BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING Senator Jim Beall, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Bill No: AB 1574 Hearing Date: 6/28/2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Author: |Chiu | |----------+------------------------------------------------------| |Version: |4/12/2016 | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes | ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Consultant|Sarah Carvill | |: | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBJECT: Vehicles of charter-party carriers of passengers and passenger stage corporations DIGEST: This bill requires, beginning January 1, 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to verify with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that the buses, limousines, and modified limousines used by a passenger stage corporation (PSC) or a charter-party carrier (CPC) have been reported and meet safety requirements. ANALYSIS: Existing law: 1)Defines "passenger stage corporation" (PSC) as corporations or persons engaged as common carriers of passengers, for compensation, over any public highway in the state between fixed termini or over a regular route, as specified. 2)Defines "charter-party carrier of passengers" (CPCs) as persons engaged in the transportation of persons by motor vehicle for compensation over any public highway. 3)Requires that CPCs and PSCs obtain a permit from and register all individual buses with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). 4)Requires the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to regulate the equipment, maintenance, and safe operation of vehicles used by AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 2 of ? PSCs and CPCs, including tour buses, and to conduct annual terminal inspections on all bus operators to verify that buses are being maintained in accordance with the law. 5)Requires the CHP to conduct annual terminal inspections on all operators of modified limousines beginning January 1, 2017. 6)Requires the CHP to inspect every maintenance facility or terminal of any person who operates any vehicle used by a PSC or CPC without the required inspection having been conducted. 7)Requires PSCs and CPCs to prepare under oath and provide annually to the CPUC and the CHP a list of all vehicles used in transportation for compensation during the preceding year, and requires the CPUC to submit this list to the corporation or carrier's insurer. 8)Authorizes the CPUC to suspend or revoke, as specified, a PSC's or CPC's permit to operate for failing to obtain insurance for a vehicle reported to the CPUC, and authorizes the CHP to recommend that the CPUC suspend or revoke a PSC's or CPC's permit to operate if the company fails to maintain vehicles used for transporting passengers in safe operating condition. 9)Establishes a process for revoking a permit to operate. This bill: 1)Requires the DMV, when issuing or renewing a commercial vehicle registration for any bus, limousine, or modified limousine used by a CPC or PSC, to obtain from the owner of the vehicle the name of the CPC or PSC that will be using the vehicle. 2)Requires the CPUC and the DMV to work together to verify, on an annual basis, that the vehicles used by PSCs and CPCs have been reported to the commission. 3)Requires the DMV to notify the CPUC when a CPC or PSC first registers a bus, limousine, or modified limousine, and to provide the CPUC with information sufficient to identify the vehicle. 4)Requires the CPUC to ensure that newly registered buses, AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 3 of ? limousines, and modified limousines used by PSCs and CPCs, as reported by the DMV, meet all statutory and regulatory requirements for safe operation. 5)If the CPUC becomes aware that a PSC or CPC has not properly reported a newly registered vehicle, requires the CPUC to immediately take steps to compel the company to update its reporting of vehicles, and to request that the CHP conduct a safety inspection of the unreported vehicle. 6)Requires PSCs and CPCs to include vehicle registration information in the vehicle lists provided to the CPUC under existing law. 7)Provides that the CPUC shall not issue or renew the permit of a PSC or a CPC that has not submitted a list of the vehicles it operates, as specified. 8)Provides that this bill shall take effect January 1, 2018. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author "The current tour bus regulation and inspection program isn't working. San Franciscans unfortunately got a first-hand view of this in November when an unregistered and uninspected tour bus crashed in Union Square. The bus in the Union Square crash was a so-called ghost bus, which means the CPUC didn't know it was in the company's fleet. This bill is very simple: it requires the DMV to let the CPUC know when a bus is registered. And it requires the CPUC to continuously check with the DMV to see if new buses are registered. It's about making sure that these large state bureaucracies talk to each other. It's also about accountability - tour buses in California must be safer; we can't have another crash happen like the one in Union Square. For us to make sure tour buses are safe, we need to know that they're on the road in the first place. Ensuring full inspections and eliminating ghost buses are important steps we need to take so that tourists and residents do not become victims of regulatory loopholes." 2)Background: San Francisco tour bus accident. On November 13, 2015, 19 people were injured when a City Sightseeing bus crashed into construction scaffolding in San Francisco's Union Square. The bus was originally a transit vehicle and had been AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 4 of ? retrofitted as a double-decker open-air tour bus before it was sold to City Sightseeing. Despite early speculation that the vehicle's brakes may have failed, on March 23, 2016, the CHP announced that the cause of the crash was driver error. Post-crash investigations revealed that City Sightseeing had not notified the CPUC when it added the bus to its fleet, as required by law, and the CHP identified other safety violations at the company in a December 2015 terminal inspection. 3)What's covered? This bill deals with vehicles used for transportation by CPCs and PSCs. The former transport passengers traveling under a single contract for a fixed fee, usually based on distance traveled (e.g., charter buses). The latter transport passengers over a fixed route between regular termini (e.g., airporter buses). The bill does not relate to school buses or public transit buses. A bus is defined as a vehicle designed to carry more than 10 people, including the driver. The bill also covers other types of vehicles used by CPCs and PSCs, including limousines and modified limousines. Modified limousines are defined as vehicles that have been altered to extend the distance between the front and rear wheels, thereby allowing them to transport more passengers. 4)Scope of the problem. This bill targets vehicles that are individually registered with the DMV but not the CPUC, even though they are used by CPUC-regulated entities. According to CPUC and DMV, there are approximately 81,824 buses registered with DMV, but only around 12,613 buses reported to the CPUC. Part of this discrepancy is due to other classes of buses - for example, courtesy shuttles - that must register with the DMV but are not regulated by the CPUC. However, neither the CPUC nor the DMV currently collect all the data that would allow them to determine how many of the missing buses are properly registered with the DMV only and how many are "ghost buses" that should also be overseen by the CPUC. 5)Why vehicle registration? While vehicles must be registered with the DMV to operate on California highways, it is much easier for buses and limousines to fly under the radar of the CPUC. This bill requires the DMV to solicit information about the company that a vehicle will be used by as part of the commercial vehicle registration process, which operators cannot avoid. With this data, the DMV can generate a list of registered vehicles associated with each CPC and PSC. This AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 5 of ? list can then be cross-referenced with the self-reported lists supplied by carriers to the CPUC under existing law. This bill also requires carriers to include vehicle registration information in their self-reported lists, making it possible for the CPUC and DMV to identify exactly which vehicles have been registered but not reported. These new requirements, combined with this bill's mandate that the CHP and the CPUC work together to identify DMV-registered vehicles that are not registered with the CPUC, close the information gaps in current law that allow vehicles to slip through the cracks. 6)Other ghosts. In addition to the situation described above, there are other ways that a bus or other commercial vehicle used by a PSC or CPC can operate without proper oversight by the CPUC and the CHP. The author is considering amendments to be taken in a later committee to address another common type of ghost bus: Vehicles that are properly registered with the DMV, but which are operated by carriers that are themselves not properly registered with the CPUC. Additional categories of ghost buses are either extremely difficult to identify or comparatively rare. 7)Double-referral. This bill was heard by the Energy, Utilities, and Communications committee on June 13 and passed out on a 11-0 vote. Related Legislation: AB 1677 (Ting, 2016) - authorizes the CHP to enter into agreements with local governments to increase terminal inspections. This bill is pending in this committee. SB 812 (Hill, 2016) - changes existing terminal inspection program administered by the CHP to make it more performance-based. This bill is pending in the Assembly Transportation Committee. Assembly Votes: Floor: 79-0 Appr: 20-0 Trans.: 15-0 AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 6 of ? FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: Yes POSITIONS: (Communicated to the committee before noon on Wednesday, June 22, 2016.) SUPPORT: California Bicycle Coalition Greater California Livery Association San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco Bicycle Coalition San Francisco Board of Supervisors Walk San Francisco OPPOSITION: None received -- END --