An apparatus for transporting sheets into a fixed image reading position has a drive roller and a pad. The pad has a lower layer made of a flexible material and an upper layer provided on the lower layer and made of rigid material in the form of film with a kinetic friction coefficient of 0.2 or less. The is biased to the drive roller so that the upper layer contacts a peripheral surface of the drive roller to form a nipping region between the drive roller and the pad by a compressive deformation of the flexible lower layer of the pad.