Licensing Public Transportation Vehicle Operators

All vehicle operators in the United States who operate vehicles designed with 16 or more seats (including the driver’s seat) are required to meet the training and licensing requirements established by the U.S. Commercial Vehicle Safety Act (1986) and acquire a commercial driver’s license (CDL). Public transportation operators' responsibilities differ from long-distance professional drivers, such as truck and tour bus drivers. Trained and licensed public transportation vehicle operators are required to safely negotiate mixed traffic at a reasonable speed, deal with unforeseen obstacles, assist riders (including people with disabilities), respond to inquiries and emergencies, and maintain order on buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is responsible for the CDL Program, which establishes national standards for training, testing, licensing, and disqualifying commercial drivers and ensures that only qualified drivers are eligible to receive and retain a CDL (FMCSA 2022). In February 2022, a new FMCSA requirement called Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) went into effect, which sets a baseline training requirement for obtaining a CDL. CDL testing and licensing are administered by states, which must meet federal requirements and may add requirements, resulting in differences in testing and licensing requirements among states. Current FMCSA requirements for obtaining a CDL B license (i.e., the class of license required for vehicles larger than 26,001 lbs.), including ELDT, do not distinguish between the job requirements of truck drivers and public transportation vehicle operators; some job requirements for truck drivers may not be relevant to public transportation vehicle operators. The objective of this project is to examine the positive and negative impacts of commercial licensing requirements for U.S. public transportation providers. This project should address the current CDL testing requirements and identify the key challenges public transportation agencies face. The key audiences for this project are state departments of transportation and U.S. public transportation providers in urbanized areas of all sizes, rural areas, and Tribal communities. The public transportation services addressed in this project include publicly available fixed route and demand response services.

• Record URL:
  • http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5617
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $350,000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project F-34

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Transit Cooperative Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC    20001

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Schwager, Dianne

• Start Date: 20250205
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driver licenses; Needs assessment; Public transit; Recruiting; Training; Transit operators
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Education and Training; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01902057
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project F-34
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 13 2023 12:09PM