Charter and Special Service Guidelines

As a publicly funded transportation system, the Wave Transit System (WTS) is required to strictly follow Federal Transit Administration (FTA) laws and regulations regarding charter service.

Federal transit law, 49 USC §5323(d) and FTA Charter Service Regulation, 49 CFR Part 604 prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from providing charter service except under strictly defined circumstances.

According to the FTA, any service meeting the following criteria is considered charter or special service if it can be provided by able and willing private transportation service companies:

Temporary or permanent custom transportation service provided for a fixed fee, including financial remuneration and/or in-kind trades, or at no cost

Travels on an itinerary and/or schedule different from published existing service to a specific event or destination, which is set by an external individual, organization, group, association, school, corporation, business, or government entity.

Custom temporary or permanent deviation of or addition to published existing routing or timetables including additional runs, trippers, and hours of service, which is set by an external individual, organization, group, association, school, corporation, business, or government entity.

The following are not considered charter or special service: Additional vehicles to accommodate overflow passengers on existing routes and timetables because of special events, vehicles used for emergency evacuation, vehicles used for emergency evacuation drills and intermittent fixed or express routes open to the general public.

Therefore, based on federal law and regulations, WTS shall not utilize any vehicles to operate charter or special service.

All questions regarding or requests for charter or special service should be directed to:

The Wave Transit System
Attn: Director of Operations
1224 West I-65 Service Road South | Mobile, AL 36609
(251)344-6600