When the bus safety inspector comes, what grade will you get?

WASHINGTON So, if you had to rate your companys safety performance, what letter grade would you assign to your operation -- an "A" or a "B" or something worse?

How about your competitor across town?

If that seems like a juvenile exercise or waste of time, then you best get over it.

Thats because a "simple and understandable (safety) rating system" is coming to the motorcoach industry, and letter grades that allow passengers to compare the safety performance of each and every operator seems a likely possibility.

Such a system is mandated in the federal highway and public transportation law signed by President Obama last month.

Buried deep in the nearly 700-page law is a requirement that the U.S. Transportation Department determine the safety fitness of each passenger carrier it registers, and come up with an easy and straightforward system so bus travelers can compare "the safety performance" of any company they may want to ride.

As proposed by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., earlier this year and inserted into the highway bill, the system would be similar to the health-and-cleanliness rating system used for restaurants across the U.S. (See March 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

The United Motorcoach Association and the Southeast Regional (Motorcoach) Association were the first industry groups to endorse the concept.

Congress has given the USDOT a fairly ambitious timeline for getting the rating/grading system implemented.

Essentially, new operators that receive USDOT operating authority after the law became effective last month are to be assigned their rating/letter grade within two years.

So, in a perfect world, the first companies with letter grades could have them by mid-2014. However, were dealing with the USDOT and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, meaning delay is probably inevitable.

Motorcoach operators that were in business before July 2, 2012, are to get their letter grades no later than July 2, 2015.

Congress also mandated that USDOT develop regulations that establish a process for regularly checking on the safety performance of private passenger carriers. The new rules are to include a system of "progressive intervention" to correct unsafe practices.

Once the program is up and running, operators are to have their safety fitness rechecked at least every three years.

Operators that "serve primarily urban areas with high passenger loads," meaning curbside operators, casino shuttles and similar operations, will have annual safety fitness assessments.

The new law also mandates that operators must "prominently display (their) safety fitness information" in terminals, in motorcoaches, on a sign if coaches depart from locations other than a terminal, and at all points of sale for motorcoach services and operations.

Additionally, the USDOT must ask the public for ideas on ways it can improve the accessibility of its safety rating information for motorcoach services and operations.

Fundamental to the entire effort is the goal of making USDOT safety fitness information about motorcoach operators more clear-cut and effortless to access.

"The hope is that a single, federal-assigned consumer rating will cut through the confusion created by third-party ratings," said an industry executive who has closely followed development of the idea.

Who knows, the system might even eventually eliminate the need for consumer-oriented inspection companies.

Other items in the highway bill (not highlighted in the July 15 Bus & Motorcoach News) include:

CDL notification system. Motor carriers are required to check the CDL status of their drivers annually. The highway bill presses the FMCSA to move forward with a Driver Record Notification System.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Congress wants to know the status of technology currently being studied that has cars and commercial vehicles talking to each other. Theres also technology being studied that has vehicles talking to the infrastructure. Congress wants an update on that as well. The goal is to keep vehicles from bumping into each other by communicating.

Exemption study. USDOT must research the safety impacts of certain exemptions from federal safety regulations.

Safety rating reciprocity with Canada is mandated.