Federal passenger threshold

Definition

The seat count at which a for-hire vehicle becomes a federal commercial motor vehicle.

Why It Matters

49 CFR 390.5 counts a vehicle designed or used to carry more than eight passengers including the driver for compensation as a commercial motor vehicle, whatever it weighs, and 390.3(a) applies the subchapter to employers operating one in interstate commerce. A nine-seat van is therefore inside the federal driver-file and hours rules while sitting well under the state charter-party cap of sixteen that decides the permit class. The two lines are drawn in different places and a fleet can straddle them, so read the seat count off each registration: one airport van can put an operator that thinks of itself as a car service under the federal regime.