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Loading and Unloading

Loading and Unloading covers the stop-signal, mirror, and warning-device procedures required when students board or exit a school bus, drawn from 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(i).

Practice Loading and Unloading

5 Questions

  1. Approaching a school bus stop, when should the driver activate the alternating flashing amber warning lights? No federal regulation sets this timing; it comes from the CDL manual and from state law.
  2. School bus guidance puts a gap of at least 10 feet between the bumper and the children waiting at a stop. What is that gap for?
  3. While loading, the driver counts the students and one who should be at the stop cannot be accounted for anywhere outside the bus. What should the driver do?
  4. Students who must cross the roadway after getting off a school bus are taught to walk to a particular spot and wait there. Where should they be standing when the driver signals them to cross?
  5. At the end of a route or an activity trip, what does a school bus post-trip inspection look for that a general commercial vehicle post-trip would have no reason to?