Lease and Interchange of Passenger Carriers

L & I Revision NPRM

On September 20, 2018, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) released a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend its Lease & Interchange rule, but instead of jointly extending the compliance date for the current rule, it only proposes an extension. 

This means that if the new rule is not in place by Jan. 1, 2019, operators will need to comply with the current rule unless the Agency extends the compliance date. The proposed revisions to the current rule appear to be an attempt to address industry concerns, as the Agency proposes to narrow the applicability of the current lease requirements by excluding certain contracts and other agreements between passenger motor carriers with active passenger carrier operating authority registrations from FMCSA. 

This rule is a top issue of ABA! This regulatory alert explains. We need your help. To assist operators with filing comments, click the links below.

ABA has prepared some highlights for the new L & I proposal (click here)

Download ABA's L&I Comment Template

Click here to file your comments on the L & I (NPRM)

Download ABA's petition template to file for an extension on the compliance date

Click here to file a petition to request that FMCSA extend the compliance date beyond Jan. 1, 2019

File your comments today! Make your voices heard!

Background

FMCSA published a final rule on May 27, 2015, on the lease and interchange of passenger vehicles, with the goal of stopping chameleon carriers from continuing to operate. This left the motorcoach industry with an unduly burdensome rule that turned long standing business practices of the both the charter and scheduled service motorcoach operators, on their head. Further, it did not address FMCSA’s objective of stopping “bad actors.”

ABA led a successful industry-wide effort to stop this rule from going into force by initiating a petition campaign asking the agency to reconsider the rule, and eventually convincing Congress to weigh-in with the agency.  In August 2016, the Agency finally announced its intent to revise the rule, but limited the revisions to four areas, as identified in the industry petitions:

* exclusion of the term “chartering” (i.e. subcontracting) from the leasing requirements;
* amending CMV requirements for the location of temporary markings;
* changing the 24-hour notification for customers, when subcontracting; and
* expanding the 48-hour delay in preparing a lease.