§387.27 Applicability.

Question 1: Is a nonprofit corporation, providing for-hire interstate transportation of passengers, subject to the minimum levels of financial responsibility for motor carriers of passengers?

Guidance: Yes.

Question 2: What determines the level of coverage required for a passenger carrier: the number of passengers or the number of seats in the vehicle?

Guidance: The level of financial responsibility required is predicated upon the manufacturer’s designed seating capacity, not on the number of passengers riding in the vehicle at a particular time. The minimum levels of financial responsibility required for various seating capacities are found in §387.33.

Question 3: Are luxury limousines with a seating capacity of fewer than seven passengers and not operated on a regular route or between specified points exempted under §387.27(b)(2)?

Guidance: No. Taxi cab service is highly regulated by local governments, usually conducted in marked vehicles, which makes them readily identifiable to enforcement officials. Limousines are not taxi cabs and are therefore not exempted from the financial responsibility requirements.

Question 4: When must a contract school bus operator comply with part 387?

Guidance: When the contractor is not engaged in transportation to or from school and the transportation is not organized, sponsored, and paid for by the school district.

Question 5: Does the exemption for the transportation of school children end at the high school level or does it extend to educational institutions beyond high school, for example junior college or college?

Guidance: The exemption does not extend beyond the high school level.

*Question 6: Do the financial responsibility requirements of Subpart B of Part 387 apply to school buses used by the federal government of Mexico to transport students on field trips to the United States?

Guidance: No. The financial responsibility requirements of Subpart B are only applicable to for-hire motor carriers transporting passengers in interstate or foreign commerce.

*Editor’s Note: This interpretation was issued after the interpretations were published in the Federal Register in April 1997.