(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section and in § 271-16, no person shall engage in the business of a common carrier by motor vehicle on any public highway in this State, unless there is in force with respect to such carrier a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the public utilities commission authorizing such operation.

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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-12

  • Certificate: means a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued under this chapter to common carriers by motor vehicle. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Chapter: means the Motor Carrier Law. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Commission: means the public utilities commission. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Common carrier by motor vehicle: means any person that holds itself out to the general public to engage in the transportation by motor vehicle of passengers or property or any class or classes thereof for compensation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Highway: means the public roads, highways, streets, and ways in this State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Motor carrier: includes both a common carrier by motor vehicle and a contract carrier by motor vehicle. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Motor vehicle: means any vehicle, machine, tractor, trailer, or semitrailer propelled or drawn by mechanical power and used upon the highways in the transportation of passengers or property, or any combination thereof determined by the commission, but does not include any vehicle, locomotive, or car operated exclusively on a rail or rails or a trolley bus operated by electric power derived from a fixed overhead wire, furnishing local passenger transportation similar to street-railway service. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
  • Transportation of property: includes every service in connection with or incidental to the transportation of property, including in particular its receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer, carriage, ventilation, refrigeration, icing, dunnage, storage in transit, handling, and consolidation for the purposes of forwarding within the State. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 271-4
(b) Applications for certificates shall be made in writing to the commission, be verified under oath, and shall be in such form and contain such information, and be accompanied by proof of service upon interested parties as the commission shall, by regulation, require.
(c) Subject to § 271-15, a certificate shall be issued to any qualified applicant therefor, authorizing the whole or any part of the operations covered by the application if it is found that the applicant is fit, willing, and able properly to perform the service proposed and to conform to this chapter and the requirements, rules, and regulations of the commission thereunder, and that the proposed service, to the extent to be authorized by the certificate, is or will be required by the present or future public convenience and necessity; otherwise the application shall be denied.
(d) Any certificate issued under this section covering the transportation of property shall be issued as an irregular route certificate and shall specify the island or islands or portion or portions thereof within which service may be rendered. Any certificate covering the transportation of passengers 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 the motor carrier is authorized to operate, and the certificate may include authority to transport in the same vehicle with the passengers, baggage of passengers, express, and also to transport baggage of passengers in a separate vehicle. There shall, at the time of issuance, and from time to time thereafter, be attached to the exercise of the privileges 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 extensions of the service territory or route or routes of the carriers, 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 sections 271-9(a) (1) and 271-9(a) (4), provided that the terms, conditions, or limitations shall not restrict the right of the carrier to add to his or its equipment and facilities in the service territory or over the routes or between the termini as the development of business and the demands of the public shall require.
(e) Any common carrier by motor vehicle transporting passengers under any such certificate may occasionally deviate from the route over which and the fixed termini between which it is authorized to operate under the certificate under such rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe.