Many hotels provide shuttle services for their guests. Hoteliers often ask me at what point the provision of a shuttle service triggers “common carrier” duty, which is a much higher responsibility to protect your guests than the ordinary care standard.
A recent case out of the California Courts of Appeal highlights the factors to be assessed when attempting to determine if your shuttle service makes you a common carrier under the law, and addresses the potential implications of being held to a higher standard of care. If you are a hotelier who provides transportation services for your guests and patrons, now is the time to assess the scope of those shuttle services and, if the common carrier criteria are met, implement comprehensive safety precautions.
Shuttle services and the risk of liability
In October 2016, a California appeals court ruled that The Bicycle Casino could not escape a negligence suit brought by a woman who was injured while boarding one of its free shuttles transporting patrons to its casino. The court found that the company owed a heightened duty of care to its patrons as a common carrier. In the court’s estimation, Bicycle Casino fit the definition of a common carrier because it held itself out “to the public generally and indifferently to transport goods or persons from place to place for profit.” In this case, the defendant was providing free shuttle rides to patrons from a nearby neighborhood who would spend money at its casino.
According to the facts recited in the opinion, the plaintiff was injured while in a crowd of people waiting to board one of Bicycle Casino’s free shuttles. When the shuttle bus arrived, it stopped about 20 to 30 meters away from where the crowd had gathered, prompting a disorderly rush to board the shuttle. The plaintiff was preparing to board the shuttle when she was allegedly pushed by the crowd, fell and broke her left hip.
Bicycle Casino asserted that it did not have a duty to designate a bus stop (so as to avoid a potential stampede) or to have a casino representative or security personnel on board the shuttle. It also argued that it had no duty in this instance because the plaintiff was injured as a result of the wrongful conduct of third parties (i.e., the passengers who knocked her over). The court disagreed, finding a triable issue of fact as to whether the casino was a common carrier.
What makes a common carrier?
This ruling is significant in that it addressed the parameters for what constitutes a duty of care for a common carrier. The court explained that this includes “everyone who offers to the public to carry persons.”
The court went on to discuss the factors that must be weighed in determining whether a party is subject to common carrier status. These include:
- Whether the party maintained an established place of business for the purpose of transporting passengers;
- whether the party engaged in transportation as a regular business and not as a casual or occasional undertaking;
- whether the party advertised its transportation services to the general public; and
- whether the party charged standard rates for its service.
The court emphasized that not all of these factors need be present for the party to be a common carrier subject to the heightened duty of care. Bicycle Casino contended that it did not maintain an established place of business solely for transporting passengers, and thus should not be considered a common carrier. The court disagreed, noting that “it is not dispositive that the casino’s primary business is something other than transportation. What ultimately matters is whether the casino indiscriminately offered the shuttle to the public and whether it offered the shuttle for reward.”
Similarly, although the casino provided a “free” shuttle service, it was deemed by the court to be offered for “reward.” The court ruled that “the shuttle was for reward in the same sense that department stores offer escalators or elevators for reward. Bicycle Casino reaped reward from the shuttle by transporting passengers to its premises, where they disembarked, gambled and lost money to the casino.” To put this into perspective, common carrier liability is routinely applied to shopping malls that have escalators and most buildings that have elevators.
Essential safety precautions for hotel transportation
Hotel managers and operators can learn a lot from this decision—namely, what precautions to take to avoid significant liability in the event that a shuttle passenger is injured. According to the court’s ruling, Bicycle Casino had not given the shuttle driver any written policies or procedures to follow in operating the shuttle, nor did it give him any training in operating the shuttle. Furthermore, the evidence demonstrated that a casino host would occasionally accompany the shuttle driver and that the host would exit the shuttle to assist the passengers with forming an orderly line before boarding. In fact, the host would tell the shuttle drivers to notify the patrons that the shuttle doors would not even open until they had formed an orderly line for boarding.
If your hotel provides regular shuttle services for guests and patrons, then it is likely that your shuttle operation will qualify as a common carrier. With that in mind, hotel owners should take the following steps to ensure that your operation meets the heightened responsibilities of common carrier status:
- Shuttle drivers need to be properly trained on the safe and orderly boarding of passengers;
- written policies and procedures for safe and orderly boarding of passengers should be established, made available to all shuttle drivers, and should be regularly reviewed and updated;
- if there is the possibility that guests or patrons may be so anxious to board that they might start pushing or shoving, then a host or second person should accompany the driver to assist the driver and passengers in safely boarding the shuttle; and
- where possible, have an established shuttle stop location so passengers know where to wait and the shuttle driver should stop only at the designated location.
As a hotel owner, you might not think of yourself as being in the transportation business, but if you provide shuttle services for your guests, it is exceedingly likely that the law will deem you a common carrier. Consequently, this is a responsibility that cannot be taken lightly because the failure to take proper precautions could have serious consequences.
David M. Samuels, Esq. is a senior litigation partner with Michelman & Robinson, LLP and a member of the firm’s executive committee. His practice is primarily devoted to providing legal counsel and guidance to hotels, resorts and private clubs in cases related to personal and catastrophic injury, premises liability and administrative law.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Columnists published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.