoach and bus operators, industry suppliers and others who point out that this would not only contribute nothing to safety, but for many reasons could actually compromise it – not to even mention many other ways in which these increases would harm the industry. Compounding the extraordinary naiveté of this approach are two other
Safety and Liability: Thinning Densities and Safety Ramifications: Lessons from the Taxicab World
Expert witnesses are taught not to testify about what others are thinking. Yet I know what most readers were just thinking: “What in God’s name does Density have to do with Safety or Liability?” The answer and its explanation are a bit complex. But they apply just as severely to the motorcoach industry as they do to the taxicab industry and the recently incursion of what many call “The Uber Phenomenon.” In truth, as I will explain below, this phenomenon has infected the motorcoach industry years ago, is only getting worse. And not only are we doing nothing to stop
Height, Width and Deeply-Entrenched Ignorance
I could have called this article, “Know Your Bus.” But I have two much respect for the many U.S. motorcoach operators to dumb down this important discussion to the crayon level. But the fact is, many of the most fundamental things about our buses and coaches are not being taught to our drivers – or they are not understanding, retaining or applying them. And as NBT article after article have pointed out, training has no meaning if it is not understood, retained and applied. I have complained for two decades about the fact that drivers of any type of bus