Transit Union Applauds Proposed Driver Fatigue Prevention Act to Address Single Largest Cause of Fatal Intercity Bus Accidents
Media Contact: David Roscow, 202-487-4990
Silver Spring, MD – Over the next week as many people travel across the country on buses to gather with family for Thanksgiving, they should be aware that their bus driver may be fatigued because of an arcane federal rule exempting interstate bus companies from paying overtime to their drivers – forcing many to work 100 hours a week or more just to make a living.
This exemption has allowed hundreds of unscrupulous intercity bus companies get away with paying their drivers criminally low wages. Drivers often need to take two or three other jobs during their so-called “rest period” just to make ends meet. Consequently, they show up in the driver’s seat exhausted.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) driver fatigue is the number one cause of fatal accidents (36 percent), far above road conditions (two percent) or inattention (six percent). Over the last decade, three times as many people have been killed in intercity bus accidents than in commercial airline crashes.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, D-NY, has introduced new legislation to address this longstanding problem. The Driver Fatigue Prevention Act would ensure that the overtime provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are applied to drivers of over-the-road buses. Currently these bus drivers are exempt from these provisions. The bill is the latest and most crucial motor coach safety legislation currently being considered by Congress.
“Every Thanksgiving after the meal someone always says turkey has a natural sedative that makes you sleepy, but how many people realize when they get on a bus to travel home there is probably a fatigued driver struggling to stay awake at the wheel – and it’s not because the driver ate too much turkey. It’s because of an outdated loophole that allows the exploitation and mistreatment of low-wage intercity drivers by underhanded discount bus companies,” says Larry Hanley, international president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing Greyhound and other intercity bus drivers and workers.
“We applaud Senator Schumer for introducing this legislation to extend intercity bus drivers the same overtime protections that have covered 85 percent of American workers for decades.It is not only the right thing to do; it’s the safe thing to do for riders,” Hanley continues.
Deregulation of the industry in the 1980s lead to the opening of more than 3,700 commercial motor coach companies – many of which are fly-by-night operations. This is far more than the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration can monitor for compliance with safety regulations. In fact, one in four commercial motorcoach and passenger van companies has never received a full safety evaluation. Almost half have not been reviewed in over two years.
“These companies advertise cheap fares, free Wi-Fi, live TV, comfortable seats and other so-called luxuries. But what about their safety record, their drivers’ experience, pay, and hours behind the wheel?” Hanley asks. “It’s time for Congress to put the Driver Fatigue Prevention Act on the fast track to ensure intercity bus drivers don’t have to resort to doctoring log books, working other jobs and wearily reporting for duty with a giant cup of coffee. This Thanksgiving and every day it’s a matter of life and death.”