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
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|Author: |Chiu |
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|Version: |4/12/2016 |
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|Urgency: |No |Fiscal: |Yes |
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|Consultant|Sarah Carvill |
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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