We're committed to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our team helps with boarding, mobility devices, service animals, and medical needs — across all our Texas routes.
Our commitment to customers with disabilities
Our goal is to make your travel on Smile Bus USA a safe, pleasant, and convenient experience. Our drivers, customer service personnel, and contractors are available to meet the needs of customers with disabilities. We provide assistance with boarding and de-boarding buses, luggage, transfer, stowage, and retrieval of mobility devices.
This service is provided during transfers, meal and rest stops, and other times as reasonably requested. We can help whether you are traveling alone or with a personal care attendant, using various mobility devices, or being accompanied by a service animal.
★ What we can't do: Smile Bus USA employees are not able to provide personal care assistance such as helping with restroom use, dispensing medication, or providing constant care during travel. If you need that level of assistance, please travel with a Personal Care Attendant (PCA).
Disabilities assistance requirements
Additional information for passengers with disabilities
Advanced notice. We can best assist you when you provide 48-hour advance notice. This advance notice is in accordance with federal guidelines and allows us to make the necessary arrangements to provide requested assistance. When you provide a 48-hour advance notice, we can better assist you. If you do not provide this notice, we will make every reasonable effort to help you if such an accommodation will not delay departure of the schedule on which you wish to travel. If wheelchair lift buses are not available or requested, alternative boarding assistance will be provided. In all cases, assistance will be provided if it can be accomplished in such a manner that it does not compromise the safety of all involved.
Lift-equipped bus. Under federal regulations, a wheelchair lift-equipped bus is only required to have the capacity to accommodate a combined weight of the customer and the mobility aid of 600 pounds, and a mobility aid that measures no more than 30 inches wide and 48 inches long. Accommodations of customers and their mobility aids that exceed this capacity and measurements will be accommodated if reasonable and safe.
Assistance at rest stops. Please notify Smile Bus USA of your need for assistance at each location. Even if you contacted the Information Center, you must make Smile Bus USA aware of your need for assistance throughout your entire trip. When the bus is at a scheduled stop, you may request that our personnel assist you with any reasonable request.
Storing and handling your mobility aid. Your mobility aid(s) may travel inside the bus if they can be safely stowed inside the vehicle. Mobility aids that cannot be safely stored inside the bus will be placed in the baggage compartment, if possible.
Proof of disability. In accordance with federal regulations, we do not require proof of disability.
Seating
Smile Bus USA buses have seating designated as priority seating for passengers with disabilities not using wheelchairs or other seated mobility devices on the bus. If these seats are occupied, the Smile Bus USA driver may ask the seated customer to move. If the person occupying the seat refuses, he or she cannot be forced to move. You may sit in the next available seat and move to the designated seats as they become available.
Smile Bus USA will offer seating in the wheelchair securement spaces on a first-come, first-served basis. Other passengers with disabilities using mobility aids will be offered boarding assistance and the opportunity to sit in vehicle seats configured for passengers who are not assigned a securement location space. If you are not assigned a securement location and are unable or unwilling to accept the transfer, the operator is not required to provide transportation to you on the bus.
Traveling with your service animal
At Smile Bus USA, customers with disabilities accompanied by a service animal are welcome. There are no additional charges for service animals traveling on board.
★ What qualifies as a service animal. Under the ADA, a service animal is any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability — including physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disabilities. Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA, and cannot travel on Smile Bus USA as service animals.
The service animal is the responsibility of its owner and must be under the control of its owner at all times (i.e., leash, harness, or carrier). The service animal must ride in the bus within the customer's space. Service animals may not travel in the aisle or occupy a seat. Smile Bus USA reserves the right to refuse passage to any animal that poses a direct threat to the health and safety of other customers and/or Smile Bus USA personnel.
Customers traveling to Mexico with service animals should check with the embassy or consulates of that country as to specific requirements that must be met before any animal may be brought into the country. Many countries have strict health, quarantine, agriculture, wildlife, and customs requirements and prohibitions, and these may apply to service animals. For more information about the Mexican Foreign Ministry, the Mexican Embassy, and Mexican Consular offices, review the following information:
http://embamex.sre.gob.mx/usa/
To return to the U.S., you will minimally need a current rabies certificate that lists the name of the rabies vaccine used, lot number, and date of injection. Additional requirements may apply, so please review the following information:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulations have specific requirements for entry detailed here: http://www.cdc.gov/animalimportation/dogs.html (requirements to return to the U.S.)
The State of Texas has requirements for entry into the state that may differ from the minimal federal requirements. For more information, please review the following: http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/idcu/health/zoonosis/laws/import/entry/
Medicine, medical devices, and portable oxygen and respirators
Customers with medical needs are allowed to travel on Smile Bus USA buses with their medications and medical devices, including portable oxygen and respirators. Prescription medications should be in their original containers, and it is advised that passengers travel with no more than personal-use quantities. If medications or devices are not in their original containers, you should have a copy of your prescription with you. If you are traveling with medical devices such as needles or oxygen tanks that could pose a security or safety concern to others, be sure to have a copy of the prescription from your doctor for those items.
Please consider visiting the following US Customs and Border Protection site for more information: https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/67/~/traveling-with-medications-and-medical-devices,-such-as-needles-or-oxygen-tanks
Additionally, Mexico has its own laws regarding the importation of medications and medical devices. For more information about the legality of traveling with medications and medical devices, please consider contacting the Mexican Foreign Ministry at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, DC: http://embamex.sre.gob.mx/usa/index.php/contact-us
Or any Mexican Consular offices: http://embamex.sre.gob.mx/usa/index.php/consular-services
Portable oxygen and respirators may accompany you on a Smile Bus USA bus. Customers are responsible for ensuring that they have enough oxygen to complete their travel and are responsible for arranging for refills while en route. Oxygen canisters to be stowed in the baggage compartment must be in protective cases with safety caps on the valves, or otherwise safely secured. This means that customers need to make Smile Bus USA staff aware that they are stowing medical oxygen. The US Department of Transportation recommends that all medical oxygen to be transported on the bus (with the customer in the passenger section or stowed) should be inspected for defects and maintained per the manufacturer's instructions.
Always keep your medicine with you. Do not leave it in your checked baggage!
Your rights as a customer
In accordance with federal regulations, we do not require proof of disability.
Upon request to Smile Bus USA personnel, assistance will be provided to you for reasonable requests. Smile Bus USA is committed to protecting your rights. If you would like to speak to someone about your needs or rights as a Smile Bus USA customer, please call us promptly at 1-800-923-1799.
If you feel that your rights as a person with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were violated and would like to file a formal complaint, please send a written statement to the address below. To assist us in resolving your complaint, please include your ticket showing your travel itinerary, a detailed description of the incident — including the bus schedule number, date, time, and location — and the name(s) and/or description(s) of any Smile Bus USA personnel you believe did not provide you appropriate assistance.
Privacy
Our customer service staff will only use the information about your travel needs and schedule to arrange assistance by company personnel or contractors at your point of departure, meal and rest stops, and your final destination.
Complaints
Mailing address Smile Bus LLC Attention: ADA Customer Service 8511 County Rd. 208 Navasota, TX 77868
Email: operationsmanager@smilebususa.com Phone: 832-389-7338
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