Chapter 159B

Section 1. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the commonwealth to regulate transportation of property by motor carriers upon its ways in such manner as to recognize and preserve the inherent advantages of such transportation, and to foster sound economic conditions in such…

Section 10. Each interstate carrier by motor vehicle transporting over the ways within the commonwealth for compensation shall register and identify with the department pursuant to the federal Unified Carrier Registration Act of 2005. Each registration shall be accompanied by a f…

Section 10A. When a distinguishing plate issued by the department is lost or mutilated or the number thereon becomes illegible, the carrier to whom such plate was issued shall make application for a plate replacement. The department may issue additional plates to replace such pla…

Section 10B. The department may issue distinguishing plates to motor carriers and interstate licensees to be used only on motor vehicles temporarily leased by such carriers. Any plates so issued may be transferred from one such vehicle to another such vehicle leased by a carrier …

Section 11. Any irregular route certificate or any permit may be wholly assigned and transferred, and any regular route certificate or license may be assigned and transferred, in whole or in part, if consistent with the public interest and with the approval and consent of the dep…

Section 11A. In the event temporary approval for transfer under the Interstate Commerce Act has been granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission and upon application and payment of the fees required by section eleven, the department may, after hearing and upon a finding that su…

Section 12. Any certificate, permit or license may, upon application of the holder thereof and after notice and hearing as provided by paragraph (b) of section three, be amended. Any permit, certificate or license, upon written application of the holder thereof to the department,…

Section 12A. The director of the transportation division may destroy applications filed under this chapter for distinguishing plates, except those of the current calendar year and the year next preceding. He may destroy or dispose of any returned or obsolete distinguishing plates…

Section 13. Motor vehicles owned by the commonwealth or any of its political subdivisions and motor vehicles engaged in the transportation of non-hazardous waste materials shall be subject to section eighteen, but shall be exempt from all other provisions of this chapter. Motor v…

Section 14. Investigators and examiners appointed under section twelve F of chapter twenty-five, with respect to the enforcement of the laws relating to commercial motor vehicles, including laws and regulations relating to safety on public ways, shall have and exercise throughout…

Section 14A. Every motor carrier, including private carriers and interstate licensees, their agents and employees, when requested by a duly authorized state police officer who is in uniform or displays the proper insignia of his office, shall stop and submit to said duly authoriz…

Section 14B. Any person who, while operating or in charge of a commercial motor vehicle, refuses, when requested by an investigator or examiner of the commercial motor vehicle division, to give his name and address and the name and address of the owner of such commercial motor ve…

Section 15. The department may, upon application therefor, when consistent with the public interest and the policy of this chapter, as set forth in section one, issue such temporary certificates to common carriers by motor vehicles and such temporary permits to contract carriers …

Section 15A. No person shall engage in the business of an agricultural carrier by motor vehicle unless there is in effect with respect to such carrier an agricultural carrier's permit issued by the department. Each application for such a permit shall be in writing in such form an…

Section 16. The department may establish from time to time such reasonable rules and regulations consistent with this chapter as may be necessary to carry out its administration thereof.

Section 16A. The department, in the enforcement of this chapter, may inspect or cause to be produced the books and records of persons engaged in the business of leasing trucks and motor vehicles, or either, for the transportation of property for hire, and may compel such persons …

Section 16B. Every motor carrier engaged in the transportation of household goods between points within the commonwealth including a carrier providing a service incidental to or part of such intrastate transportation, shall include, and shall require each of its agents to include…

Section 17. In case of failure or refusal on the part of any person, including shipper, consignee, consignor, leasing company, motor carrier, broker, his executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, assignee, receiver, and trustee, to submit accounts, records or memoranda of s…

Section 18. No driver shall operate any motor vehicle used for the transportation of property on the ways within the commonwealth, and no owner, lessee or other person having control of any such vehicle shall require or permit any driver so to operate the same, at any time after …

Section 19. No person, whether carrier, shipper, consignee, or broker, or any officer, employee, agent, or representative thereof, shall (1) knowingly offer, grant or give, or solicit, accept or receive, any rebate, concession or discrimination in violation of any provision of th…

Section 19A. Transportation bills for all transportation charges by common carriers of property by motor vehicle shall be presented or mailed to the shippers within seven calendar days from twelve o'clock midnight following delivery of the property. Such carriers may extend credi…

Section 2. The following words and phrases as used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Agricultural carrier by motor vehicle'', any person whose principal business is agriculture, who owns or occupies lands used for …

Section 20. Nothing in this chapter shall lessen or affect the authority or powers of the department of highways or of the registrar of motor vehicles under chapter ninety. No person holding a certificate or a permit authorizing the transportation of property for compensation by …

Section 21. Whoever violates any provision of this chapter, or any order, rule or regulation adopted or established thereunder, or any lawful requirement, condition, limitation or restriction contained in any certificate, permit or license, shall be punished, except as otherwise …

Section 22. If any provision of this chapter shall be declared unconstitutional, the validity of its remaining provisions shall not be affected thereby.

Section 3. No person shall engage in the business of a common carrier by motor vehicle upon any way unless there is in effect with respect to such carrier a certificate issued by the department authorizing the operations to be performed by such person. (a) A certificate shall be …

Section 4. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the commonwealth that the business of contract carriage is affected with the public interest and that the safety and welfare of the public upon the ways within the commonwealth, the preservation and maintenance of said ways and…

Section 5. (a) No person shall for compensation sell or offer for sale transportation subject to this chapter, and no person shall make any contract, agreement or arrangement to provide, procure, furnish or arrange for such transportation or hold himself out by advertisement, sol…

Section 6. Every common carrier by motor vehicle shall publish and file with the department and keep open for public inspection tariffs containing all the rates and charges for transportation of property and all services in connection therewith between points on its own routes, a…

Section 6A. No common carrier by motor vehicle shall charge, demand, collect or receive a different compensation for transportation or for any service in connection therewith between the points enumerated in such tariffs than the rates and charges specified in the tariffs in effe…

Section 6B. The department shall establish the maximum charges that may be made by persons subject to the provisions of this chapter for the towing away of motor vehicles, when such towing is ordered by the police or other public authority. Notwithstanding any general or special …

Section 6D. Common or contract carriers shall not purchase from shippers for the purpose of immediate resale after transportation any commodity which is listed in the authority granted such carrier unless the transportation charge included in or deducted from such resale produces…

Section 7. (a) Every contract carrier by motor vehicle, other than contract carriers by armored motor vehicles of bullion, currency, securities, negotiable and non-negotiable documents, jewels, and other precious and very valuable articles, shall file with the department a copy o…

Section 8. No carrier shall be permitted to hold both a common carrier certificate and a contract carrier permit until after having shown to the satisfaction of the department at a public hearing that operation under such certificate and permit is consistent with the public inter…

Section 9. A single distinguishing plate shall be prescribed and furnished by the department annually for each of the vehicles necessary for the conduct of the business of the holder of the certificate or permit, upon his application to the department, and said plates shall be pr…