What Is a Cutaway Bus? What Changes When a NEMT Company Moves Past Vans

What a cutaway bus is

A cutaway bus is built in two stages. A van or truck maker sells an incomplete vehicle: the front cab, engine, and frame, with nothing behind the driver’s seat. A bus builder then adds the passenger body, seats, lift, and securements. Federal bus testing rules call this a modified third-party chassis or van (49 CFR 665.5).

Two makers means two labels. The chassis maker labels the incomplete vehicle, and the body builder adds its own certification label with the month it finished the bus and the gross vehicle weight rating (49 CFR 567.5). That rating must cover the empty bus, its rated cargo, and 150 pounds for every designated seat. Read the body builder’s label, because that is the number the weight rules use. See GVWR.

Cutaway sizes and what they cost

Oregon’s transit division sorts transit vehicles into classes by weight, seats, and length. On its chart, revised January 3, 2024, a cutaway has 12 to 30 seats and runs longer than 22 feet, where the small bus beside it has 10 seats. All its figures are approximate:

Oregon class	Seats and length	Weight rating	Minimum useful life
Medium-duty bus or truck chassis cutaway	16 to 30 seats, over 25 feet	17,000 to 26,000 pounds	7 years or 200,000 miles
Light-duty bus or van chassis cutaway	12 to 16 seats, over 22 feet	11,000 to 16,000 pounds	5 years or 150,000 miles
Small light-duty bus	10 seats, 20 to 22 feet	8,000 to 11,000 pounds	4 years or 100,000 miles

The same January 2024 chart gives approximate base prices of $80,000 to $170,000 for a light-duty cutaway and $140,000 to $235,000 for a medium-duty one, and delivery takes about 6 to 9 months for the light-duty bus and 6 to 18 months for the medium-duty one. Its useful life figures are minimums, and the chart notes that a vehicle’s actual useful life may be different.

What changes when you move past vans

The driver’s license

A vehicle designed for 16 or more people, driver included, is a commercial motor vehicle under the CDL rules, whatever it weighs (49 CFR 383.5). Its drivers need a Class C CDL with the passenger endorsement, which takes a knowledge test and a skills test (49 CFR 383.93). At 26,001 pounds or more, the class is B.

Two more requirements come with it. Since February 7, 2022, a driver getting a first passenger endorsement must finish entry-level driver training (49 CFR 380.603). Every CDL driver must be in a DOT drug and alcohol testing program, and an owner who is the only driver must join a random testing pool of two or more (49 CFR 382.103). The exceptions in the general safety rules do not remove that testing. See do NEMT drivers need a CDL and NEMT driver drug testing.

Trips across state lines

FMCSA’s safety rules cover a vehicle on interstate trips when it is rated 10,001 pounds or more, or is designed or used for 9 or more people including the driver for pay (49 CFR 390.5T). Every cutaway class on Oregon’s chart starts above 10,001 pounds, so a paid trip across a state line can bring in driver files, hours limits, and inspections. For-hire interstate passenger carriers also need $5 million in liability coverage for a vehicle seating 16 or more, driver included, against $1.5 million for one seating 15 or fewer (49 CFR 387.33T). The safety rules have an exception for transporting sick and injured persons (49 CFR 390.3T(f)(4)) that does not say whether it reaches NEMT, so read DOT number for NEMT before you rely on it.

Wheelchair access

The federal ADA specs change at 22 feet, and both cutaway classes on Oregon’s chart are longer. A vehicle over 22 feet needs at least two wheelchair securement locations, where a shorter one needs at least one (49 CFR 38.23). The door clearance over a raised lift or ramp rises from 56 inches to 68 inches (49 CFR 38.25). The lift still needs a design load of at least 600 pounds. On any vehicle rated under 30,000 pounds, each securement must hold 2,500 pounds per leg and 5,000 pounds per wheelchair. See wheelchair van for NEMT for how these compare on a van.

Grant-funded buses

A cutaway bought with Federal Transit Administration money, such as a Section 5310 grant, carries more rules. The model must have passed FTA bus testing, and the grant recipient must certify that and receive the full test report before accepting the first bus (49 CFR 665.7). Buses are tested for the service life category in FTA’s Circular 5010 (49 CFR 665.11). FTA then expects the bus to stay in transit use for at least its minimum useful life, and its interest in the bus lasts until the grantee disposes of it (Federal Register notice on Circular 5010.1F, September 27, 2024). Oregon’s chart puts that minimum at 5 years or 150,000 miles for a light-duty cutaway.

Example: the 16th seat

An adult day center asks you to run a morning route for 14 riders who walk. A cutaway built for 14 riders plus the driver is designed for 15 people, so under federal rules your drivers keep their regular licenses. The same body built with one more seat is designed for 16. Now every driver on that bus needs a Class C CDL with the passenger endorsement, entry-level training for a first endorsement, and a place in a drug and alcohol testing program.

Get the designed seating capacity, driver included, from the body builder in writing before you sign. Ask the builder how the wheelchair positions figure in that count. For how payers count several riders on one vehicle, see NEMT multiloading.