Private vs. Common carriage
 

Hey all,
I have my commercial checkride this Friday and was hoping someone could explain private vs. common carriage in the simplest terms. I have a fairly decent grasp of the concept but thought maybe I could really lock it down with a simple explanation. Thank you!

Private carriage involves a very small number of customers, often just one, with whom you have a standing relationship. There is no advertising involved, and you generally don't take walk ins.

Common carriage involves soliciting publicly, or making your service generally available to the public.

It's basically arbitrary protectionism government-speak BS that they just made up. But that probably isn't the right answer for a checkride ;)

Actually it's regulation. In the interest of not injecting too much public good into private business they allowed a carve-out for private arrangements. But the standard for private carriage is pretty high, the grey area is treacherous, and always errs in the favor of the FAA. Many "private carriers" have learned that the hard way.

Which happens to be unconstitutional.

Regulations are unconstitutional? Hardly.

I’m pretty sure the Federal Government’s power to regulate interstate commerce is expressly stated in the constitution.

Check out the Commercial ACS, this should not be on the checkride. While there is an advisory circular about it, advisory circulars that are "fair game" are listed on the ACS task under "references". This is a classic example of examiners (and/or instructors) making up stuff that they think people should know, but is not required on a checkride. If they were to say you fail this, they have to state what area of operation and task. How can they hold you responsible for not knowing something that is not part of the checkride? Did you not know the privileges and limitations according to the references? What is "fair game" is working for hire, the 50nm/night restriction without instrument, basically what is listed in Part 61 for privileges and limitations.

There are all sorts of rabbit-holes you can go down on this topic with many people showing off their impressive knowledge of stuff that does not relate to the checkride. Is this something your instructor should teach? It doesn't hurt, probably a good idea to keep you out of trouble, but it's not part of the checkride and if it is, you need to remember this. Many FSDOs are required right now to call the applicant after the checkride to see how the examiner did and ask some basic questions. If they are asking you stuff that is not within the ACS, it's important to tell them so they can get it fixed. I've seen more than one or two examiners "stray", not because they were trying to screw people over, but they get old and miss things and sometimes don't keep up with changes. The better that YOU know the standards, the better you can protect yourself and be an advocate for yourself. If you know you are right and the other guy is wrong, don't let them screw over more people.

Right, because Sally deserves to die when she books a flight, because she knows nothing about aviation and just wants to get from point A to point B. The FAA doesn't care much if you go and crash yourself into a mountain. They care if you are taking the public down with you and they have a mandate from congress to protect the flying public, which includes your mother, children, etc.

And you would be wrong, that is not what that clause meant at the time it was written. It was designed to "make commerce regular".... language has evolved a bit since the 1780's.

In other words the ICC was supposed to remove and barriers to trade and commerce across state borders.