The regulations in this part apply to incidental charter rights authorized under 49 U.S.C. 13506. These regulations do not apply to interpreting authority contained in a certificate to transport passengers in special and/or charter operations.

Motor carriers transporting passengers, in interstate or foreign commerce, over regular routes authorized in a certificate issued as a result of an application filed before January 2, 1967, may transport special or chartered parties, in interstate or foreign commerce, between any points and places in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii). The term “special or chartered party” means a group of passengers who, with a common purpose and under a single contract, and at a fixed charge for the vehicle in accordance with the carrier's tariff, have acquired the exclusive use of a passenger-carrying motor vehicle to travel together as a group to a specified destination or for a particular itinerary.

(a) Incidental charter rights do not authorize the transportation of passengers to whom the carrier has sold individual tickets or with whom the carrier has made separate and individual transportation arrangements.

(b) Service provided under incidental charter rights may not be operated between the same points or over the same route so frequently as to constitute a regular-route service.

(c) Passenger transportation within the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit District (as defined in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Regulation Compact, Pub. L. No. 86-794, 74 Stat. 1031 (1960), as amended by Pub. L. No. 87-767, 76 Stat. (1962) is not authorized by these regulations, but is subject to the jurisdiction and regulations of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Commission.

(d) A private or public recipient of governmental assistance (within the meaning of 49 U.S.C. 13902(b)(8)) may provide service under incidental charter rights only for special or chartered parties originating in the area in which the private or public recipient provides regularly scheduled mass transportation services under the specific qualifying certificate that confers its incidental charter rights.