CDL · Passenger Transport · 5 min read
Boarding Passengers and Preparing to Leave
- Identify proper methods for stowing and securing baggage and freight to maintain clear aisles, accessible emergency exits, and driver mobility.
- Recognize the nine classes of hazardous materials, their four-inch diamond-shaped labels, and the strict weight limits and cargo rules for buses.
- Apply safe boarding and arrival procedures, including enforcing the standee line, timing charter passenger entry, and delivering required stop announcements.
Securing Baggage and Keeping Aisles and Exits Clear
When passengers board a commercial bus, managing their luggage and carry-on items is one of the driver's most critical safety responsibilities. Commercial drivers must never allow riders to leave carry-on baggage in an aisle or in any doorway. A crowded doorway can delay passengers who are boarding or disembarking, and an obstructed aisle creates an immediate safety hazard. In plain terms, there should be nothing in the aisle that might trip other riders as they move to and from their seats.
How baggage and freight are secured inside the passenger compartment and storage areas directly affects everyone on board. Secure baggage and freight in ways that avoid damage, allow the driver to move freely, allow riders to exit by any window or door in an emergency, and protect riders if carry-ons fall or shift. Furthermore, the securement of luggage must always protect riders from injury if carry-on bags fall or shift during transit, sudden stops, or sharp turns. Stowing heavy items loosely in open overhead racks where they can slide out poses a direct threat to seated passengers below.
Securing cargo correctly also guarantees that essential operational and emergency spaces remain completely unobstructed. The driver must always be able to move freely and easily to operate the vehicle controls, check instruments, and respond to on-board situations. In addition, baggage and freight must be placed so that riders can exit quickly by any window or any door in an emergency. If luggage blocks an emergency exit door or prevents an emergency window from swinging open, lives are put at serious risk during a crisis.
Common mistakes
- Allowing riders to leave carry-on baggage in a doorway or aisle, or leaving something in the aisle that might trip other riders.
- Assuming that personal car supplies are permitted in the passenger compartment, leading to dangerous mistakes like letting a rider board with a car battery or a can of gasoline.
- Confusing total bus hazardous material allowances with individual class limits, forgetting that a bus can carry no more than 500 pounds total across all allowed hazardous materials and no more than 100 pounds of any one single class.
- Allowing standing riders past the standee line or other indicated boundary, or allowing any rider to stand forward of the rear of the driver's seat.
Key points
- Aisles and doorways must remain clear of all carry-on baggage, and all baggage and freight must be secured to avoid damage, prevent passenger injury from falling or shifting items, and keep driver controls, windows, and doors fully accessible.
- Hazardous materials threaten health, safety, and property; drivers identify them via the Federal Hazardous Materials Table and four-inch, diamond-shaped hazard labels across nine hazard classes, ORM-D designations, and combustible liquids.
- Buses may transport small-arms ammunition labeled ORM-D, emergency hospital supplies, drugs, and small amounts of certain other materials when no alternate shipping method exists.
- Buses must never carry Division 2.3 poison gas, liquid Class 6 poison, tear gas, irritating material, explosives in passenger space (except small-arms ammunition), labeled radioactive material in passenger space, or more than 100 pounds of solid Class 6 poisons.
- Total allowable hazardous cargo on a bus can never exceed 500 pounds combined, nor more than 100 pounds of any single class; drivers must also bar riders from carrying on common hazards like gasoline and car batteries.
- On buses designed for standing, all standing riders must stay behind the standee line, which may be a two-inch floor line or another means of showing where riders cannot stand; no rider may stand forward of the rear of the driver's seat.
- Charter bus drivers should not allow riders on the bus until departure time to help prevent theft or vandalism. At a destination or intermediate stop, announce the location, reason for stopping, next departure time, and bus number; remind riders who get off to take their carry-ons, and remind riders of a step-down if the aisle is lower than the seats.
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Sample lesson: Checking Buses Before and After Trips25 practice questions on this exam
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