To the Editor

I am confused about the allegations made against Transportation Safety Exchange (TSX) by Reggie Hines in the Dec. 1, 2011, article prepared by Bus & Motorcoach News.

Mr. Hines was an employee of Consolidated Safety Services (CSS), the contractor that performs comprehensive reviews for TSX.

Recently, Mr. Hines resigned from CSS. It is not only disturbing that Mr. Hines has elected to violate both his confidentiality clause and non-compete clause with CSS, but it is also appalling that someone who worked for CSS and who appeared to understand the necessity of making roads safer, has now shifted his philosophy to believing that the industry can continue monitoring safety on its own even though recent reports issued by the NTSB indicate otherwise.

Additionally, Mr. Hines is omitting facts about the Transportation Safety Exchange program that shows just how critical a TSX comprehensive review is in contributing to making the industry and the roads safer.

Mr. Hines alleges that TSX is requiring motorcoach operators to pay for safety inspections to continue transporting children for many of North Carolinas school districts, and that TSX is forcing the operators to essentially "buy back" their own customers. This is blatantly untrue.

TSX is a voluntary program. The early adopters who are currently part of the TSX Motor Carrier Network understand they are making an investment, and that being able to tell their customers they have been approved for the gold standard of motor carrier safety will continue to afford them more business.

We firmly believe in our service and know that it will make the industry safer.

We know that those who can meet and maintain the stringent TSX approval standards will benefit. This is a win-win for anyone who can meet and maintain the TSX approval standards, and for anyone who is in charge of selecting safer motor carriers.

Mr. Hines also indicates that he fears operators will refuse or be unable to pay the inspection fee and those who do will increase charges to make up for this expense so there will be fewer operators to use and the sponsors will pay more to use them. Our experience proves this to be false.

When the unsafe operators can be identified and are prevented from undercutting the prices of the safer operators, the quality operators rush into the market to fill the needs at very competitive prices.

Mr. Hines also accuses TSX of advancing the notion that small operators are unable to pay inspection fees, and are less than safe or even bad operators. Again, this is absolutely not true.

We have small operators that are already part of the TSX Approved Motor Carrier Network and are talking to many other small operators daily about becoming TSX approved.

He further and incorrectly states operators wanting to remain in the TSX program have to pay $4,600 to $11,000 for their fleets to be inspected.

There is a significant cost for a TSX inspector to perform a comprehensive review for a motor carrier. Because of this, we do need to charge for our services. As far as the numbers Mr. Hines is reporting they are simply not accurate.

Pricing is unique for each carrier based on prior safety history, time of entry into program, etc. We work with each individual company to make the process affordable for any carrier.

We are disappointed Mr. Hines chose to vent publicly, particularly because his list of complaints about TSX are obviously based on faulty and incomplete information.

We are always happy to discuss TSX in more detail with anyone who is interested and encourage all operators to visit our website or participate in a scheduled webinar.

We at TSX continue to remain committed to a higher standard for ground transportation safety and welcome your participation.

Patrick Labriola, President
Transportation Safety Exchange
plabriola@tsxcr.com