As a travel planning professional, here is what you can do to make your coach trips safer for your guests.

1.  Do not book departures too early in the morning.  Keep in mind that a driver must wake up 2-3 hours earlier than your departure time to allocate time to get ready, get to the garage, do the mandatory safety inspection and drive to your starting point.  A 5 AM departure time might mean the driver isn’t fully rested.

2.  Do not offer any overnight trips.

3.  Ask to be added as a certificate holder on the carriers Certificate of Liability and ask the motorcoach company how much insurance they carry.  The minimum is $5M.

4.  Don’t push it!  The federal government has set maximum driving hours for a reason and they are not flexible.  As planners, do not design itineraries that are close to the legal driving hours.  Keep in mind that there might be traffic, food stops and that tour directors often try to include additional elements to your itinerary.

5.  Take the time to visit their garages and you will learn a lot.  We trust the DOT experts for the vehicle inspections, but as travel experts, we need to make the effort to visit their facilities.

6.  Some Operators specialize in certain type of work for their vehicles and drivers. Make sure it matches your needs.  For example, a limo company specializing in party buses and casino trips, is not the ideal supplier for an over the road coach tour.

7.  The most important advice is to stop once and for all basing your decision purely on price.  This is not a commodity.  Coach companies that charge more, usually pay their drivers more, have newer vehicles, carry more insurance, do their own maintenance and invest more in driver training and uphold industry leading safety standards.  An extra $1-$2 per person can make a big difference.

Bus Manufactures are also dong their part and we will need to do ours.  For example, Prevost offers the following safety features on their new coaches too assist the drivers.

1.  Following Distance Alert – Reminds the driver to keep a safe following distance by indicating when the coach is following too closely to the vehicle ahead.

2.  Adaptive Cruise – When cruise control is on, AWARE automatically adjusts the cruise speed of the coach to maintain a safe following distance, taking into consideration the position of the vehicle ahead.

3.  Impact Alert – This feature will alert the driver if the distance between coach and vehicle ahead closes too quickly, giving the driver an opportunity to take action.

These additional safety add-ons on motorcoaches obviously have a cost.  As an industry, we need to be prepared to pay more for these benefits.  With the cost of fuel going up, and the cost of new high tech motorcoaches reaching $650,000, we need to be ready to allocate more to the transportation component of our tours.  If we were willing to pay more for air conditioning on a coach, of if we’re willing to pay more for comforters and plush pillows at a hotel, we need to be willing to pay more for safety and comfort of our guests.  There’s too much riding on it.

Be An Informed Consumer When Choosing A Motorcoach Operator

Motorcoach companies must have federal operating authority if they cross any state or provincial lines, and should be able to offer you proof of that authority, which is issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) or Transport Canada. Additionally, many states and provinces require that a carrier obtain operating authority for interstate operations.

Ask for proof of a valid, current insurance certificate that provides a U.S. minimum of $5 million in liability insurance coverage.

Ask for the carrier’s U.S. DOT number. Carriers are required to have a U.S. DOT number clearly displayed, and should be either 5 or 6 digits long. By using that number, you can view the carrier’s safety information online.

All U.S. based motorcoaches must be inspected annually. You can call the individual motorcoach company to inquire about inspection, bus maintenance and repair.

All U.S. drivers are required to have a valid, current Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), with a “passenger” endorsement printed on the license itself. CDLs are only issued after drivers have demonstrated their abilities through on-road skills and a knowledge test.

Long or quick-turn-around trips may require an extra driver to adhere to federal Hours of Service safety requirements.

Make sure the company complies with FMCSA pre-trip passenger safety messaging requirements. Ask them if they show ABA’s safety video, play ABA’s audio CD, or are equipped with ABA’s seatback pocket safety message cards.

For scheduled intercity service from your town to points everywhere, research online and crosscheck your available choices with the ABA companies.

Ask the operator for recommendations on lodging, restaurants, destinations, and tourist attractions. Remember that motorcoach and tour company professionals deal with these companies daily. As “preferred customers,” they can often negotiate favorable group rates for you and even provide some extras.

If you require it, check to make sure that the operator has bilingual drivers.

The Safe Choice

Motorcoaches are the safest form of surface transportation, according to government statistics. But one injury or fatality is one too many, which is why safety remains ABA’s top priority.

ABA supports a holistic approach to enhancing safety, of which industry action is a critical part. Other critical components of safety enhancement include assertive government crackdowns on rogue operators by enforcing laws already on the books.

Vigorous enforcement of existing laws can yield quantifiable safety results today. ABA supports initiatives that help remove unsafe companies and drivers from the roads; that establish educational benchmarks for drivers; and that makes certain companies entering the industry are knowledgeable and abide by all regulatory requirements.

Other crucial steps to boost safety include enhanced operator safety oversight, more vehicle safety maintenance, and innovative new crash avoidance and occupant protection technologies. ABA welcomes the opportunity to work constructively with U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, FMCSA, NHTSA and other agencies within reasonable, science-driven timeframes to enhance passenger safety.

Information provided by the American Bus Association (http://www.buses.org)