Code of Alabama - Title 37: Public Utilities and Public Transportation - Section 37-3-12 - Certificate of public convenience and necessity - Scope of authority granted; deviations; charter parties; transportation of newspapers, baggage or mail; abandonment or discontinuance

Section 37-3-12 - Certificate of public convenience and necessity - Scope of authority granted; deviations; charter parties; transportation of newspapers, baggage or mail; abandonment or discontinuance.

(a) Any certificate issued under Sections 37-3-10 and 37-3-11 shall specify the service to be rendered and the routes over which, the fixed termini, if any, between which, and the intermediate and off-route points, if any, at which, and in case of operations not over specified routes or between fixed termini, the territory within which the motor carrier is authorized to operate; and there shall at the time of issuance and from time to time thereafter be attached to the exercise of the privilege granted by the certificate such reasonable terms, conditions and limitations as the public convenience and necessity may from time to time require, including terms, conditions and limitations as to the extension of the route or routes of the carrier, and such terms and conditions as are necessary to carry out, with respect to the operations of the carrier, the requirements established by the commission under this chapter; provided, that the carrier may add to his or its equipment and facilities over the routes, between the termini or within the territory specified in the certificate, as the development of the business and the demands of the public shall require, subject to such reasonable regulations as the commission may prescribe.

(b) A common carrier by motor vehicle operating under any such certificate may occasionally deviate from the route over which or the fixed termini between which it is authorized to operate under the certificate, under such general rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe.

(c) Any common carrier by motor vehicle transporting passengers under a certificate issued or effective under this chapter may transport to any place a special or chartered party or parties, under such rules and regulations as the commission prescribed; and every common carrier by motor vehicle transporting passengers not holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued under this chapter, but holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Interstate Commerce Commission issued pursuant to the Motor Carrier Act 1935, 49 U.S.C., §306, as now or hereafter amended, may transport on the highways of this state special or chartered parties under such rules and regulations as the commission shall prescribe; provided, that no such carrier shall be permitted to make more than two trips during a period of one month; and provided further, that before any such trip is permitted the carrier shall present to the commission proper evidence of public liability and property damage insurance covering the vehicle or vehicles to be used in making such trip and shall pay to the State of Alabama the mileage tax prescribed by Chapter 19 of Title 40 of this Code and shall furnish the commission with such other information as the commission by general or special rule or regulation may reasonably require.

(d) A certificate for the transportation of passengers may include authority to transport in the same vehicle with the passengers, newspapers, baggage of passengers, express or mail, or to transport baggage of passengers in a separate vehicle.

(e) No common carrier by motor vehicle authorized under the provisions of this chapter to operate within the State of Alabama shall abandon or discontinue, either temporarily (except in cases of emergency) or permanently, any service established under the provisions of this chapter without an order of the commission that the public convenience and necessity permit such abandonment or discontinuance, which said order shall be granted by the commission only after hearing, should the commission deem a hearing necessary.

(Acts 1939, No. 669, p. 1064, §10; Code 1958, T. 48, §301(10).)

Last modified: May 3, 2021