By Alexander H.B. No. 2462
76R6228 DRH-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to registration and operation of certain farm vehicles and
1-3 trailers.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 502.163(a), Transportation Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) The registration fee for a commercial motor vehicle as a
1-8 farm vehicle is 50 percent of the applicable fee under Section
1-9 502.162 if the [vehicle's owner will use the] vehicle will be used
1-10 for commercial purposes only to transport:
1-11 (1) [the person's own] poultry, [dairy,] livestock,
1-12 livestock products, timber in its natural state, or agricultural
1-13 [farm] products to market or another place for sale, [or]
1-14 processing, use, or consumption;
1-15 (2) laborers from their place of residence to the
1-16 owner's farm or ranch; or
1-17 (3) without charge, materials, tools, equipment, or
1-18 supplies from the place of purchase or storage to a [the owner's
1-19 farm or ranch exclusively for the owner's use or for use on the]
1-20 farm or ranch.
1-21 SECTION 2. Section 502.276(c), Transportation Code, is
1-22 amended to read as follows:
1-23 (c) A vehicle that has [An owner who obtains] a
1-24 distinguishing license plate issued under Subsection (b) may be
2-1 operated [operate] temporarily on the highways if the vehicle is:
2-2 (1) a farm trailer or farm semitrailer with a gross
2-3 weight of more than 4,000 pounds but not more than 34,000 pounds
2-4 that is used exclusively to transport:
2-5 (A) [the owner's] seasonally harvested
2-6 agricultural products or [and] livestock from the place of
2-7 production to the place of processing, market, or storage; or
2-8 (B) farm supplies from the place of loading to
2-9 the farm;
2-10 (2) machinery used exclusively for the purpose of
2-11 drilling water wells; or
2-12 (3) construction machinery that is not designed to
2-13 transport persons or property on a public highway.
2-14 SECTION 3. Section 1 of this Act takes effect September 1,
2-15 1999, and applies only to a commercial motor vehicle registered as
2-16 a farm vehicle under Section 502.163, Transportation Code, on or
2-17 after that date.
2-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-23 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-24 passage, and it is so enacted.