AN ACT
RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION; INCLUDING TAXICAB SERVICES AND
TERMINAL SHUTTLE SERVICE AS NON-EXEMPT INTRASTATE BUSINESSES; AMENDING SECTIONS
OF THE NMSA 1978.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
Section 1. Section 65-2-82 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1981,
Chapter 358, Section 3, as amended by Laws 2001, Chapter 245, Section 3 and by
Laws 2001, Chapter 259, Section 1) is amended to read:
"65-2-82. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Motor Carrier
Act:
A. "antitrust laws" means the laws of
this state relating to combinations in restraint of trade;
B. "broker" means a person not
included in the term "motor carrier" and not a bona fide employee or
agent of any motor carrier who, as principal or agent, sells or offers for sale
any transportation subject to the Motor Carrier Act or negotiates for or holds
himself out by solicitation, advertisement or otherwise as one who sells,
provides, furnishes, contracts or arranges for that transportation;
C. "certificate" means a certificate
of public convenience and necessity issued under authority of the laws of the
state to common motor carriers;
D. "clerk" or "chief clerk"
means the chief clerk of the public regulation commission;
E. "commission" means the public
regulation commission;
F. "common motor carrier" means a
person who undertakes, whether directly or indirectly or by lease of equipment
or operating rights or any other arrangement, to transport persons or property
or any class of property for the general public by motor vehicle for
compensation, whether over regular or irregular routes and under scheduled or
nonscheduled service, but does not include farm carriers and does not include
commuter vanpools;
G. "commuter vanpool" means a
volunteer-driver commuter group that operates a vanpool that utilizes a seven-
to fifteen-passenger vehicle to share rides to and from the workplace or training site; where
participation is open to the public and incidental to the primary work- or
training-related purposes of the individuals in the group; and where the
volunteer drivers determine the daily vanpool route, have no employer-employee
relationship with the vanpool operator and generally begin their vanpool
driving duties at their home and end at the individual workplace or training
site;
H. "contract motor carrier" means a
person not a common motor carrier who, under individual contracts or agreements
and whether directly or indirectly or by lease of equipment or operating rights
or any other arrangements, transports persons or property by motor vehicle for
compensation, but does not include farm carriers;
I. "farm carrier" means a motor
vehicle registered in this state being used in the transportation for hire of a
cargo consisting of one or several of the following: farm produce, including grains, cotton,
cottonseed, vegetables, hay and other farm products; livestock feed; livestock;
stock salt; manure; wire; posts; dairy products; and farm or ranch machinery
except tractors weighing more than forty-five thousand pounds;
J. "highway" means the public roads,
highways, streets and ways in this state;
K. "household goods" means:
(1) personal effects and property used or to be
used in a dwelling when a part of the equipment or supply of the dwelling and
other similar property as the commission may provide by rule; except that this
paragraph shall not be construed to include property moving from a factory or
store, except property as the householder has purchased with intent to use in
his dwelling and that is transported at the request of, and the transportation
charges paid to the carrier by, the householder;
(2) furniture, fixtures, equipment and the
property of stores, offices, museums, institutions, hospitals or other
establishments when a part of the stock, equipment or supply of stores,
offices, museums, institutions, hospitals or other establishments and other
similar property as the commission may provide by rule; except that this
paragraph shall not be construed to include the stock-in-trade of any
establishment, whether consignor or consignee, other than used furniture and
used fixtures, except when transported as incidental to the moving of the
establishment, or a portion of it, from one location to another; and
(3) articles, including objects of art, displays
and exhibits, that, because of their unusual nature or value, require the specialized
handling and equipment usually employed in moving household goods and other
similar articles as the commission may provide by rule; except that this
paragraph shall not be construed to include any article, whether crated or
uncrated, that does not, because of its unusual nature or value, require the
specialized handling and equipment usually employed in moving household goods;
L. "interested parties" shall in all
cases include all carriers operating over the routes or any part thereof or in
the territory involved in an application for a certificate or permit or an
application to file or change a schedule of rates, charges or fares or a rule
or practice, and other parties as the commission may deem interested in the
particular matter;
M. "irregular route" means a course to
be used by a motor carrier that is not restricted to any specific highway
within the area the motor carrier is authorized to serve;
N. "lease" means an arrangement
whereby a motor carrier augments his equipment by use of equipment owned by others;
O. "license" means a license issued
pursuant to the Motor Carrier Act to a broker;
P. "motor carrier" includes common
motor carriers, contract motor carriers and any person performing for-hire
transportation service without authority from the commission and farm carriers;
Q. "motor vehicle" means a vehicle,
machine, tractor, trailer or semi-trailer propelled or drawn by mechanical
power and used upon the highways in the transportation of property or persons,
but does not include any vehicle, locomotive or car operated exclusively on
rail or rails;
R. "permit" means a permit issued
under authority of the laws of this state to contract motor carriers;
S. "person" means an individual, firm,
partnership, corporation, company, association or organization and includes any
trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof;
T. "regular route" means a fixed,
specific and determined course to be traveled by a motor carrier's vehicles
rendering service to, from or between various points, localities or
municipalities in this state;
U. the "services" and
"transportation" to which the Motor Carrier Act applies include all
vehicles operated by, for or in the interest of any motor carrier irrespective
of ownership or of contract, express or implied, together with all facilities
and property controlled by any motor carrier and used in the transportation of
persons or property or in the performance of any service in connection
therewith;
V. "shipper" means a person who
consigns or receives goods for transportation;
W. "single-line rate" means a rate,
charge or allowance proposed by a single common motor carrier of property that
is applicable only over its line and for which the transportation can be
provided by that common motor carrier;
X. "state" means New Mexico;
Y. "taxicab service" means a common
motor carrier engaged in unscheduled passenger transportation in a motor
vehicle having a capacity of not more than eight passengers, including the
driver, not operated on a regular route or between specified places, and that:
(1) is licensed as a taxicab by a state or a
local jurisdiction; or
(2) if not licensed or regulated by a state or
local jurisdiction as a taxicab service, is offered by a person that:
(a) provides local transportation for a fare
determined, except with respect to transportation to or from airport, train or
bus terminals, primarily on the basis of the distance traveled; and
(b) does not primarily provide transportation to
or from one or more airport, train or bus terminals;
Z. "terminal shuttle service" means a
common motor carrier engaged in passenger transportation service that:
(1) is:
(a) pre-arranged by contract; or
(b) operated for hire on a regular route,
allowing for deviation to pick up or drop off passengers, between specified or
generally specified points; and
(2) primarily provides transportation to or from
one or more airport, train or bus terminals but may also provide for
intermediate pickup and departure of passengers;
AA. "towing company" means a common
motor carrier engaged in transporting for hire disabled or abandoned motor
vehicles by means of a tow truck or flatbed vehicle carrier; and
BB. "weight-bumping" means the knowing
and willful making or securing of a fraudulent weight on a shipment of
household goods that is subject to the jurisdiction of the commission under the
Motor Carrier Act."
Section 2. Section 65-2-83 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1981,
Chapter 358, Section 4, as amended) is amended to read:
"65-2-83. POWERS AND DUTIES OF COMMISSION.--The
commission is vested with power and authority, and it is its duty to:
A. regulate common motor carriers as provided in
the Motor Carrier Act, and to that end, the commission shall establish
reasonable requirements with respect to continuous and adequate service and
shall establish reasonable requirements with respect to uniform systems of
accounts, records and reports and preservation of records;
B. regulate contract motor carriers as provided
in the Motor Carrier Act, and to that end, the commission shall establish
reasonable requirements with respect to uniform systems of accounts, records
and reports and preservation of records;
C. regulate, as intrastate services, taxicab
services and terminal shuttle services, including those that may operate in
part between this state and other states; provided that the service provides,
with regard to any service run, for both:
(1) initiation of the transportation of one or
more passengers within this state; and
(2) delivery to a departure point within this
state of one or more passengers whose transportation on that service run was
initiated at a point within this state;
D. regulate brokers as provided in the Motor
Carrier Act, and to that end, the commission shall establish reasonable
requirements with respect to licensing, financial responsibility, accounts,
records, reports, operations and practices of any such person;
E. prescribe rules, regulations and procedures
for the administration of the Motor Carrier Act, to make all necessary orders
and do all things necessary to administer, execute, carry out and enforce the
provisions of that act, except those powers set forth in Section 65-1-6 NMSA
1978; and
F. prescribe rules and procedures for default
proceedings. In the event no protest or
intervention is filed by a party within thirty (30) days of the date of notice
to parties required to be notified by statute and to such other persons as the
commission shall direct, a default proceeding may be held at any time
thereafter pursuant to rules and procedures promulgated pursuant to this
subsection."
Section 3. Section 65-2-115 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1981,
Chapter 358, Section 36, as amended) is amended to read:
"65-2-115. INTERSTATE CARRIERS--CERTIFICATE OF
REGISTRATION--PROCEDURE.--
A. No common or contract motor carrier engaged
exclusively in interstate commerce shall operate for the transportation of
persons or property for hire upon any public highway in this state without
first either obtaining from the commission a certificate of registration under
the provisions of this section or complying with the provisions of Section 65‑2-115.1
NMSA 1978, as directed by the commission.
B. The certificate of registration shall be
issued to interstate carriers, as a matter of course, upon proper application
being made and shall designate the route and type of service specified in the
application. No certificate of
registration shall authorize the holder to engage in whole or in part as a
common or contract motor carrier in intrastate business within this state or to
engage in any business or operate over any route not specified in the
certificate of registration. The
certificate of registration shall become void unless the applicant to which it
is granted begins operations within thirty days from the date the certificate
of registration is issued and shall become void if the service is thereafter
discontinued or unless in either event an extension is granted upon proper
showing by order of the commission. A
taxicab service or terminal shuttle service is engaged in non-exempt intrastate
business within the state, regardless of any prior exemption, if its service
provides, with regard to any service run, for both:
(1) initiation of the transportation of one or
more passengers within this state; and
(2) delivery to a departure point within this
state of one or more passengers whose transportation on that service run was
initiated at a point within this state.
C. The commission shall adopt rules prescribing
the manner and form in which interstate motor carriers shall apply for
certificates of registration but the application shall be in writing and sworn
to and shall show: the name and address of the applicant and, if a corporation,
the names of its officers and directors and their addresses; the entire route
within this state over which the applicant desires to operate; the kind of
transportation, whether passenger or freight or both, in which the applicant proposes
to engage together with a brief description of each vehicle which the applicant
intends to use, including the seating capacity if for passenger traffic or the
tonnage capacity if for freight; a specification of the proposed schedule, the
proposed rate schedule or schedules of rates for transportation or for services
in connection therewith; and other information as the commission may require
covering observance of New Mexico state police regulations and payment of
license taxes and fees.
D. This certificate of registration shall be
subject to all the motor carrier provisions of the revised Interstate Commerce
Act, as amended, Subtitle 4, Title 49, United States Code."
Section 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the
provisions of this act is July 1, 2003.