Senate Bill No. 643
(By Senator Hunter)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article two, chapter
twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
sections two and three, article one, chapter twenty-four-a
of said code, all relating to providing that the public
service commission has no jurisdiction over limousines or
specialized limousine services.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article two, chapter twenty-four of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that sections two and
three, article one, chapter twenty-four-a of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 24. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-1. Jurisdiction of commission; waiver of jurisdiction.
The jurisdiction of the commission shall extend to all
public utilities in this state, and shall include any utility
engaged in any of the following public services:
Common carriage of passengers or goods, whether by air,
railroad, street railroad, motor or otherwise, by express or
otherwise, by land, water or air: Provided, That the commission
does not have jurisdiction over limousines or specialized
limousine services as defined by section two, article one,
chapter twenty-four-a of this code, whether wholly or partly by
land, water or air; transportation of oil, gas or water by
pipeline; transportation of coal and its derivatives and all
mixtures and combinations thereof with other substances by
pipeline; sleeping car or parlor car services; transmission of
messages by telephone, telegraph or radio; generation and
transmission of electrical energy by hydroelectric or other
utilities for service to the public, whether directly or through
a distributing utility; supplying water, gas or electricity, by
municipalities or others; sewer systems servicing twenty-five or
more persons or firms other than the owner of the sewer systems;
any public service district created under the provisions of
article thirteen-a, chapter sixteen of this code; toll bridges, wharves, ferries; solid waste facilities; and any other public
service: Provided, however, That natural gas producers who
provide natural gas service to not more than twenty-five
residential customers are exempt from the jurisdiction of the
commission with regard to the provisions of such residential
service: Provided however further, That upon request of any of
the customers of such natural gas producers, the commission may,
upon good cause being shown, exercise such authority as the
commission may deem appropriate over the operation, rates and
charges of such producer and for such length of time as the
commission may consider to be proper: And provided further, That
the jurisdiction the commission may exercise over the rates and
charges of municipally operated public utilities is limited to
that authority granted the commission in section four-b of this
article: And provided further, That the decision-making
authority granted to the commission in sections four and four-a
of this article shall, in respect to an application filed by a
public service district, be delegated to a single hearing
examiner appointed from the commission staff, which hearing
examiner shall be authorized to carry out all decision-making
duties assigned to the commission by said sections, and to issue
orders having the full force and effect of orders of the
commission.
The commission may, upon application, waive its jurisdiction
and allow a utility operating in an adjoining state to provide
service in West Virginia when:
(1) An area of West Virginia cannot be practicably and
economically served by a utility licensed to operate within the
state of West Virginia;
(2) Said area can be provided with utility service by a
utility which operates in a state adjoining West Virginia;
(3) The utility operating in the adjoining state is
regulated by a regulatory agency or commission of the adjoining
state; and
(4) The number of customers to be served is not substantial.
The rates the out-of-state utility charges West Virginia
customers shall be the same as the rate the utility is duly
authorized to charge in the adjoining jurisdiction.
The commission, in the case of any such utility, may revoke
its waiver of jurisdiction for good cause.
CHAPTER 24A. MOTOR CARRIERS OF PASSENGERS
AND PROPERTY FOR HIRE.
ARTICLE 1. PURPOSES, DEFINITIONS AND EXEMPTIONS.
§24A-1-2. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Commission" means the public service commission of West Virginia;
(2) "Common carrier by motor vehicle" means any person who
undertakes, whether directly or by lease or any other
arrangement, to transport passengers or property, or any class
or classes of property, for the general public over the highways
of this state by motor vehicles for hire, whether over regular
or irregular routes, including such motor vehicle operations of
carriers by rail, water or air and of express or forwarding
agencies, and leased or rented motor vehicles, with or without
drivers: Provided, That this definition does not include
limousines or specialized limousine services as defined herein;
(3) "Contract carrier by motor vehicle" means any person not
included in subdivision (2) of this section, who under special
and individual contracts or agreements, and whether directly or
by lease or any other arrangement, transports passengers or
property over the highways in this state by motor vehicles for
hire: Provided, That this definition does not include limousines
or specialized limousine services as defined herein;
(4) "Driveaway operation" means an operation in which any
vehicle or vehicles, operated singly or in lawful combinations,
new or used, not owned by the transporting motor carrier,
constitute the commodity being transported;
(5) "Exempt carrier" means any person operating a motor vehicle exempt from the provisions of this chapter under section
three thereof;
(6) "I.C.C." means the interstate commerce commission;
(7) "Motor carrier" includes both a common carrier by motor
vehicle and a contract carrier by motor vehicle;
(8) "Motor vehicle" means, and includes, any automobile,
truck, tractor, truck-tractor, trailer, semitrailer, motorbus,
taxicab, any self-propelling motor-driven motor vehicle or any
combination thereof, used upon any public highway in this state
for the purpose of transporting persons or property;
(9) "NARUC" means the national association of regulatory
utility commissioners;
(10) "Operations within the borders of this state" means
interstate or foreign operations to, from, within or traversing
this state;
(11) "Person" means and includes any individual, firm,
copartnership, corporation, company, association or joint-stock
association, and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee or
personal representative thereof;
(12) "Private commercial carrier" means and includes any
person who undertakes, whether directly or by lease or other
arrangement, to transport property, including hazardous materials
as defined in rules and regulations promulgated by the commission, for himself or herself over the public highways of
this state, in interstate or intrastate commerce, for any
commercial purpose, by motor vehicle with a gross vehicle weight
rating of ten thousand one pounds or more, by motor vehicle
designed to transport more than fifteen passengers, including the
driver; or by any motor vehicle used to transport hazardous
materials in a quantity requiring placarding under federal
hazardous material regulations as adopted by the commission;
(13) "Power unit" means any vehicle which contains within
itself the engine, motor or other source of power by which said
vehicle is propelled; and
(14) "Public highway" means any public street, alley, road
or highway, or thoroughfare of any kind in this state used by the
public;
(15) "Limousine" means a vehicle equipped with at least
three doors with seating for at least five passengers, which
travels between fixed points, such as airports, hotels or motels
or to and from weddings, funerals or other special events, for
compensation which is usually a predetermined fixed charge or to
transport a passenger or passengers in specialized limousine
service;
(16) "Specialized limousine service" means the
transportation of a passenger or passengers between variable points over irregular routes in especially equipped or luxury
vehicles, for compensation which is usually determined on a
mileage or hourly basis.
§24A-1-3. Exemptions from chapter.
The provisions of this chapter, except where specifically
otherwise provided, shall not apply to:
(1) Motor vehicles operated exclusively in the
transportation of United States mail or in the transportation of
newspapers: Provided, That such vehicles and their operators
shall be subject to the safety rules promulgated by the
commission;
(2) Motor vehicles owned and operated by the United States
of America, the state of West Virginia or any county,
municipality or county board of education, urban mass
transportation authority established and maintained pursuant to
article twenty-seven, chapter eight of this code, or by any
department thereof, and any motor vehicles operated under a
contract with a county board of education exclusively for the
transportation of children to and from school or other legitimate
transportation for the schools as the commission may specifically
authorize;
(3) Motor vehicles used exclusively in the transportation of
agricultural or horticultural products, livestock, poultry and dairy products from the farm or orchard on which they are raised
or produced to markets, processing plants, packing houses,
canneries, railway shipping points and cold storage plants, and
in the transportation of agricultural or horticultural supplies
to farms or orchards to be used thereon;
(4) Motor vehicles used exclusively in the transportation of
human or animal excreta;
(5) Motor vehicles used exclusively in ambulance service or
duly chartered rescue squad service;
(6) Motor vehicles used exclusively for volunteer fire
department service;
(7) Motor vehicles used exclusively in the transportation of
coal from mining operations to loading facilities for further
shipment by rail or water carriers: Provided, That the vehicles
and their operators shall be subject to the safety rules
promulgated by the commission;
(8) Motor vehicles used by petroleum commission agents and
oil distributors solely for the transportation of petroleum
products and related automotive products when the transportation
is incidental to the business of selling said products:
Provided, That the vehicles and their operators shall be subject
to the safety rules promulgated by the commission;
(9) Motor vehicles owned, leased by or leased to any person and used exclusively for the transportation of processed
source-separated recycled materials, generated by commercial,
institutional and industrial customers, transported free of
charge from such customers to a facility for further processing:
Provided, That the vehicles and their operators shall be subject
to the safety rules promulgated by the commission; and
(10) Motor vehicles specifically preempted from state
economic regulation of intrastate motor carrier operations by the
provisions of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization
Act of 1994 (Pub. L. 103-305 §601 108 Stat. 1605 (1994)):
Provided, That the vehicles and their operators shall be subject
to the safety rules promulgated by the commission; and
(11) Motor vehicles used exclusively to provide limousine or
specialized limousine service defined by subsections fifteen and
sixteen, section two of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that the Public
Service Commission has no jurisdiction over limousines or
specialized limousine services.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.