Classifications of Service

Some things in life defy classification. With poor reading skills or blurry vision, one could easily mistake “motorcoach” for “miscellaneous.” So too could an excellent reader with perfect vision. Only it might not be a mistake; just an illusion. Motorcoach service is not so much a chameleon as it is a blur. This reality has enormous consequences for safety, and even stronger implications for liability.

All Things to All People

Most public transportation modes have distinct vehicles, passengers and service characteristics. In contrast, motorcoach services encompass and overlap every other public and private transportation mode’s passengers, and deploy many of their vehicles. The services themselves are often indistinguishable:

Regulation, Safety and Liability

Trying to regulate this undulating, overlapping spectrum of all-of-the-above services is like playing Where’s Waldo in the dark, at sea, in a bad storm. Not only does this moving target involve different vehicles, passengers and trip purposes, but the range and variety of trip lengths and travel times translates into an almost endless variety of work shifts.

In the courtroom, motorcoach service is a spotted zebra – or whatever else one makes of it. With fewer distinguishing features than other public transportation modes, and no way to even distinguish some forms of motorcoach service from others – much less from many non-motorcoach services – its colors are often defined by whomever holds the crayons – or the jury’s attention. Yet motorcoach service is almost always subject to the highest standard of care, for which “common carriers” are held responsible – regardless of operating role, duty cycle, passenger type, fare payment mechanism, vehicle or driver. Correlating company and driver responsibilities with those of a service which a given motorcoach happens to resemble, at the specific moment an incident occurs, is like trying to determine whether a submarine with screen doors is a house or a car.

Despite all this, the motorcoach industry’s safety record is practically indistinguishable from that of transit or pupil transportation – services with much narrower and more clearly-defined roles and responsibilities. Three things appear to account for this phenomenon, unscientifically speaking: (a) relatively new, highly-sophisticated, expensive vehicles with luxury features, (b) experienced ownership and management, and (c) experienced drivers:

When a motorcoach passenger is injured or killed, how often does this context enter the litigation fray – much less influence the court’s or jury’s decision-making? How often does this context enter, much less characterize, outside-industry news coverage of motorcoach events or accidents? How often is this context acknowledged in safety studies or accident investigations? My money is riding on “never.” If you know of any exceptions, please share them with me.

Higher Standards of Care

As noted, motorcoach services must compete – in terms of both safety and liability – with other public transportation modes with clearly-defined passenger types, vehicle structures and characteristics, routes and schedules, and operating practices and procedures. Apart from driving itself, the most important of these relate to crossing, loading, unloading, seating, passenger securement and wheelchair securement. All of these elements are blurred in motorcoach service:

Love, War and Court

All things may be fair in love and war. But they are not always fair in the courtroom. Regardless, wars and courtrooms share a common goal: The importance of winning. When any passenger is killed or injured on motorcoach services, his or her attorneys will make their best efforts to hold these services to the same standards (this is called deriving “maximum precedent value”) as the vehicles and services which customarily transport them in homogeneous groups, with specialized equipment, and under far narrower circumstances.

To compete in safety and liability with schoolbuses, transit buses and paratransit vehicles – with their highly-trained, highly-specialized drivers, and their narrowly-defined service structures and responsibilities – motorcoach services must be equally as safe. Meeting this standard is a complex and strenuous task, and requires rigorous effort and focus. But it begins by recognizing what one is – at least during a particular run, or even at a particular moment. In the courtroom, if one has walked and talked like a duck, he or she better have also quacked.

When small schoolchildren alight from both schoolbuses or, occasionally, “other” buses – whether transit buses or motorcoaches – they would do well to ask themselves, “What kind of bus am I riding?” and “Where do I cross?” Similarly, motorcoach drivers might do well do ask themselves, “Who am I carrying?” and “What kind of bus – and service – are they used to?” As any chameleon knows, you can blend in and hide, but you can’t disappear. If a larger animal bites off your head, you can only blame yourself for failing to look and act like a rock or a twig.