Safety
What we check, and how to check us
Buslane is a marketplace. We don't own buses or employ drivers, independent operators do that. What we control is who gets to quote your trip. Here is the bar, how we hold it, and how to confirm every word of this yourself using public federal records.
Four things every operator clears before they can quote you
These aren't preferences. An operator who misses any one of them can't be on the platform, and one who slips below the line after joining comes off it.
- Authority
Active operating authority, held for at least a year
Registered with FMCSA for interstate passenger transportation, or holding the equivalent state permit for intrastate work (in Washington, a UTC Charter and Excursion Carrier permit). Suspended, revoked, or lapsed authority is immediate removal.
- Rating
A Satisfactory FMCSA safety rating
Or the highest available tier from the state regulator for intrastate-only carriers. A downgrade to Conditional or Unsatisfactory takes an operator off Buslane.
- Scores
Below FMCSA's intervention threshold in every published category
A carrier can hold a Satisfactory rating while performing badly in one specific area. We look at the categories individually, not just the headline rating.
- Insurance
Full federal coverage limits, verified properly
Confirmed by endorsement from the insurer, not by a certificate the operator emails us. Buslane is named as an additional insured on every policy, primary and non-contributory.
The categories we watch, and the lines we hold
FMCSA scores carriers by percentile against their peers in seven Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, and sets an intervention threshold for each. Passenger carriers are held to tighter thresholds than freight. These are the ones FMCSA publishes.
| Category | Threshold | How we check it |
|---|---|---|
| Unsafe Driving | 50% | Automated daily |
| Hours-of-Service Compliance | 50% | Automated daily |
| Vehicle Maintenance | 65% | Automated daily |
| Controlled Substances & Alcohol | 65% | Automated daily |
| Driver Fitness | 65% | Automated daily |
| Crash Indicator | 50% | Not published by FMCSA |
An operator at or above the threshold in any published category is out of standard. FMCSA doesn't display Crash Indicator percentiles publicly, so nobody outside the carrier and enforcement can see them, including us. We're telling you that rather than leaving the row off the table. Operators are still required to stay below it, and must report every DOT-reportable accident to us within 24 hours.
Minimum coverage, by vehicle
| Coverage | Minimum | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Automobile liability | $5,000,000 | Full-size coaches and any vehicle seating 16 or more |
| Automobile liability | $1,500,000 | Vehicles seating 15 or fewer, including the driver |
| Commercial general liability | $5,000,000 | Per occurrence |
Placed with insurers rated A-VII or better by A.M. Best. Where a state or your own contract requires more, the higher limit applies.
Every operator, every day
Most of the industry checks a carrier once, at signup, and then forgets about it. Safety records move. A rating gets downgraded, authority lapses for an unpaid filing, an inspection streak goes bad, and the broker who checked you in 2023 has no idea.
Our system queries FMCSA every day for every active operator on the platform: registration and authority status through SAFER and Motus, published percentile scores through the CSA Safety Measurement System, and state permits through the relevant state database. Every check is timestamped and kept for at least five years.
When an operator falls below the line we suspend their access, no later than one business day after we confirm it, immediately when the situation calls for it. Any trip already booked gets reassigned so nobody is left standing at the curb. We tell the operator in writing what happened and exactly what it takes to come back, because a suspension should be a fixable problem, not a trapdoor.
Don't take our word for it
Everything above comes from public federal records. You can pull the same data we do, for any bus company in the country, in about a minute: ours, or the operator quoting your trip, or the one your last broker sent.
Look up any carrier yourself
Ask the company for its USDOT number. Any legitimate carrier will give it to you without hesitating.
Open FMCSA's Company Snapshot and enter it. You'll see operating authority status, safety rating, fleet size, and the last 24 months of crash and inspection history.
Open the CSA Safety Measurement System for the published percentile scores in each category.
Compare what you find against the thresholds in the tables above.
If an operator we've matched you with doesn't hold up to that, we want to hear about it, and we'll want to know before your trip, not after.
What this page does not say
Buslane is a marketplace, not a bus company. We don't own vehicles, employ drivers, or operate trips. Every trip booked through Buslane is performed by an independent operator, and that operator is solely responsible for its vehicles, its drivers, and its compliance with the law.
What we've described here are the eligibility requirements an operator has to meet to use our platform, and how we administer them. They are not a guarantee about the safety of any operator, driver, vehicle, or trip, and nothing on this page is a promise that a given trip will be incident-free.
The records we rely on are published by FMCSA and by state regulators. They describe activity that has already been reported; they are not a prediction. We check what the public record shows, on the schedule described above. We don't monitor in real time, and we can't promise that every problem will surface the moment it happens.
We'd rather tell you exactly what our checks are worth than imply they're worth more.
Standards current as of October 1, 2026. Operators are contractually bound to these requirements under the Buslane Operator Agreement, and we update this page whenever FMCSA revises a threshold or changes what it publishes. For the regulatory background behind these checks, read who actually checks the bus company.
Buslane LLC · 300 Lenora Street #554, Seattle, WA 98121
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