Pennsylvania PUC Paratransit Rules: The Tariff, Protests, and Staying in Compliance

Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) keeps regulating a paratransit carrier long after it grants the certificate. The Pennsylvania guide covers the $350 application, the timeline, insurance minimums, and the vehicle and driver rules. This page covers what comes next: answering protests, writing the tariff, changing rates, the yearly filings, the changes that need approval, and the penalties. The rules cited are current in the Pennsylvania Code through August 8, 2026.

Paratransit is the PUC’s class for shared, advance reservation rides with individual fares, in vehicles seating 15 passengers or fewer plus the driver, unless your certificate says otherwise. It cannot start or end at an airport, which needs separate airport transfer authority.

What happens after the Pennsylvania Bulletin notice

The PUC dockets your application and publishes it in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. The notice sets a protest deadline at least 15 days after publication. In the notice of January 31, 2026, for example, protests were due February 17, 2026. You can read any applicant’s supporting filings on the PUC website by docket number.

Who can protest, and on what grounds

On June 3, 2017, the PUC dropped the old requirement that applicants prove a public need for their service (47 Pa.B. 3099). Its order said existing carriers had increasingly used that test to block competition. A protest under 52 Pa. Code 3.381 is now limited to your fitness: whether you have the technical and financial ability to run the service, and whether you lack a propensity to operate safely and legally. The PUC’s application notices, such as the one of January 31, 2026, state that protests based on endangering or impairing an existing carrier’s business will not be honored.

When it judges fitness, the PUC looks at the factors in 52 Pa. Code 41.14:

• Enough capital, equipment, and facilities to serve the territory you asked for.
• Enough expertise and experience among you and your staff.
• Continuous insurance on every vehicle.
• A plan to follow the Chapter 29 driver and vehicle rules.
• Your record of following PUC law, rules, and orders.
• Whether you or a driver has a felony or moral turpitude conviction and is still under court or correctional supervision.

How to answer a protest

A protest must name the protester’s interest and every docket number it operates under, and a timely protester joins your case as a party.

1. Test the protest. Within 20 days after the protest deadline, you may file preliminary objections: motions to strike it, to dismiss it, or to make the protester say more.
2. Decide on any restrictive amendment. The PUC waits 20 days after the protest deadline so you can narrow your application, for example to wheelchair vans or fewer counties, in exchange for withdrawn protests. After that window, or once hearings start, amendments are allowed only for good cause.
3. Prepare for a hearing if a protest stands. The PUC’s fact sheet says a contested case may go to a PUC mediator or to a hearing before an administrative law judge. Under 41.14, you carry the burden of proving your technical and financial fitness.

Think hard before you narrow your territory to settle. Adding territory later takes a new application and another $350 fee. If no protest is filed, the PUC can decide the case on your verified statements, which you file within 30 days of a request, or up to 45 days when it grants more time.

How to write a tariff the PUC will approve

Your tariff is the public price list and rule book for every trip. Under 52 Pa. Code 23.11 you file it before you offer service, and 29.355 requires your rates to follow it and to state your minimum advance reservation time. After tentative approval you have 60 days to get the tariff approved and your insurer’s Form E on file, or the application is dismissed and you start over with a new fee.

The PUC’s paratransit tariff rules (2020) and template (revised November 2020) set the format:

1. Start from the template and email it as a Word file to RA-PCTARIFFFILING@pa.gov. Do not send a PDF, and do not e-file it until the PUC’s tariff specialist approves it. For tariff questions, call 717-214-7155 and leave a detailed message.
2. Copy your territory exactly from your compliance letter, word for word and comma for comma.
3. Include the three required parts: reservations, rates, and additional charges. The reservation rule states your minimum notice in hours or days, at least 15 minutes.
4. Pick a rate structure: an hourly rate, a mileage rate read from the vehicle’s odometer, a flat rate per trip, a loaded rate, or a mix. You may not charge different rates in different counties, and no time charge can be smaller than 15 minutes.
5. Say where mileage starts. It runs either garage to garage or pickup to drop-off. Waiting charges are allowed only with pickup to drop-off mileage.
6. Name each holiday that carries a surcharge. “Federal holidays” is not accepted.
7. Keep dollar amounts in the rates section only, never in the rules section.

Some rules must be copied exactly as the PUC wrote them, if you use them. The deposit rule caps a deposit at 20% of the quoted price, with limits on how much you may keep after a cancellation. The senior citizen rule, under which seniors pay 15% of the shared ride rate, applies only if you hold a PennDOT shared-ride contract under Act 36 of 1991. Promotional coupons must be filed with the PUC before you advertise them.

County and agency contracts

The contract services rule is the one most NEMT carriers need. It covers contracts of at least 30 days for pre-qualified riders under a federal, state, county, or municipal agency contract, such as a county’s Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) subcontract. The rates go in each contract, and you file every contract and amendment with the PUC as signed, effective on one day’s notice. See how one county buys rides in the Allegheny County guide.

The PUC adds that paratransit carriers must also offer service to individual members of the general public. If all of your work is contract work, apply for contract carrier authority instead. A contract carrier files a separate schedule of charges for each contract within 30 days of the PUC approving it (52 Pa. Code 23.141 and 23.143).

You also keep a complete public file of your tariffs at your principal office, open during business hours, with a posted notice at least 8 by 10 inches saying anyone may inspect it (52 Pa. Code 23.51).

How to change your rates

Paratransit carriers change rates on 30 days’ notice to the PUC and the public, and a rate must be in effect for 30 days before you change it (52 Pa. Code 23.41). The PUC posts two sample filings, revised September 2026: a short one for carriers under $500,000 in yearly revenue and a longer one for carriers over it. You e-file or mail the request to the PUC Secretary at least 30 days before the effective date.

Every request includes, under 52 Pa. Code 23.63 and 23.68:

• The current and proposed rates, and the reason for each change.
• The effect on your yearly revenue, with the math.
• Your gross Pennsylvania revenue for the last fiscal year.
• The added revenue the increase should bring, your projected revenue and expenses, and your projected operating ratio.

Both samples add a signed statement that the tariff and data may be offered as evidence, and a signed verification of the facts. The sample for larger carriers also asks for yearly passenger miles and trips, a list of vehicles with purchase prices and depreciation, officers’ salaries, an income statement, and a balance sheet.

For an increase, post a notice at least 15 by 20 inches, in bold letters at least 1 inch tall, in your office for at least 30 days before it takes effect, and a notice sized for the vehicle in every vehicle you run (52 Pa. Code 23.61). After an approved increase, you cannot request another for one year. Carriers under $500,000 in revenue with an operating ratio of 93% or higher are exempt from that wait (23.69). Shorter notice needs PUC permission, given only for a real emergency, and matching a competitor’s rates does not qualify (23.71). For how to set the numbers, see how much to charge for NEMT and raising NEMT rates.

What you file and keep every year

These dates keep your certificate in good standing:

What you file or do	Deadline
Begin service	Within 30 days of receiving the certificate
Assessment report of last year’s revenue	March 31
Pay the assessment	30 days after the PUC’s notice
Object to the assessment	15 days after the notice
Call the PUC about a fatal accident	Within 24 hours
Mail a written report of a reportable accident	Within 30 days
Report a service interruption	Once it passes 48 hours
Update insurance and tariff after a name change	30 days after the PUC endorses the new name

The yearly assessment

The PUC covers its regulatory costs with yearly assessments on the companies it regulates. Under 52 Pa. Code 29.43 and 66 Pa.C.S. 510, you file an assessment report by March 31 showing your gross Pennsylvania revenue for the prior calendar year. Count payments from government agencies, such as county MATP payments, as passenger revenue: 29.41(b) puts them in your assessment. If you do not file, the PUC estimates your revenue and the estimate binds you. Unpaid assessments can lead the PUC to suspend or revoke your certificate and ask PennDOT to suspend your registrations.

Insurance

Your insurer, not you or your agent, files Form E, in the exact legal name on your certificate (52 Pa. Code 32.2). It must give the PUC 30 days’ written notice before cancelling. If no valid insurance is on file, your rights are suspended at once. Limits by vehicle size are in the Pennsylvania guide and NEMT insurance requirements.

Accidents and service gaps

A reportable accident is one with a death, an injury that needs medical care, or a vehicle that has to be towed. Mail the PUC a detailed report within 30 days; a copy of the police or insurance report is accepted. For a death, call Motor Carrier Enforcement at 717-783-3846 right away, and never later than 24 hours, and keep every police report for one year (52 Pa. Code 29.44). Report any interruption of service longer than 48 hours with its cause and expected length. Stopping service for 5 days in a row without telling the PUC is grounds to revoke your rights (29.62). See what to do after a NEMT vehicle accident.

Vans, plates, and leases

Pennsylvania’s Vehicle Code counts a vehicle for 15 or fewer people, driver included, used to carry people for pay as a bus, unless it is a taxi, a limousine, or a personal car used for ride-hailing (75 Pa.C.S. 102). PennDOT’s bus registration fact sheet (February 2025) issues the standard bus plate, which starts with BA, to buses that operate under PUC authority and stay in Pennsylvania, and the PUC’s passenger fact sheet (revised April 2009) says paratransit vehicles need these BA plates, not regular plates. PennDOT’s fee schedule of April 2026 prices bus registration by seating capacity: $102 a year for 6 seats, $136 for 8, and $255 for 15.

Chapter 29 sets no age or mileage limit for paratransit vehicles. The 10 model year and 350,000 mile limit in 29.314 applies to taxis, and limousines have their own 350,000 mile cap (29.333). Your county contract may set its own.

If you lease a van, 52 Pa. Code 29.101 requires:

• A written lease with the maintenance, fuel, pay, and length terms, signed by both sides. Keep the original at your principal office for 2 years after it ends, and carry a copy or a signed rental certificate in the van.
• An inspection before you take the van, certified in writing and kept for 1 year. Do not take an unsafe van.
• Your control. Every vehicle is owned or leased by you and run under your direct supervision, and you may not lease a van to a driver.

A van borrowed from another carrier after an accident or breakdown, or at peak demand, may run without your markings for that time (29.71). Take your PUC number off any van you retire for good (29.72). For signage rules, see NEMT vehicle signage.

Changes that need PUC approval or notice

• Selling the company or its rights. A certificate cannot be sold or transferred without approval (52 Pa. Code 29.31). File a transfer of rights or a transfer of stock or ownership application, each $350. See how to sell a NEMT business.
• A new entity with new owners, such as a merger, needs an application, and the PUC issues a new certificate under a new docket number (3.381(a)(7)). Incorporating a sole proprietorship with no change in ownership takes only a verified letter.
• A name change takes a verified letter, and a trade name change takes a letter with your fictitious name registration. Then update your insurance and tariff within 30 days.
• A new address goes on the PUC’s change of address form, in writing. It cannot be done online.
• More territory or a new class of service needs a new application and fee.
• Closing or retiring takes an abandonment application, which has no fee. The PUC says an authority cannot be put on hold: while it is active, it must be insured and you must offer service.

Penalties and enforcement

Under 66 Pa.C.S. 3301, every violation of the Public Utility Code, a PUC rule, or a PUC order can cost up to $1,000, and each day a violation of a PUC rule or order continues is a separate offense. A driver’s or employee’s violation counts as the company’s. Failing to follow Chapter 29, your certificate’s terms, or the vehicle laws is also grounds to suspend and then revoke your certificate (52 Pa. Code 29.12). Running trips with no certificate costs $1,000 per violation.

PUC enforcement officers can stop your vans and inspect them at your premises, and a failed vehicle stays out of service until it is repaired (52 Pa. Code 29.406). If the PUC cancels your certificate, you must stop operating and apply again, though you can appeal. Check your certificate’s status on the PUC’s utility authority search, and call the motor carrier line at 717-787-3834 with questions. The licensing layers that sit on top of the PUC are in NEMT license requirements.