Totally agree...it SHOULD be that easy. However, the fleet that the company has are single pilot airplanes (props and small jets whereby we can either fly them as single pilot, or can get single pilot exemptions). We hardly ever fly single pilot, and 135 trips are crewed with two pilots either because it's required under 135, or clients and/or insurance mandates it.

Thus, the company basically uses the logic that as long as the PIC is legal, the right-seater can be anyone (and since they're listed as a "passenger", versus an SIC on the manifest, they're not a crew member). Apparently, they learned this trick by talking to other 135 shops that do it all the time.