Quote:
Originally Posted by chapo
I am a volunteer high school football coach. We have been stranded a few times because of the driver being "at work " too long. They drive the kids in the morning for an hour, sit around for six hours, drive for an hour, sit around for two or three more hours, drive us for an hour, oops too much time. Why not send a "fresh" driver? Union and district rules. OK. We raise money to charter nice air ride buses ( Prevost style) so we don't have to go through this, or ride on a bus built before I was born, and are told we are not allowed to use them because of the districts contract with the drivers union. So now we are back to riding unsafe busses with drivers who may not be able to take us home because they were at work for 12 hours. Not working, but at work. I love unions and the government and the open minded problem solvers they are.
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California has a unique group of laws regarding the transportation of elementary and high school students for extra curricular activities. It is called the SPAB program (Student Pupil Activity Bus). The hours of service (what a driver can work/drive) are different from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations.
The Fed rules allow a driver hauling passengers to drive for 10 hours. Additionally, the driver may work 15 hours (including the 10 hours driving). That would let the driver inspect the vehicle, arrange for a repair, complete post-trip paperwork etc. Both the 10 and 15 hour clocks may be "stopped" by going "off-duty" such as lunch, home for the day on a split shift etc. Eight hours off resets the clock to zero and the driver can again drive 10, work 15.
Now SPAB rules differ radically here. For SPAB drivers, the clock does not stop unless 8 consecutive hours off happens. So if a driver goes to work in the morning at 6am, starts driving at 7am, finishes driving at nine am, then goes off duty until say 2pm, according to SPAB rules, at 2pm, the driver has worked 8 hours. The same driver under Federal rules would only have worked 4 hours by 2pm... Way way different.
This is why the SPAB driver runs out of hours so quickly. Now the union thing in your state is a whole different story. I think you're getting the run-around. People all over the state of California are using commercial motorcoaches (like the prevost) to for extra curricular activities. They will be bound by the same laws (SPAB while in California) but the advantage is that the driver probably did not spend all morning hauling kids on a bus route! So the driver would have hours available to move your team. To say nothing of the comfort of a late model motorcoach versus a school bus.
If you would like to contact me direct, feel free to. I work in CA pretty regularly and have a more than passing familiarity with both the Federal rules and rules regarding the transportation of students for extra-curricular activities.
angela