Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Mandates creation of system that allows passengers to compare the safety performance of each bus company and to annually reevaluate carriers that serve primarily urban areas with high passenger loads like New York.

Says FMCSA and states need to partner on HOS to ensure compliance, the industry needs to support the rule with comprehensive Fatigue Risk Management Systems, and that the U.S. DOT should have gone further in prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using hand-held cell phones while operating their vehicles.

The new rule, based on “fatigue science,” will use fatigue modeling tools and data on human alertness factors and guide the scheduling of train crews to reduce the likelihood of a hazardous work schedule. It includes maximum on-duty periods and minimum off-duty periods for passenger train employees.

Reopening the Hours-of-Service (HOS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking comment period to allow for public review and discussion of four new studies.

All buses that were pulled over by state transportation investigators and law enforcement were ordered off the road. One major reason was the lack of an updated hours of service log book.

Speaking before the annual conference of the National Sleep Foundation in Washington, D.C., Chairman Hersman said fatigue has been a concern for the NTSB since the creation of the agency in 1967 and an issue on its Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements since the list was established in 1990.

FMCSA regulations require that operators communicate instructions on what to do in emergency situations to bus riders prior to any coach departure.