A look at California interstate bus companies

Produced by Chris Keller | Updated Sept. 16, 2013

When it comes to the agency responsible for regulating and inspecting bus lines, shuttles and motor coaches, a distinction is made between an intrastate carrier and an interstate carrier.

Those that never leave the state of California are known as intrastate carriers and are regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Those that transport passengers to and from destinations outside the state are known as interstate carriers and are regulated by the the Department of Transportation's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which provides details for 370 of these companies.

According that data, 54 of the 370 -- about 19 percent -- have racked up enough safety violations to appear on a "watchlist" kept by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

An appearance on this watchlist means the carrier has been prioritized for further monitoring by regulators. This could mean increased inspections, and occurs when a carrier is over the intervention threshold based on inspection scores, or because a serious violation was found during an inspection or investigation.

The table below shows the 370 California interstate carriers broken down by three "Carrier Status" categories. Those prioritized for further monitoring carry the "Further Monitoring" designation in addition to the reason for the designation in the Watchlist Reason column.

"Violation" denotes "a serious violation cited within last 12 months from an investigation." "Alert" denotes the carrier may be prioritized for an intervention action and roadside inspection.

In the table you will also find the following:

• In the "Carrier Status" column See BASIC Link refers to how a carrier has performed on the Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories system.
• In the "Carrier Status" column Insufficient means a given company may not have sufficient inspections or violations to generate an evaluation for a specific BASIC category, and thus does not indicate poor safety fitness. To see a further explanation of the BASIC ratings or a carrier's Safety and Fitness Electronic Records profile, click on the respective links.
• In the "Allowed to Operate" column, a "No" designation will appear if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has declared a carrier unfit for transporting passengers.