NOLS Letter on CDL Legislation
January 21, 2010
The Honorable Mike Enzi
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Enzi,
I am writing on behalf of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) to express concern about a bill that was recently marked up by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Motorcoach Enhanced Safety Act of 2009 (S554) aims to increase the safety of passengers traveling by motorcoach. While we fully support this goal, the bill includes language regarding 9-15-passenger vans that could have a significant negative impact on NOLS and other small businesses that provide outfitting and guiding services to the public. We believe this language casts too wide a net and will affect unnecessarily small businesses in an industry with a strong record of safety on the road. The language that concerns us most lies in section 10(b) of the bill, which requires drivers of 9-15-passenger vans (defined as commercial motor vehicles) that cross state lines to hold commercial drivers licenses (CDLs). We are not strangers to CDLs at NOLS. We own and operate 14 buses, driven by trained drivers who hold CDLs. Roughly 11 NOLS employees, depending on the year and the season, hold CDLs. But the primary vehicle in our operation is the van. We own 23 of them to support our U.S. programs and use them on a daily basis to shuttle students to and from basecamps, trailheads and river put-ins/take-outs. Students do not pay us for this service. It is included in their course tuition and incidental to our primary purpose of wilderness education. We are not providers of transportation for transportation's sake. We employ roughly 600 field instructors. Approximately 20 to 30 percent of them teach courses that involve shuttling students on short trips in a van (we use buses for long drives). They may at times have to cross state lines. Our internal standards require that these instructors hold a valid driver's license and complete a rigorous internal driver-training program. We employ a motor vehicle records (MVR) screening process to identify whether an individual has a driving history that might cause us to deny them the right to drive a NOLS vehicle. Acquiring and maintaining a CDL for hundreds of individuals would be a costly proposition and would put our non-profit program in an untenable business situation from both a financial and operations perspective. Our driving safety record is excellent. Since we began operating in 1965, we have graduated 190,000 students, driven many millions of miles (literally) and have experienced no travel-related fatalities or disabling injuries. Requiring additional licensing, which would not change the amount or level of training drivers now receive, would add cost and operational burden without affecting the exemplary safety record NOLS now holds. At a more detailed level, the bill is confusing in its use of terms and definitions, which makes it challenging to determine exactly what kinds of organizations will be regulated by it. The following three examples illustrate our point: | 1) | In several sections of the bill, the terms "commercial motor vehicle" (CMV) and "motorcoach" are used interchangeably. By definition, however, these are two very different vehicles, subject to different regulations. | | 2) | There appears to be a discrepancy in the way the bill defines a CMV, citing two different sections of U.S. Code, each which define CMV differently. | | 3) | One definition of CMV is based on whether or not a vehicle is used to transport passengers for "compensation." The definition of this word is left open to interpretation. We submit that NOLS and others in our industry do not meet this definition of CMV because we are not paid to provide transportation. We are paid to provide an educational service. |
Finally, it is worth noting that while section 12 of the bill, which requires certain CMVs to be equipped with on-board recording equipment, is limited to motorcoaches, the companion legislation in the House of Representatives (H.R. 1396) would apply this requirement to all CMVs used in interstate commerce. We urge that this provision be limited to motorcoaches. Retrofitting 9-15-passenger vans with such technology would be unduly burdensome to small businesses providing recreational outfitting and guiding services to the public. The application of the CDL requirement in this bill appears to be very broad as written. We can only speculate as to the sweeping impact this could have on other industries that support small business, non-profit groups, community-based programs, colleges and universities, church groups, and others for which van-based travel is critical to their programming but incidental to their primary purpose. We take passenger safety very seriously at NOLS. While we support the bill's intent to improve motorcoach passenger safety, we believe that, as written, the bill creates undue and misplaced burden on small business. We seek your help in narrowing its scope to more effectively target the industries that require a higher level of regulation and oversight.
Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to an opportunity to meet with you and your staff to discuss this issue when I travel to DC in early February. Best regards,
Jennifer Lamb
Director of Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability
Jennifer_lamb@nols.edu
Jennifer Barnes, Office of Senator Mike Enzi
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