Title 23 — Public Utilities and Regulated Industries

As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires, “railroad” or “railroad corporation” means all corporations, companies, or individuals owning or operating any railroad in this state whether as owner, contractor, lessee, mortgagee, trustee, assignee, or receiver.

Whenever any railroad corporation, as lessee or otherwise, operates any railroad in connection with its own road, the provisions of this act as to charges for transportation and carrying freight and passengers shall apply to the other road so operated in like manner as if the oth…

(a) Any railroad corporation that violates §§ 23-4-603, 23-4-707, 23-4-710, 23-4-711, or 23-4-713 or shall be a party concerned in the violation of § 23-10-108 shall forfeit and pay for every such offense any sum not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor exceeding one thousand dol…

No railroad or any lessee, manager, or employee thereof shall make any preferences in furnishing cars or motive power.

(a) All individuals, associations, and corporations shall have equal rights to have persons and property transported over railroads in this state. (b) No unjust or undue discrimination shall be made in charges for, or in facilities for, transportation of freight or passengers wit…

No discrimination in charges or facilities for transportation shall be made between transportation companies and individuals or in favor of either by abatement, drawback, or otherwise.

Nothing contained in this act shall make unlawful the issuance of free transportation to employees, widows and widowers of deceased employees, officers, agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys for common carrier railroad companies, or for dependent members of their families.

(a) No president, director, officer, agent, or employee of any railroad shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of materials or supplies to the railroad or in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, …

(a) Any part of any agreement, arrangement, or other device entered into shall be unlawful and void which, as a condition to the transportation of property, requires or permits a regulated for-hire carrier of property, freight forwarder, private carrier, or other carrier or shipp…

(a) In any action brought under this act, the court before which the action is pending may compel any president, director, officer, receiver, trustee, or agent of the railroad defendant in the action to attend and testify in the case. The court may compel the production of the bo…

(a) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires, “baggage” includes whatever a passenger upon any carrier of passengers takes with him or her, for personal use and convenience, with reference to the immediate necessities or of the journey, and shall also includ…

(a) Bicycles are declared to be baggage and shall be checked and transported as baggage for passengers by all railway companies operating in this state and be subject to the same charges and liabilities as other baggage. However, no passenger shall be required to crate, cover, or…

(a) (1) All railroad and express companies in this state are required to provide each and every one of its trains with one (1) or more stage-planks, of not less than eight feet (8′) in length and three feet (3′) in width, or trucks to be used in unloading trunks and baggage from …

All persons or corporations engaged in the business of common carrier shall be responsible as common carrier for all baggage or goods checked by them as baggage for forty-eight (48) hours after the baggage or goods checked as baggage have reached their destinations.

(a) (1) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the liability of a nonprofit sponsor of a special passenger excursion train, the owner or operator of a special passenger excursion train, and the railroad or rail authority over whose tracks the special passenger excursion t…

The Arkansas Department of Transportation shall make rules to be observed by all persons or corporations operating any railroad or engaged in transporting property as express or freight in this state, in respect to the receiving, hauling, transporting, storing, and delivering of …

(a) (1) All corporations doing an express business in Arkansas are required to establish and maintain an office in all cities of the first class in Arkansas, for the purpose of receiving shipments to be made by express and to receive and deliver all packages carried or sent by ex…

(a) Whenever any property is received by a common carrier to be transferred from one place to another, within or without this state, or when a railroad or other transportation company issues receipts or bills of lading in this state, the common carrier, railroad, or transportatio…

(a) All railway companies, their assignees or lessees, and all other common carriers who receive goods for shipment at points within this state to be delivered at other points within this state and all railway companies and other common carriers, their assignees or lessees, who d…

(a) All express companies organized or doing business under the laws of the State of Arkansas shall settle in twenty (20) days with the owner of goods, after notice has been given them, for the damages or loss of goods incurred in transit on the lines of the express companies. No…

(a) When any goods, merchandise, or other property has been received by any warehouser, commission merchant, or common carrier and is not claimed or received by the owner, consignee, or other authorized person for the period of six (6) months from the time it should have been cal…

As used in §§ 23-10-432 — 23-10-437 and 23-12-605, unless the context otherwise requires, “shipper” means any person, firm, or corporation tendering freight for shipment and any consignor or consignee of any bill of lading, or other person, firm, or corporation having the right o…

As used in §§ 23-10-403, 23-10-405, 23-10-406, and 23-10-409 — 23-10-431, unless the context otherwise requires, “railroad company”, “railroad companies”, or “carrier” means all corporations, companies, or individuals which own or operate any railroad in this state, whether as ow…

Sections 23-10-402, 23-10-405, 23-10-406, and 23-10-409 — 23-10-431 shall not apply to railroads under two (2) miles in length nor to railroads that are not public carriers.

The remedies given by §§ 23-10-438 — 23-10-440 shall be regarded as cumulative, and §§ 23-10-438 — 23-10-440 shall not be construed as repealing any statute giving such remedies.

The remedies given by §§ 23-10-406 and 23-10-409 — 23-10-431 shall be regarded as cumulative, and §§ 23-10-406 and 23-10-409 — 23-10-431 shall not be construed as repealing any statute giving such remedies.

(a) If any person or corporation operating a railroad in this state for the transportation of freight, or any receiver, trustee, or lessee of any such person or corporation, or any other person or corporation as defined in § 23-10-402 or its employees or agents violate any of the…

(a) It shall be lawful for railroads to prescribe rules for the transportation of merchandise, livestock, and other freight that are reasonable and not inconsistent with the common law or statutory duties and liabilities of railroads as common carriers. (b) The reasonableness or …

(a) It shall be unlawful for any railroad or any of its agents or employees to enter into an agreement or contract with any shipper of any livestock, merchandise, or other freight for the purpose of abridging, modifying, limiting, or abrogating the statutory and common law duties…

Nothing in this section and §§ 23-10-402, 23-10-403, 23-10-405, 23-10-406, and 23-10-410 — 23-10-431 shall be so construed as to prohibit any person or corporation operating a railroad in this state from transporting, delivering, or storing freight free of charge or at reduced ra…

(a) It shall be unlawful for any railroad company or its officers or agents to discriminate between persons, firms, corporations, or places in storage, demurrage charges, furnishing cars, or transportation and delivery of freight. (b) No pooling, rebate, drawback, or any similar …

(a) Every person, company, or corporation operating any railroad in this state which connects with any other railroad in this state and which forms a part of a continuous-line railway communication to any point within the state shall afford all due and reasonable facilities for r…

All carload freight or freight carried at carload rates and all freight in cars, whether full carload or not, taking track delivery shall be subject to the demurrage or car service charges prescribed in §§ 23-10-413 — 23-10-431.

(a) (1) When a shipper makes a written application to the station agent of a railroad company for cars to be loaded with any kind of freight embraced in the tariff of the company, stating in the application the character of the freight and its final destination, the railroad comp…

Interstate railroads shall furnish cars upon application for interstate shipments the same in all respects as other cars are to be furnished by intrastate railroads under the provisions of this section and §§ 23-10-402, 23-10-403, 23-10-405, 23-10-406, 23-10-409 — 23-10-413, and …

(a) (1) It shall be the duty of every railroad company in this state to exchange loaded and empty cars in the transportation of freight, for the purpose of facilitating freight movement, with every other railroad with which the railroad connects forming any part of the route for …

(a) (1) A shipper on whose order cars have been placed for loading shall be allowed forty-eight (48) hours for the loading of the cars, computing the time from 7:00 a.m. of the day after the cars have been placed subject to the order of the shipper. Thereafter, a demurrage charge…

(a) (1) Cars detained or held at the point of shipment for want of proper shipping instructions or by reason of imperfect or excessive loading when the loading is done by the shipper shall be subject to a demurrage charge of five dollars ($5.00) per car per day or fraction of a d…

(a) When freight in carloads or less is tendered to a railroad company and correct shipping instructions are given, the railroad agent must immediately receive the freight for shipment and issue bills of lading for it. (b) (1) Whenever shipments have been received as provided in …

(a) Railroad companies shall deliver freight at their depots or warehouses or, in cases of shipments for track delivery, shall place loaded cars at an accessible place for unloading within twenty-four (24) hours after arrival, computing from 7:00 a.m. of the day following arrival…

(a) (1) Within twenty-four (24) hours after the arrival of a shipment, railroad companies shall give notice by mail or otherwise to the consignee of the arrival of the shipment, together with the weight and amount of freight charges due thereon.(2) Where goods or freight in carlo…

(a) (1) Legal notice as referred to in this section and §§ 23-10-402, 23-10-403, 23-10-405, 23-10-406, 23-10-409 — 23-10-420, and 23-10-422 — 23-10-431 may be either actual or constructive.(2) Where the consignee or his or her agent is personally served with the notice of the arr…

When consignors ship goods consigned to order, but express in their bills of lading or shipping directions the name of the person to notify at the destination, it shall be the duty of the railroad company to give legal notice to that party in the same way and under the same rule …

(a) All package freight unloaded by railroad companies in their depots and warehouses and all freight unloaded in the yard space of a railroad company in order to release cars and which has not been removed by the owner thereof from the custody of the railroad company within fort…

(a) (1) Loaded cars containing fertilizers, hay, coal, coke, brick, sand, and lumber in covered cars and cars containing, in bulk, meat, potatoes, grain and grain products, or cottonseed and cottonseed hulls, taking track delivery, which are to be unloaded by consignee but, havin…

Whenever the weather, during the period of free time, is so severe, inclement, or rainy that it is impossible or impracticable to secure means of loading or unloading freight, or when, from the nature of the goods, loading or unloading would cause injury or damage, then additiona…

A consignee or a consignor five (5) miles or more from the depot whose freight is destined to or from his or her place of business or residence so located shall not be subject to storage or demurrage charges allowed in this section, §§ 23-10-412 — 23-10-425, and 23-10-427 — 23-10…

Incoming carload freight coming under the provisions of §§ 23-10-425 and 23-10-426 may be stored by railroad companies in depots or warehouses at the expense of the owner if the freight is not removed before demurrage charges attach. However, the daily storage charge on the freig…

(a) If a consignee refuses to accept freight tendered in pursuance of the bill of lading, the carrier charged with the duty of delivery shall give legal notice to the consignor of the refusal. If the consignor does not, within three (3) days thereafter, give directions for reship…

(a) Any railroad employee who demands or receives from any shipper extra pay over and above the legal freight rate for placing or furnishing cars for the shipment of freight is guilty of a violation and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than one hundred dollars (…