Legal Aspects Unregulated entry with quality control means the absence of any legal barriers to new entrants to a market, provided however that they comply with certain limited obligations pertaining to the quality of their operations or services.
Unregulated entry
Unregulated entry, in the context of the urban bus transport sector, is synonymous with an open market for that sector where any person can provide urban bus transport services — where he wants, when he wants. Consequently restrictions on bus operators are either non-existent or minimal.
When such minimal restrictions do exist, they are generally in the nature of restrictions imposed by laws of general application, such as laws regulating:
- Unacceptable business practices (anti-competitive behavior, price gouging, etc.).
- Contract of carriage of passengers.
- Motor vehicle construction and use.
- Motor vehicle registration and insurance.
- Payment of fuel taxes and levies.
- Movement of traffic on highways or city streets.
Quality control
Since the emphasis of quality control in the urban bus transport sector is aimed at the construction, use and safety of the buses operating in that sector, quality control can best be described as a set of terms and conditions imposed on the bus operator with respect to his vehicles, containing requirements distinct or additional to what is already found in national legislation concerning motor vehicle construction, use and safety in general.
Although the scope of quality control is wide, there are areas of regulation beyond its reach. The setting of fares by the government, for example, is economic regulation, not quality control.
See also
Legal and regulatory framework
Legal instruments
Monitoring and enforcement
