HOUSE BILL REPORT

                 SSB 5669

             As Reported By House Committee On:

                      Commerce & Labor

Title:  An act relating to conversion vending units and medical units.

Brief Description:  Regulating conversion vending units and medical units.

Sponsors:  Senate Committee on Labor & Workforce Development (originally sponsored by Senators Snyder and Brown).

Brief History:

  Committee Activity:

Commerce & Labor:  3/22/99, 3/29/99 [DP].

           Brief Summary of Substitute Bill

CThe Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) will adopt specific rules for vehicles converted or built for vending purposes at temporary locations or to provide mobile medical services.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE & LABOR

Majority Report:  Do pass.  Signed by 8 members:  Representatives Clements, Republican Co-Chair; Conway, Democratic Co-Chair; B. Chandler, Republican Vice Chair; Wood, Democratic Vice Chair; Hurst; Lisk; McIntire and McMorris.

Staff:  Douglas Ruth (786-7134).

Background:

Trailers and motor vehicles may be converted for a variety of uses.  Converted vehicles and trailers are often used to sell food or other items at temporary locations such as county fairs.  Medical units may be used to deliver medical services at temporary locations, including rural areas that cannot support permanent facilities. 

These units are regulated by the department as commercial coaches under the factory assembled structures statutes.  The units must meet structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, ventilation, and design standards. 

In 1996, the department adopted a new subcategory of rules specific to vendor units.  The rules were adopted to address the difficulty some operators were having meeting the broad structural commercial coach requirements.  The department continues to assist many operators who have difficulty complying with the commercial coach rules.

Summary of Bill:

The Department of Labor and Industries is instructed to adopt rules for conversion vending units and medical units.  The rules must protect the occupants against fire and address other life safety issues. The structural requirements for these units are reduced, requiring a design capable of supporting a concentrated load of 500 pounds.

Conversion vendor units and medical units are defined.  Conversion vendor units are motor or recreational vehicles that have been built or converted for commercial sales.  They are limited to eight feet, six inches in width, and 40 feet in length.  Medical units are self-propelled units providing medical services, not including emergency vehicles.

The statutes regulating factory assembled structures are amended to reflect the addition of  conversion vendor and medical units.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  Before the Department of Health will issue a health permit, concessionaires are required to get a sticker from L&I indicating that they are in compliance with commercial coach requirements.  However, the trailers and vehicles cannot meet these standards.  Some of these trailers and vehicles were built or converted in the 1970's before anyone knew that they were considered commercial coaches.  To meet these standards today, concessionaires are required to submit engineering plans from the manufacturer.  These are expensive to obtain.  While concessionaires want to use vehicles that comply with department regulations, many do not feel it is worth the trouble when the vehicles are used so infrequently, usually just several times a year in the summer months.   The electrical devices in the vehicles are already inspected by the department under the electrical statute, and local fire departments inspect the vehicles as well.  The bill will allow the department to adopt rules that preserve safety while more closely aligning their regulation with their use.  In adopting new rules, safety will be a foremost concern as these vehicles are used at events that attract large crowds.  The department will still need to inspect the vehicles.  The rules adopted under the bill may not eliminate all the requirements that concessionaires are having trouble meeting, but it will eliminate the need to submit engineering plans and many of the inapplicable structural rules.  The fees charged concessionaires by the department will likely remain the same.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  Bill Blake, Carnival Operations of the Northwest; Heather Hansen, Washington State Fairs Association; Dan Wolfenbarger, Department of Labor and Industries; and Patrick Woods, Department of Labor and Industries.