Bus company... what it takes to run one?

Image by Mel1st via Flickr

So what does it take to run a bus company? There's a flood of regulations you need to be aware of, then there's the common business stuff. Let's see what it takes to start one.

1) You need to apply to your state's "carrier authority" as a passenger carrier. In California, that would be the Public Utilities Commission, or PUC.

2) You need to apply to US Department of Transportaiton (USDOT) as a passenger carrier as well. They have different regulations from the state's (usually the state's regulations are slightly stricter). You may want to buy the latest copy of USDOT regulations from a publisher such as J.J. Keller and/or buy a subscription so you are kept updated.

3) In California, in order to get the PUC approval, you also need to get Worker's Compensation Insurance (i.e. Worker's Comp) unless you are an "owner-operator", i.e. you run only one vehicle and you're the driver.

4) You need to get insurance... for a public carrier, it's $5,000,000 liability and $5,000,000 in general.

5) Your buses must be maintained and inspected periodically. Records must be kept of all the inspections, to be produced at any USDOT or CHP audits.

6) Your drivers must be qualified to operate buses (i.e. commercial driver license, class B, with passenger endorsement). And you must maintain a file on each, with their yearly progress, subscribe to their driver status from the CA DMV (i.e. you get notified whenever their file changes, such as tickets, accidents, etc.), and also their test results from drug and/or alcohol tests.

7) You must join a random testing consortium or start your own test program for drugs and alcohol compliance. A full test policy must be published, and list of drivers submitted to the consortium. Before they got tested (unless they can prove they were tested in last 12 months and came up negative) they cannot work for you. And after that they are randomly tested from a "pool" of drivers every quarter.

8) You need to have a place to park the buses. Preferably it is close to the freeway, as well as refueling stations with lots of fuel available (gasoline? diesel? bio-diesel?) and if your buses are restroom-equipped, a place to dump human waste and wash the restroom plus exterior, while the run-off doesn't cause any environmental problems.

9) You need an office where you can post all the relevant Federal, State, and local labor law related posters. Federal, state, and city minimum wages, whistleblower protection, anti-discrimination, family leave act, the list goes on and on, and more are added as new acts pass through Congress.

10) You need to publish an employee manual, where all company policies are listed with relevant laws and requirements. Consult a book or two before writing one, or else you'll miss a lot of required stuff.

I haven't even gotten to the buses and employees yet. :)

Next, the hiring process, and what paperwork is needed just to hire a driver.