ARTICLES

5/23/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Better Responses Part 7: Conclusions

By: Ned Einstein

This final installment of this series provides the rewards for reading the first six: Starting-point ideas about things the motorcoach industry can do defend its density against intrusion from Transportation Network Companies (like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar), which have already begun plunging into the charter and tour sectors, mostly with medium-sized, body-on-chassis vehicles. It also includes things that would help increase profits and create new service opportunities - and compete with new, legitimate players penetrating the market.

2/25/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Better Responses, Part 4: Judicial Heroism

By: Ned Einstein

Well, by now, the "Cat's Out of the Bag" about transportation network companies (TNCs). For this, we owe our thanks to National Bus Trader, Limo, Charter and Tours Magazine (especially) and the United Motorcoach Association. The August 15, 2015 issue of the UMA-sponsored Bus & Motorcoach News contained two articles about these previously-unfettered, robot-controlled beasts.

4/13/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Better Responses, Part 6: Industry and Association Responses

By: Ned Einstein

As NATIONAL BUS TRADER readers following this series have noted, our judicial system seems to be "running the table" with TNC-related issues. The $220,000,000 settlement of a case against FEDEX effectively eliminated the notion of an "independent contractor" in its six states. And the California courts are soon likely to boot out Uber. The FEDEX case in the U.S. Court's 10th Circuit effectively rippled a TNC's ability to deprive its drivers of a regular employee's costly array of fringe benefits. This settlement is likely to soon play out in the other nine "Circuit" encompassing the other 44 states. And if Uber is booted out of California altogether, on top of the FEDEX settlement, the TNC threat will be diminished significantly.

2/3/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Better Responses: Part 3 - Invasion of the TNCs

By: Ned Einstein

These past five years, practically unnoticed until this last one, have witnessed the most radical change in public transportation since the introduction of scheduling software in the Early 90s: The invasion of traditional, analog services wallowing in their nostalgia by hyper- [or uber]-digital counterparts big on access, low on some concerns, and flying beneath virtually every City's and State's regulatory radar.

3/11/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Worse Responses, Part 5: Executive Branch Responses

By: Ned Einstein

Practically beginning my public transportation career as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Transportation, I learned to hate "Wash-Speak." Government agencies do not compound things; they exacerbate them. They use nothing, but utilize everything. They never start anything, yet implement everything. And much-ado-about nothing is usually referred to as a paradigm shift.

12/15/2015· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Worse Responses: Part 1 - Introduction

By: Ned Einstein

Like every mode of public transportation, and for almost every aspect of our society, the motorcoach industry has, over the decades, been affected significantly by regulations. Some of these experiences were challenging yet produced dramatic results that, among other benefits, have saved us money. One terrific example is that modern motorcoaches dump perhaps one percent of the particulates into our environment than they did a mere two decades ago. Here, the regulations, though challenging, were at least realistic. But our industries' (and other bus modes') responses to it - effectively our engine manufacturers - were far more important than the regulations: Their responses were magnificent.

1/6/2016· Transportation

Bad Regulations and Worse Responses: Part 2 - The Rise, Fall and Transformation of Supershuttle

By: Ned Einstein

Mitchell Rouse! In the 1980s, a strapping, 6'4"-inch-tall visionary who had inherited a 50-vehicle taxicab company and, within a few years, expanded it into a 350-vehicle leviathan, along with eight small paratransit operations. With a heavily-computerized operation a decade before Windows took over the World, his dispatch office still answered every call with a live Earthling. Wilmington/Checker Cab was all about decency, respect and efficiency. And at a time when most of Los Angeles County was beginning to deteriorate rapidly into lines, menus, incompetence and traffic. Yet, as a brilliant manager with an expanding corporate mentality, Rouse was also a rabid supporter of Unionism, and embraced his Teamster's affiliation with pride.

11/8/2013· Banking

Bank Directors: Walking a Fine Line between Customer Service & Corporate Governance

By: Catherine Ghiglieri

Directors in community banks are usually picked for two reasons: their expertise and their ability to bring business into the bank. Upon taking their places at the board tables, however, directors immediately learn that while bringing business into their bank is a laudable goal, they also have to ensure that their bank operates in a safe and sound manner. Directors, thus, walk a fine line between these two goals.

8/3/2009· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction

Bank Fraud Using Letters of Credit: An Expert’s Perspective

By: Robert Erwin Ross

It begins by Mr. Natal walking into TheBank and requesting to open an account for his company that’s just opened a new office in town. With his bank documents, he deposits funds for several million dollars.

4/21/2009· Banking

Banking Regulation: Now is Time to do Away with the Too Big To Fail Doctrine

By: Catherine A. Ghiglieri

For almost thirty years, bank regulators have operated under the Too Big To Fail (TBTF) Doctrine, whereby insolvent large banks are treated differently than insolvent community banks by keeping the large banks open and closing the community banks. Now is the time to do away with TBTF once and for all