Bill Text: CA SB478 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Vehicles: length limitations: livestock vehicles.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-03 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB478 Detail]
Download: California-2013-SB478-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 478 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Cannella
FEBRUARY 21, 2013
An act to amend Section 35401.5 of the Vehicle Code, relating to
vehicles.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 478, as introduced, Cannella. Vehicles: length limitations:
livestock vehicles.
Existing law generally prohibits a vehicle from exceeding a length
of 40 feet, and a combination of vehicles from exceeding a total
length of 65 feet, with various specific exceptions. Existing law
exempts from these requirements a truck tractor and semitrailer
combination, when operating on certain highways qualified by the
United States Secretary of Transportation for that use or when using
routes appropriately identified by the Department of Transportation
or local authorities, if the semitrailer does not exceed 53 feet in
length and, if configured with 2 or more axles, the rearmost axle is
40 feet or less from the kingpin, or when configured with a single
axle, the axle is 38 feet or less from the kingpin.
This bill would additionally exempt a truck tractor and
semitrailer combination that exceeds these length requirements if the
vehicle is designed and used exclusively to transport livestock, the
semitrailer does not exceed a total length of 53 feet, and the
design of the semitrailer prohibits the owner or operator from
configuring the axles to meet the kingpin-to-axle length requirements
described above.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 35401.5 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:
35401.5. (a) A combination of vehicles consisting of a truck
tractor and semitrailer, or of a truck tractor, semitrailer, and
trailer, is not subject to the limitations of Sections 35400 and
35401, when operating on the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of
Interstate and Defense Highways or when using those portions of
federal-aid primary system highways that have been qualified by the
United States Secretary of Transportation for that use, or when using
routes appropriately identified by the Department of Transportation
or local authorities as provided in subdivision (c) or (d), if all of
the following conditions are met:
(1) The length of the semitrailer in exclusive combination with a
truck tractor does not exceed 48 feet. A semitrailer not more than 53
feet in length shall satisfy this requirement when configured with
two or more rear axles, the rearmost of which is located 40 feet or
less from the kingpin or when configured with a single axle which is
located 38 feet or less from the kingpin , except as provided in
subdivision (h) . For purposes of this paragraph, a motortruck
used in combination with a semitrailer, when that combination of
vehicles is engaged solely in the transportation of motor vehicles,
camper units, or boats, is considered to be a truck tractor.
(2) Neither the length of the semitrailer nor the length of the
trailer when simultaneously in combination with a truck tractor
exceeds 28 feet 6 inches.
(b) Subdivisions (b), (d), and (e) of Section 35402 do not apply
to combinations of vehicles operated subject to the exemptions
provided by this section.
(c) Combinations of vehicles operated pursuant to subdivision (a)
may also use highways not specified in subdivision (a) that provide
reasonable access to terminals and facilities for purposes limited to
fuel, food, lodging, and repair when that access is consistent with
the safe operation of the combinations of vehicles and when the
facility is within one road mile of identified points of ingress and
egress to or from highways specified in subdivision (a) for use by
those combinations of vehicles.
(d) The Department of Transportation or local authorities may
establish a process whereby access to terminals or services may be
applied for upon a route not previously established as an access
route. The denial of a request for access to terminals and services
shall be only on the basis of safety and an engineering analysis of
the proposed access route. If a written request for access has been
properly submitted and has not been acted upon within 90 days of
receipt by the department or the appropriate local agency, the access
shall be deemed automatically approved. Thereafter, the route shall
be deemed open for access by all other vehicles of the same type
regardless of ownership. In lieu of processing an access application,
the Department of Transportation or local authorities with respect
to highways under their respective jurisdictions may provide signing,
mapping, or a listing of highways as necessary to indicate the use
of specific routes as terminal access routes. For purposes of this
subdivision, "terminal" means either of the following:
(1) A facility where freight originates, terminates, or is handled
in the transportation process.
(2) A facility where a motor carrier maintains operating
facilities.
(e) Nothing in subdivision (c) or (d) authorizes state or local
agencies to require permits of terminal operators or to charge
terminal operators fees for the purpose of attaining access for
vehicles described in this section.
(f) Notwithstanding subdivision (d), the limitations of access
specified in that subdivision do not apply to licensed carriers of
household goods when directly enroute to or from a point of loading
or unloading of household goods, if travel on highways other than
those specified in subdivision (a) is necessary and incidental to the
shipment of the household goods.
(g) (1) Notwithstanding Sections 35400 and 35401, a combination of
vehicles consisting of a truck tractor semitrailer combination with
a kingpin to rearmost axle measurement limit of not more than 46
feet, a trailer length of not more than 56 feet, and used exclusively
or primarily in connection with motorsports, may operate on the
routes identified in subdivision (a) as well as on any other routes
authorized for that purpose by the Department of Transportation in
consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol. As
used in this subdivision, "motorsports" means an event, and all
activities leading up to that event, including, but not limited to,
administration, testing, practice, promotion, and merchandising, that
is sanctioned under the auspices of the member organizations of the
Automobile Competition Committee for the United States.
(2) (A) The Department of Transportation shall conduct a field
test of the tractor truck semitrailer combination authorized under
paragraph (1) for motorsport trucks with a trailer length of 56 feet
to evaluate their performance on various segments of the National
Network and transition routes. The Department of Transportation
shall, no later than January 1, 2014, submit a report to the
Legislature in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code
that includes the results of the field test and a recommendation, in
consultation with the Department of the California Highway Patrol, as
to whether the 56 foot trailer length should be reauthorized.
(B) Notwithstanding Section 10231.5 of the Government Code, the
requirement for submitting a report under this paragraph is
inoperative on January 1, 2018.
(3) This subdivision shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2016, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2016, deletes or extends
that date.
(h) A vehicle combination consisting of a truck tractor and
semitrailer that exceeds the kingpin-to-axle lengths specified in
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) shall be exempt from the
requirements of Sections 35400 and 35401 when operating on the routes
identified in subdivision (a) or a route identified by the
Department of Transportation or the local authority pursuant to
subdivision (c) or (d), if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The semitrailer does not exceed a total length of 53 feet.
(2) The semitrailer is designed and used exclusively to haul
livestock.
(3) The design of the semitrailer prohibits the owner or operator
from configuring the rearmost of two rear axles at a distance of 40
feet from the kingpin or 38 feet from the kingpin for a semitrailer
with a single axle.
(h)
( i) The Legislature finds and declares both
of the following:
(1) In authorizing the use of 53-foot semitrailers, it is the
intent of the Legislature to conform with Section 31111(b)(1)(C) of
Title 49 of the United States Code by permitting the continued use of
semitrailers of the dimensions as those that were in actual and
legal use on December 1, 1982, and does not intend this action to be
a precedent for future increases in the parameters of any of those
vehicles that would adversely affect the turning maneuverability of
vehicle combinations.
(2) In authorizing the department to issue special transportation
permits for motorsports, it is the intent of the Legislature to
conform with Section 31111(b)(1)(F) of Title 49 of the United States
Code. It is also the intent of the Legislature that this action not
be a precedent for future increases in the distance from the kingpin
to the rearmost axle of semitrailers and trailers that would
adversely affect the turning maneuverability of vehicle combinations.
