WASHINGTON For roughly 250 motorcoach companies operating in the United States, life is about to get ugly. Possibly very ugly.

For the remaining 3,300-3,400 coach companies, life is going to become increasingly uncomfortable, and the discomfort seemingly could last for years.

Thats essentially the message U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator Anne S. Ferro delivered again last month during a broad-based meeting of motorcoach industry stakeholders that included representatives from law enforcement, tourism and travel organizations, and state and local government.

The meeting was the latest in a series of warnings LaHood and Ferro have issued as part of the FMCSAs ramped-up and unprecedented efforts to expand its regulatory and safety oversight of the motorcoach industry and inform the public about safe motorcoach travel.

The April meeting came a week after the FMCSA announced it was deploying more than 50 specially trained safety investigators throughout the country to begin targeted and in-depth inspections of higher-risk coach companies.

The "quick strike group" is specifically going after 250 companies "with poor (safety) records," focusing on outfits with lousy driver scores in the FMCSA Safety Measurement System and on those companies that have no "known" place of business and/or maintenance facilities.

Another target is companies that applied for and failed the U.S. Department of Defense bus inspection program.

"Safety is our highest priority and we are committed to keeping those who do not follow our safety rules off the road," said LaHood. "Todays announcement builds on the recent steps we have taken to create one standard of safety for all passenger travel."

Tougher Compliance Reviews

A critical component of the crackdown is a much, much more extensive and invasive Compliance Review process that promises to make life miserable for days on end for operators subject to the scrutiny.

This is not your fathers CR.

Even though the Compliance Review has long been the FMCSAs touted big stick of safety enforcement, in reality the operator audit often was little more than a paper shuffle.

The process shortcomings have become painfully more obvious in recent months as seemingly poorly trained, unmotivated or intimidated auditors handed out satisfactory ratings to companies that clearly had no culture of safety and were sending out unsafe vehicles and drivers daily.

Rimrock Trailways, Fung Wag Transportation and Scapadas Magicas are just the latest examples of noncompliant companies whose unsafe operations and vehicles were belatedly halted by regulators. (See March 1, March 15 and April 15 issues and page eight of this issue of Bus & Motorcoach News.)

During the past two months, the FMCSA says it has shut down 15 passenger carriers. Seven were declared imminent hazards and eight were rated "unsatisfactory" following Compliance Reviews. It wasnt that many years ago when the FMCSA was putting one company a year out of service.

What to expect

Now, when a pair of quick-strike-group inspectors land on a bus company doorstep, heres what the operator can expect.

If you have three or fewer coaches, the Compliance Review likely will last four-plus days. Four buses in your fleet? Expect the Compliance Review to last seven business days.

When a pair of inspectors showed up at an 18-coach company last month, the auditors told the owner they would be there for a minimum of 10 days.

In the past, a Compliance Review of a motorcoach company had five elements that focused largely on paperwork: Accident review; financial responsibility check; maintenance records assessment; evaluation of CDL and substance testing records, and hours-of-service review and logbooks look-see.

Now, inspectors are examining those same elements more diligently and also are probing tax returns, payroll records, corporate minutes and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance documents.

They are interviewing drivers and mechanics, often many drivers and many mechanics.

They will look at tour schedules to see if operators are stretching hours-of -service rules to the limit or beyond.

The giant hammer

And, should an operator decide it doesnt want to cooperate with the FMCSA colonoscopy, the agency has new powers that allow it to shutdown companies that fail to supply records it is seeking.

There is no due process to this new power. Its slam, bam, youre shut down.

While the FMCSA says its aggressive new efforts are targeted at the industrys bad actors, it seems likely, perhaps even probable, the stepped up enforcement effort will become "the new normal" and operators will have to learn to live with it from now on.

FMCSA auditors also are reportedly talking to casinos across the U.S., one of the industrys primary destinations, possibly about safety oversight, or lack of it, and/or passenger counts and revenue that might not square with what operators are reporting to the IRS.

Early last month, FMCSA Administrator Ferro sent a letter to thousands of motorcoach companies across the country informing them of her agencys "intensified safety enforcement and to seek their active support of this passenger safety initiative."

"Over the past four years, USDOT and FMCSA have carried out an unprecedented series of initiatives to improve bus oversight and safety," Ferro said in her letter. "However, we continue to see an unacceptable number of bus companies and drivers operating unsafely, resulting in far too many crashes with devastating impacts.

"The FMCSA is accelerating and strengthening its oversight of bus companies to identify unsafe operators, and either help them improve their safety practices or remove them from the road. We also are expanding outreach to consumers, the tour industry, schools, trip planners, and others on choosing safe motorcoach operators.

"We ask for your partnership to protect the traveling public by ensuring that safety is your companys top priority," Ferro added.

Enlisting the police

FMCSA also sent an appeal to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, requesting in a letter that the association ask its state and local members to increase traffic enforcement of motorcoaches.

"Through our stepped-up oversight of motorcoach companies and expanding outreach to consumers, the department will continue to raise the bar on motorcoach safety," says Ferro. "Our work with the law enforcement community and our diverse stakeholders is to make passenger safety everyones number one priority and to prevent needless tragedies."

LaHood also took pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, sending a letter to governors of every state, urging "their active participation in improving bus safety through stepped-up traffic enforcement to combat dangerous driving behaviors and outreach to their residents on choosing safe operators for their next motorcoach trip."

Industry split

At the same time, an interesting dichotomy has developed in the motorcoach industry, with the American Bus Association pushing, goading and cheering the FMCSA on in its aggressive inspection regime and expanded Compliance Review program.

"The American Bus Association vigorously supports FMCSAs efforts . . . ," the association trumpeted in a news release issued last month after the meeting at which LaHood and Ferro briefed law enforcement, travel groups, industry representatives and others on its initiatives.

The ABA releases have attempted to convey the impression that the broad-based LaHood and Ferro meetings were exclusively with ABA leaders, and at least one industry publication bought into the ruse.

The ABA pronouncements say the association "is pledging its full support" for the feds far-reaching crackdown, and emphasize that "ABA has been a steadfast ally with the Department of Transportation and FMCSA and we are pleased this crackdown is working."

UMAs approach

The United Motorcoach Association, on the other hand, has had a much more measured response to the feds zeal.

At the meetings with Ferro and LaHood and in public statements, the association has urged the FMCSA to focus its efforts on tackling those elements most likely to result in crashes (bad driver behavior being at the top of the list), instead of the things bureaucrats do best -- chase paper.

Not as bad as . . .

Seemingly lost in the hub-bub have been a few numbers the FMCSA tucked in one of the news releases announcing its coach industry crackdown.

In recent months, the FMCSA reported, it and its "state enforcement partners" have conducted more than 13,500 roadside inspections, resulting in nearly 1,500 driver and vehicle out-of-service violations being issued.

For the mathematically challenged, thats an out-of-service rate of roughly 11 percent, which is less than half the out-of-service rate for over-the-road trucks and their drivers inspected during last years highly publicized and annual Roadcheck 2012.

And it came during a period when inspectors are under increasing pressure to put more pressure on the motorcoach industry.