NTD reporting for paratransit and rural contractors: the records your transit agency will ask you for

Who files the NTD report when a contractor runs the service?

The transit agency files it, and the contract hands you the job of collecting the data. The National Transit Database applies to applicants for and beneficiaries of Section 5307 or 5311 transit grants (49 CFR 630.2). When an agency pays a contractor under a written contract that obligates the contractor to supply the operating statistics the NTD requires, FTA has it report the service as purchased transportation, which is why an ADA paratransit contract or a county’s rural transit service comes with reporting duties.

Two cases change who files. If the agency pays only part of the cost and the seller also gets public money from another transit entity, the seller reports the service. The manual also mentions unusual cases where buyer and seller each report.

The stakes explain why contracts press for clean data. An agency that reports late or incompletely can have its data left out of the funding formula, and under 49 CFR 630.5 it can lose eligibility for Chapter 53 transit money until it files. FTA can also zero or adjust data used in the Section 5307 formula when it lacks adequate documentation and a reliable recordkeeping system (630.8). The annual report is due four months after the agency’s fiscal year ends, so a June 30 year-end means October 31. For the cost side of the same data, see paratransit cost per trip.

What does the agency file, and what does that ask of you?

It depends on the agency’s reporter type, which comes from its size and funding.

Full reporters send monthly ridership too: trips, revenue hours, revenue miles and the vehicles operated in maximum service, due the last day of the following month. FTA retired weekly reference reporting as of January 15, 2026.

Which hours and miles count as revenue service?

Revenue service in demand response runs from the first passenger pickup to the last drop-off, as long as the vehicle does not go back to the garage or dispatching point and does not stop for a break or fuel. FTA’s exhibit for demand response sorts the common cases.

Full reporters also report deadhead, the runs between the garage or dispatching point and the first pickup or last drop-off, which does not include fueling or lunch. Training time, maintenance testing, charter and school bus service never count as revenue service. Scheduled service that did not happen, such as a missed trip, is left out of actual service data.

Your drivers’ paid hours run longer than revenue hours, because the drive to the first pickup, fuel stops and lunch are not revenue time. Keep first-pickup and last-drop-off times for every vehicle every day. Deadhead miles covers how the business view differs.

How are trips counted?

A trip is a boarding, so a rider who goes out and back is two trips. Counting rules that trip up contractors:

• Attendants and companions count. In demand response they are included even when they ride free, unless they work for the agency.
• ADA trips are counted separately by full reporters. Complementary paratransit trips go into the ADA count, attendants and companions included, and they stay out of the sponsored-service count.
• Sponsored trips count in the total. Medicaid is one of the common sponsored services FTA lists.
• A shared ride is not split. If one agency’s riders and another’s are on the same van at once, the agency operating the service reports all of it.
• Staff are not passengers. Employees or contractors on agency business do not count.

Agencies may estimate trips and passenger miles by sampling only when they do not routinely process reliable 100 percent counts. FTA names driver logs and mobile data terminals among the ways to collect counts. If a count is missing for 2 percent or fewer of the trips, the agency can factor the data up. Above 2 percent, a qualified statistician must approve the method. A contractor whose logs capture every boarding gives the agency actual counts to report.

What cost and contract data does the agency need?

The agency reports what it paid you, and for full reporters you break your costs into five functions. The contract data on form B-30 covers whether the contract was competitively bid or negotiated, who provides the vehicles and the garage, the vehicles in maximum service and the months you ran, the payment terms, and any charge you make the agency for using your vans. Fares you keep count as part of its payment to you.

Full reporters need your expenses split into vehicle operations, vehicle maintenance, facility maintenance, general administration and operating lease expenses. Because the agency pays you more than your cost, you also spread your profit across those five lines in proportion to each. FTA’s own example has a contractor with $1,000,000 of expenses and $50,000 of profit:

The agency also reports your vans on its revenue vehicle inventory. For each fleet that means vehicle type, vehicle count, seating capacity, year built, who owns it, ADA-accessible vehicles and fuel type. Vans that are not used exclusively for public transit service are reported as non-dedicated, using a representative sample of the vans. The agency reports total miles driven by each fleet over the year, deadhead and training included, and the average lifetime miles per active vehicle, so keep each van’s odometer reading at fiscal year-end.

Which safety events does the contractor report?

Tell the agency about any event that meets an NTD threshold, because the agency reports it. Under the manuals, an event involving a revenue vehicle is a major event if it meets any of these:

• A death confirmed within 30 days of the event.
• An injury that needs immediate transport away from the scene for medical attention, for one or more people.
• Estimated property damage of $25,000 or more.
• A collision that needs a vehicle towed away from the scene.
• An evacuation of a vehicle or facility for life-safety reasons.

Deaths from illness, overdose or other natural causes are outside the rule: a passenger who has a fatal heart attack on a van is not reportable. Full reporters file a major event report within 30 days of the event and a monthly summary of the rest. Reduced and rural reporters send annual counts. FTA also counts assaults on transit workers, and it defines a transit worker as any employee, contractor or volunteer working for the agency, so an assault on your driver can be reportable. Keep your own incident file with the date, location, injuries, towing and a damage estimate.

Counting mistakes that cause corrections

• Counting the drive from the garage as revenue time, or leaving out empty drives between riders and no-show trips.
• Leaving out attendants and companions who ride free.
• Putting ADA trips in the sponsored-service count, or sponsored trips in the ADA count.
• Counting fuel and lunch stops as revenue hours.
• Rounding or estimating hours and miles. FTA requires actual revenue miles and hours, recorded daily, and allows estimates only for trips and passenger miles.

What to keep on every run

Records that match these definitions let the agency answer FTA’s validation questions without guessing. For each trip: date, scheduled and actual pickup and drop-off times, every person who boarded, the funding type, and a no-show’s arrival time and wait. For each vehicle and day: the first pickup, the last drop-off, garage out and in, fuel and lunch stops, and odometer start and end. For the contract: monthly costs by function and the vehicles in service. Your trip log and documentation habits should carry all of it.

Keeping trip records in HealthRide

HealthRide keeps GPS-recorded miles, pickup and drop-off times and recorded wait times on no-shows for each trip. The trip log exports as a spreadsheet or PDF, and timecards record driver hours. See reports.