BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 1574 (Chiu) - Vehicles of charter-party carriers of
passengers and passenger stage corporations
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|Version: April 12, 2016 |Policy Vote: E., U., & C. 11 - |
| | 0, T. & H. 10 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Narisha Bonakdar |
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This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: AB 1574 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) has been reported and
meets safety requirements.
Fiscal
Impact:1)
Up to $1.1 million (Transportation Reimbursement Account) to
the CPUC for additional staff and information technology
needs.
$208,587 (Motor Vehicle Account) for the CHP to conduct the
required inspections for every 2,500 vehicles.
One-time costs of $950,000, and $42,000 annually to DMV for
programming, form revisions, and increased registrations and
AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 1 of
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transaction processing times.
Background:
On November 13, 2015, a City Sightseeing bus crashed into
construction scaffolding in San Francisco's Union Square
resulting in 19 people injured. The bus was originally used as
a transit vehicle and had been retrofitted as a double-decker
open-air tour bus before it was sold to City Sightseeing. The
CHP's investigation found that driver error was the cause of the
crash, specifically driving at an unsafe speed. Post-crash
investigations revealed that City Sightseeing had not notified
the CPUC when it added the bus to its fleet, as required by law.
The CHP identified other safety violations at the company in a
December 2015 terminal inspection.
Ghost buses. The CPUC has regulatory oversight over tour buses
that operate as charter-party carriers or passenger stage
corporations. Tour buses must also be registered with the DMV
in order to operate on public roads. Under current law, tour
bus operators are required to provide a list of all vehicles in
operation to the CPUC. However, operators sometimes fail to
identify all their vehicles. Additionally, the DMV is not
required to share registration bus information with the CPUC.
The disconnect between the two agencies leads to "ghost" buses
that are not properly licensed with the CPUC and, as a result,
do not undergo safety inspections required by the CHP for
CPUC-licensed buses.
According to the Assembly Transportation Committee analysis,
based on data from the CPUC and DMV, there are approximately
81,824 buses registered with the DMV, but only approximately
12,600 buses licensed are registered with CPUC. Although the
CPUC requires carriers to identify their CPC or PSC vehicles
during the permitting or licensing process, not all carriers do
so. In addition, DMV registers commercial vehicles but they are
not required to collect information on which CPC or PSC carrier
the commercial vehicle may be operating under, nor share such
information with CPUC. By requiring DMV and CPUC to collect and
share registration and licensing information, the author intends
to ensure that all vehicles operated by CPCs or PSCs are
properly accounted for and inspected.
AB 1574 (Chiu) Page 2 of
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Proposed Law:
This bill requires the CPUC, beginning January 1, 2018, to
verify with the DMV that the buses, limousines, and modified
limousines used by a PSC or a CPC have been reported and meet
safety requirements. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires CPUC to:
a) Verify with DMV, on an annual basis, that buses,
limousines, and modified limousines used by a PSC or CPC
have been reported to the CPUC by the carrier.
b) Ensure that all newly registered buses, limousines,
or modified limousines of PSCs or CPCs reported by DMV
meet all statutory and regulatory requirements for safe
operation.
c) When it becomes aware of an unreported vehicle, to
require the carrier to update its reporting and request
that the CHP to conduct a safety inspection.
2)Requires every PSC and CPC to report annually to the CPUC, in
addition to the list of all their buses, limousines, and
modified limousines used in transportation for compensation,
the vehicle registration information for each vehicle.
3)Prohibits the CPUC from issuing or continuing in effect any
permit or certificate of a PSC or CPC that does not submit the
vehicle registration information for each vehicle reported.
4)Requires the DMV to notify the CPUC when a CPC or PSC renews
or first registers a bus, limousine, or modified limousine,
and to provide the CPUC with information that will allow it to
identify the vehicle.
Related
Legislation: AB 1677 (Ting, 2016) would require the CHP to
develop protocols for the inspection of tour buses by local
agencies. The bill is currently in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Staff
Comments: According to the CPUC, "The California Public
Utilities Commission received transportation industry estimates
that up to 40,000 buses operate in California. Approximately
12,600 buses are currently registered with CPUC (just under 30%
of industry estimate). To register and ensure compliance from
the remaining 25,000, the CPUC would need additional staff. No
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such estimates were provided for limousines (a type of
Transportation Charter Party-TCP), but if estimates were
similarly high, the CPUC would need additional staff for
registration and compliance activities.
The CPUC may be able to stagger implementation to reduce costs
or fill some positions on a limited-term basis until a better
estimate of the number of unregistered carriers (such as for
limousines) is available."
This bill reflects multi-year Legislative and community-based
interest in more risk-based, robust CPUC
enforcement-particularly in the area of transportation. To
optimize the analytical, compliance, enforcement and litigation
opportunities created by enhanced access to DMV data, the CPUC
would require five analysts and Information Technology (IT)
staff.
Staff notes that the industry estimate may include vehicles that
are not subject to this bill. To the extent that other vehicles
are included in this estimate, the CPUC's costs would decrease.
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