BILL ANALYSIS 1
SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
AB 2591 - Leno Hearing Date:
June 22, 2004 A
As Amended: May 17, 2004 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Current law requires charter-party carriers to obtain
authorization from the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) to operate. Local governments are precluded from
imposing business license fees on charter-party carriers
operating limousines except when a carrier maintains a business
office in that city or county. Airports are generally
prohibited from imposing vehicle safety, licensing or insurance
requirements that are more burdensome than those imposed by the
CPUC. Charter-party carriers are required to operate on a
pre-arranged basis with passengers.
This bill authorizes cities and counties to impose rules to
inspect the waybills of charter-party carriers operating within
the city or county to verify that passenger travel was indeed
pre-arranged.
This bill requires the CPUC to require every charter-party
carrier to include on a waybill the name of at least one
passenger in the traveling party, the origin and destination of
the party, and information as to whether the transportation was
arranged by telephone or written contract.
Current law allows a peace officer to arrest a person operating
a charter-party carrier without a valid permit at or near a
public airport or within two miles of the United States/Mexico
border and to impound the vehicle.
This bill authorizes a peace officer that arrests a person
operating a charter-party carrier as a taxicab in violation of a
local ordinance to impound the vehicle.
Current law establishes a maximum fine for people convicted of
operating a charter-party carrier or taxicab without a valid
certificate or license. Those maximum fines are $1,000 for the
first conviction, $2,000 for the second, $3,000 for the third,
$4,000 for the fourth, and $5,000 for the fifth, subject to the
court determining that the operator has the ability to pay.
This bill increases the maximum fine to $5,000 for every
conviction, regardless of whether it's the first or the fifth,
subject to the determination that the operator has the ability
to pay.
Current law provides that when the CPUC finds that a
charter-party carrier operates without CPUC authorization, the
CPUC may impose a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation, plus
the expenses of the CPUC.
This bill also authorizes the CPUC to impose such fines when it
finds that a charter-party carrier operates as a taxicab without
proper local permits.
BACKGROUND
Charter-party carriers are vehicles used to transport passengers
who have pre-arranged for such transportation and are
essentially renting the entire vehicle (this isn't to be
confused with vehicles such as Supershuttle, where people
pre-arrange for a seat on a shuttle bus rather than rent the
whole van. Those vehicles are regulated by the CPUC as
passenger stages). There are 3,600 charter-party carriers in
California, most of which are limousines, and they contrast with
taxicabs that transport passengers without pre-arrangement.
Because charter-party carriers typically transport passengers
between cities, they operate with a single state license so they
won't be required to obtain permits from individual cities and
counties. Taxicabs, on the other hand, must obtain local
permits to operate and don't have to obtain the permission of
the Commission. CPUC regulation of charter-party carriers is
intended to ensure driver fitness, maintenance of safe vehicles,
establishment of a workplace drug testing program, and
acquisition of adequate workers compensation and liability
insurance.
COMMENTS
1.You Look Like A Limo, But You're Operating Like A Cab . This
bill deals with competition for passengers between limousines
and taxicabs. The sponsor of this bill, the United Taxicab
Workers, is concerned limousines are acting like taxicabs by
picking up passengers without having pre-arranged for a
rental. That's a violation of state law because the
limousines would need to be licensed by the city or county if
they want to act like taxicabs and pick up passengers who
haven't pre-arranged for transportation.
This measure tries to make existing law easier to enforce by
improving the documentation requirements for any charter-party
carrier pre-arranged trip, allowing local police officers to
inspect the documents, and increasing the penalties for
non-compliance.
However, the waybill requirement in this bill is less specific
and comprehensive than the waybill requirements in the CPUC's
existing regulations, which require the driver's name, along
with the date and time of the pre-arrangement. The author and
committee may wish to consider amending the bill to provide
the CPUC with some flexibility as to the information required
on the waybill. This can be accomplished by adding, on Page
6, Line 35 after "trip report," the words "at least."
2.Who Can Drop The Hammer? The CPUC has ten field staff
performing enforcement activities for charter-party carriers,
moving companies, and other regulated transportation entities.
This staffing level isn't adequate to seriously enforce the
charter-party carrier requirements for pre-arrangement. To
compensate for this, AB 2591 authorizes local police officers
to inspect pre-arrangement documentation (e.g. waybills).
3.Double Referral . Upon passage of this committee, the Senate
Rules Committee has determined that this bill should be
referred to the Senate Public Safety Committee.
PRIOR VOTES
Assembly Floor (75-1)
Assembly Appropriations Committee (15-0)
Assembly Transportation Committee (8-1)
Assembly Local Government Committee (9-0)
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
United Taxicab Workers
Support:
California Labor Federation
City of Los Angeles
Independent Taxi Owners Association
Los Angeles County Taxi Association
San Francisco Taxicab Association
United Food & Commercial Workers
Oppose:
None on file
Randy Chinn
AB 2591 Analysis
Hearing Date: June 22, 2004