In 2013, Winn Bus Lines is one of the safest motorcoach carriers in the United States. Our safety record remains in THE TOP ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT of all motorcoach transportation companies NATIONWIDE!

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RECAPPED TIRES

    We've received several calls from many of you who saw a piece on the news about another bus company who is training their drivers to handle recapped tire explosions in a simulator. This was a failed public relations effort on their part following a fatal accident in Texas that obviously sent the wrong message. It gave the impression that this is common practice.

    Please understand that ANY bus running withrecapped tires on front wheels is ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS , but some bus companies do it anyway. You won't know a recap from a new tire and many carriers operate with recapped tires to save money, but we know it is an accident waiting to happen.

    Not only do we not run recapped tires on our front wheels, we have NEVER run a recapped tire on any of our vehicles on any wheel! ALL of our tires are given to us as new tires by Firestone.

    Training one's drivers to anticipated accidents that are brought about by faulty equipment is no way to protect passenger safety. Additionally, there is no possible way to train anyone for something so catastrophic.

    We don't have to spend time training our drivers how to compensate for faulty equipment . When you travel with us you can rest assured that the rubber meeting the road is of solid construction and has never been remanufactured...

    WE GUARANTEE IT!

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DRIVER FATIGUE

    No amount of training will prepare for driver fatigue despite what some companies want you to believe. Currently, the Department of Transportation's hours of service regulations are ONLY prescriptive and complete conformance to these rules will NEVER eliminate drivier fatigue.

    We strictly adhere to the limitations prescribed by DOT, but we also institute our own safety measures since many other factors influence driver fatigue such as eating habits, quantity and quality of sleep, and stresses associated with the other responsibilities of a driver.

    The current DOT guidelines are that a driver can be "on-duty" for no more than 15 hours without having 8 hours "off-duty". Of those 15 hours "on-duty" no more than 10 of those hours can actually be behind the wheel of the vehicle. There are very few exceptions to this rule, so if a driver exceeds either of these limitations, he is probably driving illegally and is approaching the limits of alertness.

    Our drivers are in total control of their ability to drive responsibly and we have not had a single incident of driver fatigue since our founding which is more than half a century. If one of our our drivers has concerns or feels fatigued, we trust his/her judgement and will find relief before the trip continues. This measure is taken regardles of how many hours the driver has been on duty. It is this policy that has served us so well over the decades and will continue to protect the passengers we carry.

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Not all motorcoach companies are equally safe.

    While there are stringent safety regulations in place at the federal level (the "Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations," or FMCSR's; the complete set of regulations can be found online at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's (FMCSA) website, http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov and similar laws at virtually every state level, they represent the minimum safety requirements for a commercial motor carrier of passengers to remain in business. Some carriers, inevitably, will operate outside the rules. Student travel planners need a way to distinguish between safe and unsafe operators. We maintain the safest record in Virginia and one of the safest in the entire country.

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Price must not be your reason for selecting an operator.

    While the price of the trip is important, picking the cheapest price is no way to select a carrier. Price does relate to safety in many critical ways that a motorcoach consumer needs to understand. High prices don't automatically infer a safe carrier, nor do low prices automatically signal an unsafe carrier, but good safety practices are expensive. If competitive pricing is important, student trip planners need to understand why prices differ.

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Do your research.

    Research, well in advance of travel, is important. If you can't find good information about a carrier, simple research is the answer. With the phenomenal growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the information you need is often just a few clicks away. The information in this section will provide background for many of the issues you should ask about when you individually review a carrier for service.

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Does the company even have authority to operate?

    The number is your best tool to begin your safety review of the motor carrier. All commercial bus and motorcoach companies operating across state lines must be granted "interstate authority" by the FMCSA. That authority requires a minimum insurance coverage, continued operation within federal and state safety rules and subjects the company and its vehicles and drivers to safety review and inspection by federal and state authorities at any time.

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Review the bus company's record online.

    The USDOT number serves as your key to online research of the carrier's safety record. Go the USDOT's motor carrier safety website at http://www.safersys.org , which can provide you with a snapshot of the carrier's safety record. The site will tell you:
    • If the carrier is authorized to transport passengers for hire;
    • If the carrier has current insurance in force;
    • The carrier's record of regulatory violations or "out-of-service" incidents; those times when a vehicle or a driver is found to be in violation of the rules, and a comparison to national averages;
    • The carrier's highway accident record;
    • The carrier's current USDOT "safety rating," if any, and the date of the carrier's last "compliance review," or onsite inspection by authorities.
    • You should never hire a carrier with an "unsatisfactory" or "conditional" safety rating.

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Click HERE for a copy of our insurance certificate


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