AN ACT Relating to motor vehicles when transporting unprocessed or unmanufactured agricultural commodities, excluding livestock and forest products, from points of production to warehouses, storage points, packers, fresh shippers, processors, or brokers and when transporting processed agricultural commodities, excluding livestock and forest products, from warehouses, storage points, packers, fresh shippers, processors, or brokers to the first point of sale; and amending RCW 81.80.010 and 81.80.040.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 81.80.010, chapter 14, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 1, chapter 31, Laws of 1988 and RCW 81.80.010 are each amended to read as follows:

The definitions set forth in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Person" means and includes an individual, firm, copartnership, corporation, company, or association or their lessees, trustees, or receivers.

(2) "Motor vehicle" means any truck, trailer, semitrailer, tractor, dump truck which uses a hydraulic or mechanical device to dump or discharge its load, or any self-propelled or motor-driven vehicle used upon any public highway of this state for the purpose of transporting property, but not including baggage, mail, and express transported on the vehicles of auto transportation companies carrying passengers.

(3) "Public highway" means every street, road, or highway in this state.

(4) "Common carrier" means any person who undertakes to transport property for the general public by motor vehicle for compensation, whether over regular or irregular routes, or regular or irregular schedules, including motor vehicle operations of other carriers by rail or water.

(5) "Contract carrier" includes all motor vehicle operators not included under the terms "common carrier" and "private carrier" as herein defined in paragraph (4) and paragraph (6), and further includes any person who under special and individual contracts or agreements transports property by motor vehicle for compensation.

(6) A "private carrier" is a person who transports by his own motor vehicle, with or without compensation therefor, property which is owned or is being bought or sold by such person, or property of which such person is the seller, purchaser, lessee, or bailee where such transportation is incidental to and in furtherance of some other primary business conducted by such person in good faith.

(7) "Motor carrier" means and includes "common carrier," "contract carrier," "private carrier," and "exempt carrier" as herein defined.

(8) "Exempt carrier" means any person operating a vehicle exempted from certain provisions of this chapter under RCW 81.80.040.

(9) "Vehicle" means every device capable of being moved upon a public highway and in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public highway, excepting devices moved by human or animal power or used exclusively upon stationary rail or tracks.

(10) "Commercial zone" means an area encompassing one or more cities or towns and environs adjacent thereto established pursuant to RCW 81.80.400.

(11) "Terminal area" means an area including one or more cities or towns and environs adjacent thereto established pursuant to RCW 81.80.400.

(12) "Broker" is a person engaged in the business of providing, contracting for, or undertaking to arrange for transportation of property by two or more interstate or intrastate common carriers.

(13) "First point of sale" means the first time title passes from the producer to any buyer for a price, regardless of the physical location of the product.

Sec. 2. Section 81.80.040, chapter 14, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 1, chapter 171, Laws of 1984 and RCW 81.80.040 are each amended to read as follows:

The provisions of this chapter, except where specifically otherwise provided, and except the provisions providing for licenses, shall not apply to:

(1) Motor vehicles when operated in transportation exclusively within the corporate limits of any city or town of less than ten thousand population unless contiguous to a city or town of ten thousand population or over, nor between contiguous cities or towns both or all of which are less than ten thousand population;

(2) Motor vehicles when operated in transportation wholly within the corporate limits of cities or towns of ten thousand or more but less than thirty thousand population, or between such cities or towns when contiguous, as to which the commission, after investigation and the issuance of an order thereon, has determined that no substantial public interest exists which requires that such transportation be subject to regulation under this chapter;

(3) Motor vehicles when transporting exclusively the United States mail or in the transportation of newspapers or periodicals;

(4) Motor vehicles owned and operated by the United States, the state of Washington, or any county, city, town, or municipality therein, or by any department of them, or either of them;

(5) Motor vehicles specially constructed for towing disabled vehicles or wrecking and not otherwise used in transporting goods for compensation;

(6) Motor vehicles normally owned and operated by farmers in the transportation of their own farm, orchard, or dairy products, including livestock and plant or animal wastes, from point of production to market, or in the infrequent or seasonal transportation by one farmer for another farmer, if their farms are located within twenty miles of each other, of products of the farm, orchard, or dairy, including livestock and plant or animal wastes, or of supplies or commodities to be used on the farm, orchard, or dairy;

(7) Motor vehicles when transporting exclusively water in connection with construction projects only;

(8) Motor vehicles of less than 8,000 pounds gross vehicle weight when transporting exclusively legal documents, pleadings, process, correspondence, depositions, briefs, medical records, photographs, books or papers, cash or checks, when moving shipments of the documents described at the direction of an attorney as part of providing legal services;

(9) Motor vehicles when transporting unprocessed or unmanufactured agricultural commodities, excluding livestock and forest products, from points of production to warehouses, storage points, packers, fresh shippers, processors, or brokers and when transporting processed agricultural commodities, excluding livestock and forest products, from warehouses, storage points, packers, fresh shippers, processors, or brokers to the first point of sale. It is unlawful for any such carrier to perform a transportation service for compensation upon the public highways of this state without first having registered with the commission. The registration shall be granted upon application, without hearing, and upon payment of the appropriate filing fee prescribed by this chapter for other applications for operating authority, including payment of the annual regulatory fee imposed by RCW 81.80.320. The carriers are subject to the safety of operations and insurance requirements of the commission.