How to Vet a Charter Bus Company Before You Pay

Congress wrote the word "broker" broadly enough to cover buses as well as freight. But the statute that forces brokers to register covers brokers "for transportation of property." Bus brokers sit in a separate clause, which says the Secretary may require them to post a bond.

That power has not been used, and we found the gap where it would have to show up. The bond subpart is titled "Surety Bonds and Policies of Insurance for Motor Carriers and Property Brokers." Across all sixteen of its sections, there is nothing for a bus broker.

Three things follow, and the first is the one most people get backwards:

· The $75,000 broker bond does not apply to bus hire. That rule is headed "Property broker surety bond or trust fund." It is quoted constantly in articles about chartering a bus, and it is the wrong rule.

· No federal rule governs a bus broker holding your money. We found nothing covering deposits, escrow or refunds. The only federal protections of that kind were written for household goods brokers.

· The duties that do exist are property-scoped. A property broker may not present itself as the carrier, and either party may review the transaction record. No equivalent covers bus brokering, which is why you have to ask.

So ask in writing: am I contracting with the carrier or an intermediary, and which USDOT number operates the trip? Consider putting that question in the quote request rather than on a phone call, so the answer arrives in writing too. An intermediary is not automatically a problem. Not knowing which one you are paying is.

This is also where a stated refund commitment does the work a federal rule does not. OurBus Charters contracts are fully refundable when canceled at least 15 days before travel, and the terms sit on the charter bus rental prices page rather than in a conversation.

A reincarnated carrier is the regulator's own term for an operation re-registered under a new identity to shed its old record. "Chameleon carrier" is the informal version. The rule lets FMCSA treat one entity as a continuation of another where there is "substantial continuity" between them. It applies where the new identity exists to dodge an order, a requirement, a penalty, an enforcement action, or "being linked with a negative compliance history."

The rule lists thirteen factors. We found four that need no database at all — and each is a question to ask, not a verdict:

· Identical contact information — a phone number or address that also belongs to a differently named company.

· The same vehicles, listed as the same equipment.

· The same people, in management or behind the wheel.

· The same premises, customers and operating area as a business that recently went out of business.

This is not an obscure corner of enforcement. When the Government Accountability Office examined the problem in 2012, FMCSA screened only two kinds of new applicants for it: bus companies and household goods movers. Passenger carriage was treated as the high-risk category even then. The same review shows why it matters — applicants showing these attributes turned up in severe crashes at roughly three times the rate of other newcomers.

FMCSA publishes guidance for exactly this audience under its Look Before You Book campaign. Its stated readers are travel planners and "those chartering buses for sport events, field trips, or other group activities" — which is to say field trips, church groups and most of this blog's readership.