By William Allen

For the March 1 issue of Bus & Motorcoach News, the editorial committee selected an op-ed piece from the president of the Amalgamated Transit Union National Local 1700 because of its thought-provoking content, with the goal and responsibility of raising member awareness of how others envision the future of the bus and motorcoach business.

Judging by the calls we have received it worked.

While it is clear the author is a hardcore union man, its his vision of economic regulation that should trouble the entrepreneurs who populate the bus and motorcoach industry.

It is very likely the majority of bus and motorcoach companies in business today did not exist 25 years ago. Many operators may not even know that it was the economic deregulation of the industry that made their businesses possible.

Of course, there are those bus and motorcoach companies whose owners were bus and motorcoach drivers before deregulation, and any dream they had of owning their own company would have remained just that -- a dream.

Imagine a government system that decides who gets the opportunity to own and operate a bus and motorcoach company, not based on their commitment to safety and service but rather politics.

Imagine a system that decides your rates, even your routes. These were not rules that produced an innovative and an expanding passenger marketplace but rather a good ol boys network where the fix was in ... winks and nods, if you will.

Today, instead of lawyers, lobbyists and politicians deciding the fate of a bus and motorcoach operator, hard work, ingenuity and often tenacity decide success.

It is hard to conceive anyone would want to return to a system that seldom produced opportunities.

United Motorcoach Association members should know there are those who advocate economic re-regulation in an effort to eradicate competition.

There are those who do not believe you should have an opportunity.

This is not an issue of labor and unions; that is a different domain and one which will be addressed soon by Congress with looming legislation.

This is about the opportunities and those who capitalize on those opportunities to create jobs.

The absence of economic regulation should never be taken for granted and every owner of a bus and motorcoach company should be keenly aware of those in their midst who choose to argue for re-regulation.

William Allen is chairman of the UMA Legislative & Regulatory Committee, a director of UMA, and a member of the editorial advisory board of Bus & Motorcoach News. He also is principal of Amador Trailways in Sacramento, Calif.