Opinion ID: 2480
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Consolidated Bus Transit, Inc. and the 19A Test

Text: CBT provides bus transportation services to the New York City Department of Education and to private schools throughout the New York City area. CBT's approximately 2000 bus drivers and escorts are represented by two different unions, Local 854, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, AFL-CIO (Local 854), and Local 1181, Amalgamated Transit Union (Local 1181). Under New York State law, bus companies like CBT must administer a driving skills examination known as the 19A test to each of their school bus drivers, once when the driver is first hired, and every two years thereafter. See N.Y. Veh. & Traf. Law § 509-g(4). The relevant statute also allows employers to administer the 19A test more frequently. The 19A test consists of two parts: (1) a pre-trip safety inspection of the inside and outside of the bus; and (2) a road test. Each mistake made by a driver results in a pre-set number of penalty points, and drivers who accumulate thirty points fail the test. Moreover, some mistakes result in automatic failure of the test. The parties agree that drivers who fail the 19A test may not operate a school bus for at least five days thereafter, but during that time the driver can receive additional training and schedule a retest, which is administered by a different examiner. Drivers who fail a second test are disqualified from driving a school bus until they are retested and re-certified by the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in Albany, New York. In February 2003, one of CBT's drivers was involved in a fatal bus accident. This incident prompted the company to implement a new policy requiring that any driver involved in a bus accident be given a 19A test whether or not that driver had been tested in the previous two years. Furthermore, any driver involved in a bus accident in the year preceding February 2003 also had to be newly tested.