By Swinford                                           H.B. No. 1547
       74R5248 DWS-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the vehicle weight tolerance allowance under a vehicle
    1-3  weight permit.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 5B(b), Chapter 42, General Laws, Acts of
    1-6  the 41st Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 1929 (Article 6701d-11,
    1-7  Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        (b)  The permit authorizes the operation of the vehicle at a
    1-9  weight that exceeds the allowable axle weight by a tolerance
   1-10  allowance of 10 percent and exceeds the allowable gross weight by a
   1-11  tolerance allowance of five percent.  In the case of a permit
   1-12  issued for a truck tractor, the permit also authorizes the
   1-13  operation of the truck tractor in combination with one or more
   1-14  other vehicles at a weight that exceeds the allowable axle weight
   1-15  by a tolerance allowance of 10 percent and exceeds the allowable
   1-16  gross weight for such combination of vehicles by a tolerance
   1-17  allowance of five percent.  A vehicle operating under the permit is
   1-18  authorized to exceed the allowable gross weight by the entire five
   1-19  percent tolerance allowance regardless of the weight of any one
   1-20  axle or tandem axle if no axle or tandem axle exceeds the tolerance
   1-21  permitted by this subsection.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.
    2-5                       COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
    2-6        Amend H.B. 1547 lines 17-21 by adding the following:
    2-7        A vehicle operating under the permit is authorized to exceed
    2-8  the allowable gross weight by the entire five percent tolerance
    2-9  allowance regardless of the weight of any one axle or tandem axle
   2-10  or distance between axles, if no axle or tandem axle exceeds the
   2-11  tolerance permitted by this subsection.
   2-12                                                              Siebert