SENATE BILL REPORT
SB 6493
As Reported By Senate Committee On:
Transportation, February 1, 2002
Title: An act relating to driving record abstracts furnished to transit authorities.
Brief Description: Regulating driving abstracts furnished to transit agencies on vanpool drivers.
Sponsors: Senators Gardner, Finkbeiner, Keiser, Oke, Kastama and Winsley.
Brief History:
Committee Activity: Transportation: 1/24/02, 2/1/02 [DP].
SENATE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Majority Report: Do pass.
Signed by Senators Haugen, Chair; Gardner, Vice Chair; Eide, Finkbeiner, Horn, Jacobsen, Kastama, Keiser, McAuliffe, McDonald, Oke, Prentice and Shin.
Staff: Tami Neilson (786‑7452)
Background: Transit agencies accessed driving record abstracts for prospective vanpool drivers through service bureaus until the year 2000. This practice was stopped because it was found that a service bureau was selling abstracts to a third party.
Current law states that certified abstracts of driving records covering three years or less will be provided to prospective or current insurance companies upon request. Certified abstracts of driving records covering five years or less may be given to state-approved alcohol/drug assessment or treatment agencies with information on additional alcohol-related offenses from no more than ten years. Certified abstracts of full driving records can be provided to the driver, current employers or their agents, prospective employers or their agents, and city and county prosecuting attorneys.
Summary of Bill: Transit authorities or their agents can request certified abstracts of full driving records for prospective vanpool drivers for insurance and risk management purposes. It is unlawful to use the abstract information for any purposes other than those necessary to determine whether the prospective vanpool driver meets insurance and risk management requirements necessary to drive a vanpool vehicle. The information obtained by transit authorities from the abstract cannot be shared with a third party.
Appropriation: None.
Fiscal Note: Available.
Effective Date: Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.
Testimony For: Making prospective vanpool drivers obtain their own abstracts to give to transit agencies is inconvenient and causes a delay in getting vanpool drivers approved. Safe drivers are needed, as are insurance and risk management. If transit agencies can obtain the abstracts on behalf of the prospective vanpool drivers, some bureaucratic procedures will be eliminated and transit agencies can get all of the information they need regarding whether a vanpool driver application is acceptable. Vanpools will continue to grow if transit authorities can obtain the abstracts directly.
Testimony Against: None.
Testified: Senator Gardner, prime sponsor; Daphne Tackett, Pierce Transit; Carolyn Newsume, Intercity Transit; Allen Hatten, Washington State Insurance Pool; Peter Thein, Washington State Transit Association.