WOODRIDGE, Ill. — The Go Ground transportation management company announced a five-year extension of its agreement to certify motorcoach operators for post-season sports travel conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Some colleges and universities follow the Go Ground certification protocol.
Go Ground has changed the fee structure charged motorcoach carriers to be inspected and approved for NCAA charters.
It also will drop a waiver that permitted college teams to use their preferred operators in the post-season if that carrier had achieved a Level I rating from the U.S. Department of Defense inspection protocol for military charters.
The Go Ground fee-for-certification plan has been controversial since it was instituted in 2011.
After Go Ground announced a continuation of its NCAA relationship through the 2021 college athletics season, members of the Motorcoach Association of South Carolina voted to opt out.
The 42 carrier members also voted unanimously to draft a letter to other state motorcoach associations, the United Motorcoach Association and the American Bus Association to ask them to join them in opposition.
“We are reaching out to other states to ask that their members not sign up,” said Bob Garrett, president of the South Carolina association and Sunshine Travel & Express in Lancaster.
“This inspection company cannot give you or take away your operating authority. Only the federal government can do that. It is not a straightforward, moral business practice,” Garrett said.
“If we don’t say something about this it is only going to get worse. Maybe the schools will think it’s smart and they will start to do it, too.”
Go Ground’s statement announcing the NCAA extension called its arrangement “the highest safety protocol in the industry” that “provides collegiate athletics, and all professionals, charged with responsibility for duty of care with a standard that remains the highest available.”
Go Ground inspections are conducted by Consolidated Safety Services of Fairfax, Va., which formerly conducted inspections for the U.S. Department of Defense bus program. That inspection program was paid for by the federal government and was generally popular with operators, who viewed military certification as a seal of approval and marketing tool.
The inspection protocol to be followed by Go Ground is called STATS Certified.
“The STATS safety protocol and rating system supported by Consolidated Safety has always been the highest in the industry,” according to the Go Ground statement. “While the DoD list was considered a formal program and pronouncement of safety certification, it was not, and would not stand the legal test of duty of care. The only independent and proactive safety vetting and certification programs in the industry (is) STATS Certification.”
The military bus inspection program would not meet the legal standards because “It was a private contract between DoD and CSS,” said Justin Custardo, Go Ground director of operations and bus operator relations. “STATS has always had a more rigid measurement of the criteria and also includes a monthly update of an operator’s status.”
Duty of care
“Duty of care” is the legal principle that an individual or organization is obligated to safeguard from harm others who are in their care. This is demonstrated by exercising the watchfulness, caution and prudence that would be used by a reasonable person in similar circumstances. Actions that do not meet this standard could be deemed negligent.
Custardo noted that the Department of Defense has announced the termination of its contract with Consolidated Safety Services for military bus charter certifications.
“As you are likely aware, the Department of Defense Safety Program has been discontinued and the NCAA/Go Ground STATS Certified program is the sole certification for safety management that the NCAA accepts,” Custardo said.
Go Ground has been charging motorcoach operators a fee averaging $6,500 for the inspection and inclusion on the NCAA provider list. According to the recent statement, “Under the direct contract relationship with CSS, Go Ground reduced that cost to $4,500 flat-rate per operator (one location). Go Ground has kept the standard high and reduced the cost to bus operators so more could participate.”
The size of the fee is not the issue, Garrett said.
“We could afford to pay the $4,500, but what good does that do? We could just add it to our rates. What good does it do for our customers?”
He said the NCAA has been “sold a bill of goods. It is ridiculous that Go Ground has gotten a stranglehold on the NCAA. It does not make anybody safer to be inspected by this company. It sounds like a good idea and makes you warm and fuzzy, but actually it is extortion.
“It should be illegal for him to decide who is and who is not going to be in the business. It is not the American way. It is not good for free enterprise, which is what makes our country great.”
Garrett said the $4,500 fee “is not a lot if you have 50 or 100 buses, but if you have two or three and are not getting any more work out of it, it is not very smart. A lot of people who signed up originally were not getting the work out of it that they thought they would.”
Holding federal operating authority should be considered sufficient, Garrett said. “The DOT has been very thorough. They have been overly thorough.”
Productive relationships
Colleges and universities already have productive relationships with charter providers, he added.
“The schools have been arranging transportation all year. They know how to do that. They don’t require the certification during the regular season. They probably realize our companies are safe — they have used us for years without any problems.
“Our industry is the safest of any transportation industry in the U.S. How much safer can we get?”
Custardo declined to specify the number of carriers that have signed up with Go Ground for NCAA charters.
“Since Go Ground initiated a direct relationship with Consolidated Safety, the number of operators in the program has been growing each month,” he said. “There are hundreds of operators in the program and with the absence of DoD, we expect more as collegiate institutions are making duty of care a higher priority.”
In past years, about 10 percent of carriers handling NCAA post-season charters were accepted under a DoD waiver rather than the Go Ground certification, Custardo said. Waivers no longer will be permitted beginning with the fall semester.
Carriers enrolled under the current Go Ground program “will be honored through their renewal date, which will wrap up in 2018 at which time a full phase-in of the new program will have been achieved,” according to the company statement.
The NCAA media office did not respond to requests for comment. The Go Ground announcement attributed this statement to the NCAA:
“The safety of our students is paramount and we are prepared to support the bus companies who take safety management seriously.”
In 2014, Stephen Story said his operation had picked up business because it had chosen to pay a third-party auditor for safety certification. Story is president of James River Transportation in Richmond, Va., and was participating in a program offered by Transportation Safety Exchange (TSX), which is related to Consolidated Safety Services.
When asked if he would work with the new NCAA program, he said, “I have not discussed the plan with Go Ground yet.”
Other operators continue to reject third-party audits.
“We don’t do any work with Go Ground, but I’ve always thought their certification process was not something I am willing to pay for,” said Brian Scott, president of Escot Bus Lines in Orlando, Fla.
“I refuse to join Go Ground,” said Jeff Polzien, president of Red Carpet Charters in Oklahoma City.
“We are not impacted by them,” said William Allen, president of Amador Stage Lines of Sacramento, Calif. “We could lose some business at the University of Nevada-Reno but generally the colleges around Sacramento never qualify for post season tournaments. It’s minimal for us.
“I do feel that it is a form of extortion and unnecessary,” Allen added.
Request denied
In 2014, FMCSA declined a request to rein in states and other political subdivisions that were requiring third-party safety audits as a requisite for conducting government-funded charters.
The United Motorcoach Association wrote a letter asking FMCSA to ban the audits, arguing that they usurped federal authority, violated federal law and discriminated against small carriers through their pricing policies.
There was a “burgeoning problem,” wrote UMA attorney Dan Mastromarco, with schools and universities circumventing federal preemption provisions and federal law through dependence on third-party certifiers.
“We urge the FMCSA (to) utilize its outreach authority under (federal law) to ensure such institutions understand FMCSA is the sole arbiter of operating authority, and if necessary invoke leverage under (the law) to mandate conformity with the federal preemption,” the letter stated.
“As state actors, such institutions fall under the purview of 49 United States Code 14501 (ICC Termination Act), which forbids them from enforcing any standard relating to the authority to provide intrastate or interstate charter bus transportation. Despite this longstanding policy of federal preemption, many public schools today are increasingly relying on third-party providers to replicate the three basic functions of the FMCSA — standard-setting, inspection and certification.
“These third-party providers are part of a new and growing industry which generates a list of ‘approved’ and ‘disapproved’ motorcoach carriers from which the state institutions then obligate themselves to choose. Such a practice is already widespread; and, if left unaddressed, will have wide-ranging repercussions for federal transportation policy.”
The response from Anne S. Ferro, then FMCSA administrator, advised UMA that “Our Office of Chief Counsel has determined that states, political subdivisions, public institutions and public schools are not preempted from using the services of third-party inspectors.”
Ferro rejected the argument that public schools are “state actors” that should be forbidden from preempting FMCSA authority. “Public schools that choose to use passenger motor carriers . . . are not acting in a governmental capacity and their decisions do not have the force and effect of law,” she said.
However, she also issued a statement clarifying that FMCSA has sole authority to issue federal interstate operating authority registration, to regulate interstate passenger motor carriers and to determine their eligibility for continued operation in interstate commerce.
