NJ & You, Not Perfect Together

For nearly one year, GSS Tours has been confronted with bus inspections in Atlantic City.  These are conducted by state troopers and the inspection unit of the NJDOT.  Buses are stopped after they have dropped off casino bus passengers at the various casinos.  Some bus companies have suffered severely from these unannounced and probably illegal searches.

Yesterday, November 1, 2001, one of our buses was flagged on Route 40 after our casino dropoff.  A state trooper ordered our driver to drive the bus around to an inspection road site not far from the new minor league baseball park in Atlantic City.  Our buses once were registered in New Jersey, as they were, at the time, garaged in New Jersey.  Once we moved to a Philadelphia bus terminal site, we changed the registration of each bus to Pennsylvania.  Both Pennyslvania and New Jersey conduct twice-yearly equipment inspections.  Just as with cars, the buses have an inspection sticker, evidencing their approval as of a certain date.  This does not mean anything to New Jersey.  They just keep inspecting and inspecting the buses throughout the year.  Do they conduct the same inspections of church and school buses?   I will wait until the laughter dies down.  In other words, the Atlantic City inspections are uniquely aimed at motorcoaches, often the so-called casino buses.

In August, our P#4 nearly brand new 57-passenger coach was placed out of service (given a red sticker DO NOT DRIVE THIS) due to an alleged chafed brake lining.  I still have this air hose next to my office desk, and I show the alleged chafing to anybody who will listen to me about this New Jersey imperfection.  The chafing would not have affected the performance of the coach for years, if ever.  Nonetheless, we had to go to several hundred dollars’ expense because one of the eight identical brake lines was chafed.  When the driver brought me the air hose, I was the one chafed.

Yesterday, a state trooper named Choborda declared the bus out of service until one of the two TV monitors was moved away from an emergency exit.  This bus formerly was REGISTERED in New Jersey.  When new, all of its equipment was inspected by a NJDOT inspector Vince Bartalone, who subsequently inspected our bus at three different bus terminals in New Jersey over the course of a half-dozen years.  At no time did he declare the TV in the middle of the coach as blocking an emergency exit.   In fact, he explained that the bus was entirely in compliance because New Jersey only requires 40% emergency exit space throughout the coach, and he agreed that we have 100% throughout the coach EXCEPT for the few feet taken up by the TV monitor, which happens to be situated on top of the bus lavatory in the middle of the coach, right side of bus.  Even where the TV is, the handle to use the emergency window is clearly free of the TV set.  In other words, it is easily accessible.  And, there are ample exit windows throughout the coach, both sides of the aisle.
We were ticketed (SPZ 960383) for “PASS SIDE EMERGENCY EXIT WINDOW BLOCKED BY TV”.  Before our LAG motorcoaches were placed in service, the head of the NJDOT (Newark office) traveled to Belgium to inspect the factory where the LAG’s were being built.  He consulted with the manufacturer to make sure that the bus would be in NJ compliance.  As delivered to this country, the bus only required one installation unrelated to the TV monitor  (this was the necessity to have a plastic partition separating the driver from the passengers in the first seat behind the driver).  In the first place, why is it necessary to conduct these weekly (sometimes daily) inspections in Atlantic City?

A few years ago, the NJDOT said these inspections were set up due to the several bus accidents in the state and elsewhere.  In a formal request for information last Winter, GSS Tours asked the State of New Jersey whether the NJDOT or the state legislature could point to ANY accident, in the state or elsewhere, that they could blame on equipment failure.  We are still waiting for the answer.  The fact is that all the accidents were due to driver error.

We have no problem with periodic re-testing of drivers, but the incessant equipment inspection has to stop.  It is excessive and probably violates the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as reviewed in “City of Indianapolis”, ruling handed down near the end of November of last year.

Yesterday, Trooper Choborda ordered that we not carry passengers until the TV set is removed.  We have to remove the TV set, which has been in place for more than a decade, and having passed numerous NJ and PA inspections.  Now, we face a mandatory appearance in municipal court in Atlantic City December 3 at 1:30 p.m.

As part of the November 1 inspection by the state troopers, our bus was cited for “brake-out of adjustment AXLE 3 RT”.  The readings are listed on the DRIVER VEHICLE EXAMINATION REPORT handed to our driver from a computer printout at the inspection site.  Modern technology.  I don’t want to say here that the troopers are nutty as a fruitcake.  However, I have Work Invoice #22501 for the same bus  (VIN 391) which shows billing for one set of tag brakes  0102038.1   cost 267.92 and the corresponding labor  six hours  R & R L & R side tag brake lining  labor $390.00.  Date of this work was 9/19/01.

Do you believe that, of all the brakes on the bus, the tag axle brake on the right side was out of adjustment slightly more than one month after new brakes were installed?

Tell me the odds on that happening.

In our letters to the Governor’s office, we have mentioned how these inspections are unfair on several counts.  As a small business operator, a small (or even large) motorcoach company does not have the time or the staff to research and fight these situations.  They take the time of our driver (the one Thursday required 2 1/2 hours of our driver’s time), they take the time of our office staff and not infrequently they inconvenience the casino bus passengers, who often have to wait for another bus to pick them up.  And, not insignificantly, they cost us alot of money, thus enriching the coffers of the New Jersey court system and the Trenton moneydatabase.  It is, in fact, totally unfair and must be investigated by the Governor of New Jersey.

There is something fishy going on in the Garden State.  NJ and You??? I suggest you watch out.  Sooner or later, you also will find out you and NJ are not perfect together.