NEW Office Telephone Number!  Please note, we have a new office telephone number.  Please update your records accordingly.  The new number is 908-750-4538. 

The Fall newsletter is coming, the Fall newsletter is coming!  This week, we mailed you the semi-annual newsletter which highlights our Fall event, as well as other news, including advocacy efforts we do on your behalf. Please look for it in your mailbox soon!

2020 Membership Directory & Dues:  Members, if you haven't paid your renewal dues, please do so before December 1st for inclusion in next year's directory.  We accept credit cards, too! Sponsors: 2020 invoices will be sent December 1st and due January 2020.

News to Share? If you have news you'd like to share about your company or one of your employees, or if you are interested in being in our Member Spotlight, please contact us  with photos, links and let us know what you would like to highlight.

This past Sunday, we held our Annual Driver Safety Meeting and Appreciation Luncheon at Tropicana in AC.  The event was well-attended with good content. The drivers received giveaways from our wonderful casino partners and enjoyed a delicious lunch plus slot play provided by Tropicana, thank you!  Also a big thanks to Bob Crescenzo and Chris Muldoon of Lancer Insurance for educating our drivers in a lively fashion!  Last but not least, we thank Stout's Transportation and Safety Bus for providing shuttle service to and from AC Transportation Center.  All drivers who attended received a certificate for their participation.  

The Board of Directors for Truckers Against Trafficking has elected its first representative from the bus industry, Linda Burtwistle, president and CEO of Coach USA (GNJMA member) and Megabus.com. Burtwistle has over 20-years' experience in the international transportation industry. She currently sits on the board of the American Bus Association and was recently named vice chair of the USDOT Advisory Committee on Human Trafficking. She has helped open doors for BOTL to other bus companies in North America.

"I am honored to have been invited to join the board of TAT, said Burtwistle. "They are a wonderful organization, fully committed to their cause. I am very much looking forward to working with TAT and the bus industry to support the eradication of these heinous crimes."

In the past year, Coach USA has BOTL-trained and registered over 2,600 bus drivers and other employees in the U.S. and Canada. One of these BOTL-trained drivers and safety directors from the Lakefront Lines subsidiary in Ohio assisted in the recovery of a victim and arrest of an alleged trafficker after a young woman asked the bus driver for help, and the company immediately got law enforcement involved. For these actions, the driver and safety director were awarded TAT's prestigious Harriet Tubman Award, an annual award presented by Protective Insurance.

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GNJMA Platinum Sponsor, Prevost, is pleased to announce Mitch Guralnick as director of pre-owned coach sales. Mitch joins the Prevost family with more than 40 years of experience in the transportation industry.

Mitch served for a year at CCW as director of business development and MCI as vice president of pre-owned coach sales from 1999 until his retirement. Mitch was also the president of White Bus Company-a tour, charter and contract operator-until 1998 when he sold the company.

"We are thrilled to welcome Mitch to the Prevost family," says Guillaume Charron, Sr. Director of Pre-Owned Business. "This is well in line with the plan we put in place a year ago to ensure Prevost can offer our customers a host of quality pre-owned products in every region and deliver on their specific requests."

"I am thrilled to start this new chapter with Prevost and am excited to join this prestigious sales team," says Mitch. "My goal as director of pre-owned coach sales is to help assist the sales team in reaching our highest potential and to deepen relationships with our customers, whether they are first time buyers or standing customers."

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released for public review and comment the agency's proposed $3.4 billion 2020 Operating Expense Budget for ongoing operations, maintenance and security at all agency facilities. The proposed $3.4 billion 2020 budget provides increased funding for best-in-class safety and security at agency facilities, additional funding for customer initiatives at the airports, PATH and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and additional funds to support operations for Newark AirTrain and JFK AirTrain and to support the PATH Improvement Plan.  Read more and access public comment area...

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a proposed rule to reduce regulatory costs by a projected $74 million per year by removing an information collection burden for commercial buses, without adversely impacting safety on the nation's roadways.   Read more...

The event brought together 130 attendees including 39 different bus companies with 61 representatives, two national bus associations (ABA and UMA), five regional bus associations (including GNJMA), NYC agencies, community boards and elected officials to discuss bus issues

Polly Trottenberg, NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner acknowledged the important role private motorcoaches play within the city, saying, "Thank you to your industry, we appreciate the work you do."

Panel discussions included participants from the group's NYC industry partners, bus operators in transit, commuter, regular-route, inner city, charter, sightseeing and shuttle bus contractors as well as invited NYC and NYS elected officials, NYPD, MTA, NYCDOT, NYCDEP, Community Boards, local associations, and other interested parties.  Visit  http://bus4nyc.org/.

Temsa is sending recall notices to operators of 711 motorcoaches manufactured for the 2013 to 2020 model years because "operating instructions of the push-out window labels may be inadequate to open the emergency exit rapidly."

The voluntary recall, announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is believed to affect 89 percent of the TS35C, TS35E and TS45 motorcoaches built during those model years.   Read more...

The New York City Department of Transportation has released the following list of the busiest traffic days of the year into the city as people prepare for the holidays. These days, known as Gridlock Alert Days, can make your trip up to three times longer than a normal trip into NYC. Please plan accordingly.

2019 Holiday Gridlock Alert Days

• Friday, Nov. 15
• Wednesday, Nov. 20
• Wednesday, Nov. 27
• Friday, Dec. 6
• Wednesday, Dec. 11
• Thursday, Dec. 12
• Friday, Dec. 13
• Wednesday, Dec. 18
• Thursday, Dec. 19
• Friday, December 20

Visit nyc.gov/gridlockalert to learn more.

New Jersey Transit is seeking private partners to help transport "a stadium's worth of people" - plus newly arriving megamall crowds.

The nation's largest statewide mass-transportation provider on Nov. 7 will hold a forum to discuss "innovative solutions and systems" to move National Football League fans, concertgoers and shoppers to and from the Meadowlands, just west of Manhattan. There's a particularly troublesome bottleneck there because NJ Transit never completed a planned loop that would allow trains to turn around, leading to long waits for riders and a crush of cars.  Read more...

Security concerns about Chinese-made video cameras and security systems have been all over the headlines lately - and with good reason. The thought of anyone gaining unauthorized access to the video feeds on these systems is alarming. More concerning is that the video, which is meant to keep your riders and operators safe, could be exploited by unauthorized users or hackers and could threaten the security of transit systems.   Read more...

The ABA October update on government affairs, activities and new initiatives includes information on the following:

• Legislative - Congress
• Regulatory - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• National Park Service
• Environmental Protection Agency