BILL NUMBER: AB 2544	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Smyth

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

   An act to amend Section 34501.2 of the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicles.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2544, as introduced, Smyth. Vehicles: Department of Motor
Vehicle regulations: exemptions.
   Existing law requires the Department of the California Highway
Patrol to adopt reasonable rules and regulations that are designed to
promote the safe operation of certain vehicles. Existing law
establishes exceptions to these regulations for vehicles engaged in
intrastate commerce that are not transporting hazardous substances,
including, among other things, an exception for a driver employed by
a law enforcement agency during an emergency or to restore public
peace.
   This bill would include in these exceptions a driver employed
under the direction or management of a county road commissioner, a
county chief engineer, or a county engineer during an emergency for
the purpose of maintaining, restoring, or reopening public roads,
maintaining or restoring public infrastructure, or restoring or
providing essential public service.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 34501.2 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:

   34501.2.  (a) The regulations adopted under Section 34501 for
vehicles engaged in interstate or intrastate commerce shall establish
hours-of-service regulations for drivers of those vehicles that are
consistent with the hours-of-service regulations adopted by the
United States Department of Transportation in Part 395 of Title 49 of
the Code of Federal Regulations, as those regulations now exist or
are hereafter amended.
   (b) The regulations adopted under Section 34501 for vehicles
engaged in intrastate commerce that are not transporting hazardous
substances or hazardous waste, as those terms are defined by
regulations in Section 171.8 of Title 49 of the Code of Federal
Regulations, as those regulations now exist or are hereafter amended,
shall have the following exceptions:
   (1) The maximum driving time within a work period shall be 12
hours for a driver of a truck or truck tractor, except for a driver
of a tank vehicle with a capacity of more than 500 gallons
transporting flammable liquid, who shall not drive for more than 10
hours within a work period.
   (2) A motor carrier shall not permit or require a driver to drive,
nor shall any driver drive, for any period after having been on duty
for 80 hours in any consecutive eight days.
   (3) A driver employed by an electrical corporation, as defined in
Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, a gas corporation, as
defined in Section 222 of that code, a telephone corporation, as
defined in Section 234 of that code, a water corporation, as defined
in Section 241 of that code, or a public water district as defined in
Section 20200 of the Water Code, is exempt from all hours-of-service
regulations while operating a public utility or public water
district vehicle.
   (4) Any other exceptions applicable to drivers assigned to
governmental fire suppression and prevention, as determined by the
department.
   (5) A driver employed by a law enforcement agency,  as
defined   pursuant to  in Section 390.3(f)(2) of
Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as that section now
exists or is hereafter amended, during an emergency or to restore the
public peace. 
   (6) A driver employed under the direction or management of a
county road commissioner, a county chief engineer, or a county
engineer, during an emergency, for the purpose of maintaining,
restoring, or reopening public roads, maintaining or restoring public
infrastructure, or restoring or providing essential public services.

   (c) The regulations adopted under Section 34501 for vehicles
engaged in the transportation of farm products in intrastate commerce
shall include all of the following provisions:
   (1) A driver employed by an agricultural carrier, including a
carrier holding a seasonal permit, or by a private carrier, when
transporting farm products from the field to the first point of
processing or packing, shall not drive for any period after having
been on duty 16 hours or more following eight consecutive hours off
duty and shall not drive for any period after having been on duty for
112 hours in any consecutive eight-day period, except that a driver
transporting special situation farm products from the field to the
first point of processing or packing, or transporting livestock from
pasture to pasture, may be permitted, during one period of not more
than 28 consecutive days or a combination of two periods totaling not
more than 28 days in a calendar year, to drive for not more than 12
hours during any workday of not more than 16 hours. A driver who
thereby exceeds the driving time limits specified in paragraph (2) of
subdivision (b) shall maintain a driver's record of duty status, and
shall keep a duplicate copy in his or her possession when driving a
vehicle subject to this chapter. These records shall be presented
immediately upon request by any authorized employee of the
department, or any police officer or deputy sheriff.
   (2) Upon the request of the Director of Food and Agriculture, the
commissioner may, for good cause, temporarily waive the maximum
on-duty time limits applicable to any eight-day period when an
emergency exists due to inclement weather, natural disaster, or an
adverse economic condition that threatens to disrupt the orderly
movement of farm products during harvest for the duration of the
emergency. For purposes of this paragraph, an emergency does not
include a strike or labor dispute.
   (3) For purposes of this subdivision, the following terms have the
following meanings:
   (A) "Farm products" means every agricultural, horticultural,
viticultural, or vegetable product of the soil, honey and beeswax,
oilseeds, poultry, livestock, milk, or timber.
   (B) "First point of processing or packing" means a location where
farm products are dried, canned, extracted, fermented, distilled,
frozen, ginned, eviscerated, pasteurized, packed, packaged, bottled,
conditioned, or otherwise manufactured, processed, or preserved for
distribution in wholesale or retail markets.
   (C) "Special situation farm products" means fruit, tomatoes, sugar
beets, grains, wine grapes, grape concentrate, cotton, or nuts.