Favorable regulatory environment predicted for 2020

by Hal Mattern

United Motorcoach Association officials are cautiously optimistic that 2020 will be another year with little or no new regulations affecting the motorcoach industry. In fact, they said, there could be more rollbacks of onerous regulations.

“I don’t think we are facing any new regulations anytime soon,” Ken Presley, UMA’s vice president of industry relations and chief operating officer, said during the legislative and regulatory update session at EXPO 2020 in Nashville.

But that doesn’t mean UMA won’t be closely monitoring everything that goes on in Washington, D.C., that could affect the industry. There are a few issues out there that could cause major headaches for motorcoach operators, including renewed efforts to increase liability insurance minimums for motor carriers.

“We need to play both offense and defense,” said Becky Weber, managing director of the government relations firm Prime Policy Group and a UMA lobbyist.

On the offensive side, UMA is vigorously backing the renewal of the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act, major transportation legislation that expires October 1.

Signed into law in December 2015, the FAST Act included many important provisions for passenger carriers, such as a major overhaul of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program.

Other key provisions in the comprehensive legislation include equal access for motorcoaches on toll and HOV/HOT lanes and accountability to Congress regarding the length of time it takes to process new entrant applicants.

“This is our Super Bowl,” Weber said. “Everything UMA is trying to achieve will ride on this vehicle.”

Another UMA priority is Buses United for Safety, Regulatory Reform and Enhanced Growth for the 21st Century (BUSREGS-21), legislation designed to roll back burdensome federal regulations on the bus and motorcoach industry that officials say amount to “regulatory overreach.”

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa, initially introduced BUSREGS-21 in 2017. The bill never passed, although about a third of its provisions have either been included in other bills or adopted through administrative action. Perry introduced a “new and improved” version of the bill in December that UMA is backing, Weber said.

Among the negative proposals that UMA is watching carefully is a bill that would raise the liability insurance minimums in the trucking industry from the current $750,000 per vehicle to $4.9 million.

Five years ago, UMA and the motorcoach industry successfully fought an effort to increase insurance minimums for motorcoaches from $5 million to $20 million or $25 million. And while the current proposal doesn’t include passenger-carrying vehicles, regulations on the trucking industry usually seem to trickle down to the motorcoach industry.

“This is very scary because it could easily morph into the passenger-carrying industry,” Weber said. “Obviously if Congress goes down that road it is hard to believe it wouldn’t add motorcoaches. That would put us back in that battle.”

UMA also will continue its efforts to preserve the industry’s partial fuel tax exemption while trying to reduce it to zero to give motorcoaches parity with public transit and school buses.

“We’re trying to get you back to parity because you do the same things as transit, but privately,” Weber said.

She said that while the industry is expecting a good year in terms of regulations, things could change if a new administration is elected and takes office in 2021.

“Some of these issues could come roaring back,” Weber said. “So we are trying to codify them into law because it is harder to change laws than regulations.”

Presley and Weber implored UMA members to participate in this year’s Fly-In, which will be held April 28-29. Every year, members converge on Washington to meet with their local representatives and discuss issues of importance to the industry.

Presley said past Fly-Ins have helped educate lawmakers about the motorcoach industry and gain their support on a variety of UMA priorities.

Meanwhile, he said, UMA will continue its day-to-day advocacy for operators.

“At UMA, we understand that the most important thing to you is opportunity,” Presley said. “So we work every day to make sure you have opportunity. We watch bills and regulations and always try to push back to defend your industry so you can focus on your business instead of filling out paperwork for inspectors.”

 

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