Safety
In 2022, Winn Bus Lines
was 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!
Department of Transportation
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.
Does the company even have authority to operate?
The DOT 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.
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 https://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov/, 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.
Certificate of Liability Insurance
View Our Insurance HerePrice
Price should not be the primary reason for selecting an operator.
While the price of the trip is important to many clients, picking the cheapest price is NO way to select a carrier. High prices don’t automatically infer a safe carrier, nor do low prices automatically signal an unsafe carrier. Price may relate to safety in many critical ways that a motorcoach consumer needs to understand. If competitive pricing is important, student trip planners need to understand why prices differ. Look at the company’s safety record, get referrals and don’t be afraid to ask the questions you want to be answered.
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 driver 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 or she 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 65 years. If one of our drivers has concerns or feels fatigued, we trust his/her judgment and will find relief before the trip continues. This measure is taken regardless 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.
Research
Research, well in advance of travel, is important. If you can’t find good information about a carrier, stay away from them. 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. Whenever possible, do business with a local brick and mortar company. If all that you can find is an internet presence, it's most likely all that you will find if you have questions, need help or have any trouble. Be smart.
Tires
We’ve received several calls from many of you who saw a piece on the news about local bus company who trains 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 has obviously sent the wrong message to viewers. It gave the impression that this is common practice. Please understand that ANY bus running recapped tires on front wheels is ILLEGAL, but some bus companies will do it anyway. As a passenger, you won’t know a recap from a new tire and many companies operate with recapped tires in order to save money. We know it is an accident waiting to happen. Not only do we refuse to run recapped tires on our front wheels, we have NEVER run a recapped tire on any of our vehicles on any wheel! We have never had a front tire blowout in our nearly 70 years and millions of miles in business. ALL of our tires are delivered to us brand new by Firestone. Training a driver to anticipate an accident that is caused by illegal or faulty equipment is no way to protect passenger safety. Additionally, there is NO possible way to train any driver for something so catastrophic on a simulator. We don’t have to spend time training our drivers on how to compensate for faulty equipment. When you travel with us you can rest assured that the rubber that meets the road is of solid construction and has never been remanufactured…