49 CFR Parts 37 & 38 - Department of Transportation (DOT) ADA Regulations

Response Time

Under this provision, an entity must make its reservation service available during the hours its administrative offices are open. If those offices are open 9 to 5, those are the hours during which the reservations service must be open, even if the entity's transit service operated 6 a.m. to midnight. On days prior to a service day on which the administrative offices are not open at all (e.g., a Sunday prior to a Monday service day), the reservation service would also be open 9 to 5. Note that the reservation service on any day does not have to be provided directly by a “real person.” An answering machine or other technology can suffice.

Any caller reaching the reservation service during the 9 to 5 period, in this example, could reserve service for any time during the next 6 a.m. to 12 midnight service day. This is the difference between “next day scheduling” and a system involving a 24-hour prior reservation requirement, in which a caller would have to reserve a trip at 7 a.m. today if he or she wanted to travel at 7 a.m. tomorrow. The latter approach is not adequate under this rule.

The entity may use real time scheduling for all or part of its service. Like the Moliere character who spoke prose all his life without knowing it, many entities may already be using some real time scheduling (e.g., for return trips which are scheduled on a when-needed basis, as opposed to in advance). A number of transit providers who have used real time scheduling believe that it is more efficient on a per-trip basis and reduces cancellations and no-shows significantly. We encourage entities to consider this form of service.

Sometimes users want to schedule service well in advance, to be sure of traveling when they want to. The rule tells providers to permit reservations to be made as much as 14 days in advance. In addition, though an entity may negotiate with a user to adjust pickup and return trip times to make scheduling more efficient, the entity cannot insist on scheduling a trip more than one hour earlier or later than the individual desires to travel. Any greater deviation from desired trip would exceed the bounds of comparability.