Ada - It's Time To Make It Part Of Your Business By Carmen Daecher

Long before the Hours-of-Service Rules created such a stir, the Americans With Disabilities Act changed the landscape of the motorcoach industry forever. In October 1998, Secretary Rodney Slater of the US DOT enacted final legislation specifically for motorcoach operators. Unlike the proposed Hours-of-Service Rules, the ADA Rules are final and you must live by them.

If you don't know what the are, it's about time that you do. The first step is to understand definitions. An OTRB is an over the road bus. That's a motorcoach.

Fixed Route Service means service provided with published schedules and predefined or fixed stops. This isn't just transit routes, this could be casino routes or any types of fixed route service.

Demand Responsive Service is anything other than fixed route.

A "large" operator is one who has $5.3 million or more in gross annual operation revenues. A "small" operator is one who has less than $5.3 million in gross annual operating revenues.

These definitions set the standards for your requirements to have or provide accessible motorcoaches. To be considered accessible, a motorcoach must have a lift and 2 wheelchair securement locations. It also needs other accommodations (handrails, lights, etc.); however, these accommodations are standard features on motorcoaches today.

With life accessible motorcoaches, passengers must be allowed to ride in their common wheelchair." A common wheelchair fits on a lift that meets ADA guidelines and is a maximum of 600 lbs., including the passenger. Three wheeled scooters and other non-traditional mobility devices are also considered common wheelchairs. By the way, any other ADA Passenger (blind, stroke victim, etc.) can request and use a lift rather than the stairs at their choosing. And, if wheelchair users do not want to be personally secured (using seatbelts), they can remain unsecured if all other passengers on the bus are not required to have securement devices.

It is important for "large" motorcoach companies that operate both fixed route and demand responsive services to note that they have to understand and follow different sets of regulations for each facet of their business; "small" operators who have 75% or more of their business as demand responsive have less stringent standards.

So how many buses do you need and by when? The following tables will help you understand that.

The ADA Law is a civil rights law. You cannot discriminate against disabled passengers. This means that you cannot provide different or separate levels of service. Until you have accessible buses, if a disabled passenger requests service at least 48 hours in advance, you cannot deny transportation. After you have accessible buses on fixed routes, no advanced requirement is needed. On demand responsive service, 48 hours notice can be expected, but you must make all best efforts to accommodate disabled passengers with even less notice.

One of the distasteful pieces of the final rule is that if a disabled passenger complies with the law and you don't, you must pay the passenger compensation for lack of service. This payment starts at $300 for the first failure to provide service and goes as high as $700 for the fifth and subsequent failures to provide service. And, you must pay within 7 working days.

And, or course, DOT requires more record keeping and reporting. You must prepare acknowledgment forms for passengers each time they request accessible service and give them a copy. You must keep your copy for 5 years. Once you have accessible buses on fixed routes, you must keep track of how many times passengers with disabilities use the lift to board your bus. And, each year you must submit to DOT a tally of how many new buses you have bought or leased and how many of them are lift equipped. You must also tell them how many total buses are in your fleet.

This record keeping is intended to show compliance with the law and to establish the basis for the passenger compensation spoken about earlier.

As if all of that is not enough, you must ensure that our drivers can properly accommodate disabled passengers. Training is specifically required under this regulation. While it is not specifically defined, you must "train to proficiency" all employees who will interact with disabled passengers to ensure proper service. Just about everyone in your organization needs training if they are to interact with disabled passengers. But make sure the drivers are fully aware and capable of using lifts, assisting passengers, and communicating with them properly.

This is important since drivers must learn the right way to communicate with visually impaired and deaf passengers to inform them of stops, transfer points, and other trip schedule items.

Maintenance is not left out of these regulations either. All lifts must be in good working order and must be tested on a frequent, regular basis. If they are found not to work, the bus should be taken out of service until the lift is repaired unless there is no alternative to the use of the bus. In any event, after 5 days, the lift must be repaired.

There are not regulations for documenting these inspections. However, inoperable lifts may be a basis for passenger compensation spoken about previously. Documentation of the testing of these lifts is something that you ought to do.

Finally, as mentioned before, this is not a DOT regulation. And, you do not have to violate any DOT regulations to comply with the ADA Rules. So, while you must allow service animals (like a guide dog) to board your coach with its passenger, you do not have to allow that animal to block aisles which would violate DOT rules.

We have only scratched the surface of this rule in this article. So while this is a final piece of advice, it is the most important: READ THESE REGULATIONS AND UNDERSTAND THEM WELL. You must comply with them so you better know them.

One last piece of advice: the passenger is far more important than the description "disabled." A customer is a customer. While these regulations will be challenging, many new passengers will be seeking transportation on your motorcoaches. I am sure you want to serve them well.

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