§271-20  Rates, fares and charges of commoncarriers by motor vehicle.  (a)  It shall be the duty of every commoncarrier of passengers by motor carrier to provide safe and adequate service,equipment, and facilities for the transportation of passengers and toestablish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable rates, fares, and charges,and just and reasonable regulations and practices relating thereto, and to theissuance, form, and substance of tickets, the carrying of personal, sample, andexcess baggage, the facilities for transportation, and all other mattersrelating to or connected with the transportation of passengers.

(b)  It shall be the duty of every commoncarrier of property by motor vehicle to provide safe and adequate service,equipment, and facilities for the transportation of property and to establish,observe, and enforce just and reasonable rates, charges, and classifications,and just and reasonable regulations and practices relating thereto, and to themanner and method of presenting, marking, packing, and delivering property fortransportation, the facilities for transportation, and all other mattersrelating to or connected with the transportation of property.

(c)  All charges made for any service renderedby any common carrier by motor vehicle in the transportation of passengers orproperty or in connection therewith shall be just and reasonable, and everyunjust and unreasonable charge for such service or any part thereof, isprohibited and declared to be unlawful.  It shall be unlawful for any commoncarrier by motor vehicle to make, give, or cause any undue or unreasonablepreference or advantage to any particular person, locality, region, district,island, or description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever; or to subject anyparticular person, locality, region, district, island, or description oftraffic to any unjust discrimination or undue or unreasonable prejudice ordisadvantage in any respect whatsoever; provided that this subsection shall notbe construed to apply to discrimination, prejudice, or disadvantage to thetraffic of any other carrier of whatever description.

(d)  Any person, organization, or body politicmay make complaint in writing to the public utilities commission that any suchrate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation, or practice, in effect orproposed to be put into effect, is or will be in violation of this section orof section 271-21.  Whenever, after hearing, upon complaint or an investigationof its own initiative, the commission shall be of the opinion that anyindividual rate, fare, or charge, demanded, charged, or collected by any commoncarrier or carriers by motor vehicle for transportation, or any classification,rule, regulation, or practice whatsoever of the carrier or carriers, affectingsuch rate, fare, or charge or the value of the service thereunder, is or willbe unjust or unreasonable, or unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential orunduly prejudicial, it shall determine and prescribe the lawful rate, fare, orcharge or the maximum or minimum or maximum and minimum rate, fare, or chargethereafter to be observed, or the lawful classification, rule, regulation, orpractice thereafter to be made effective.

(e)  Whenever there is filed with thecommission any schedule stating a new rate, fare, charge, or classification forthe transportation of passengers or property by a common carrier or carriers bymotor vehicle, or any rule, regulation, or practice affecting such rate, fare,or charge, or the value of the service thereunder, the commission may uponcomplaint of any interested person or upon its own initiative at once and, ifit so orders, without answer or other formal pleading by the interested carrieror carriers, but upon reasonable notice, enter upon a hearing concerning thelawfulness of the rate, fare, or charge, or the rule, regulation, or practice,and pending the hearing and the decision thereon the commission, by filing theschedule and delivering to the carrier or carriers affected thereby a statementin writing of its reasons for such suspension, may from time to time suspendthe operation of the schedule and defer the use of the rate, fare, or charge,or the rule, regulation, or practice, but not for a longer period than fivemonths beyond the time when it would otherwise go into effect, and afterhearing, whether completed before or after the rate, fare, charge,classification, rule, regulation, or practice goes into effect, the commissionmay make such order with reference thereto as would be proper in a proceedinginstituted after it had become effective.  If the proceeding has not beenconcluded and an order made within the period of suspension, the proposedchanged rate, fare, or charge, or classification, rule, regulation, orpractice, shall go into effect at the end of such period; provided that thissubsection shall not apply to any initial schedule or schedules filed by anycarrier in bona fide operation when this section takes effect.  At any hearinginvolving a change in a rate, fare, charge, or classification, or in a rule,regulation, or practice, the burden of proof shall be upon the carrier to showthat the proposed changed rate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation,or practice, is just and reasonable.

(f)  In any proceeding to determine the justnessor reasonableness of any rate, fare, or charge of any carrier, there shall notbe taken into consideration or allowed as evidence or elements of value of theproperty of the carrier, either goodwill, earning power, or the certificateunder which the carrier is operating; and in applying for and receiving acertificate under this [chapter] any carrier shall be deemed to have agreed tothe provisions of this subsection on its own behalf and on behalf of alltransferees of the certificate.

(g)  In the exercise of its power to prescribejust and reasonable rates, fares, and charges for the transportation ofpassengers or property by common carriers by motor vehicle, andclassifications, regulations, and practices relating thereto, the commissionshall give due consideration, among other factors, to the effect of rates uponthe movement of traffic by the carrier or carriers for which the rates areprescribed; to the need, in the public interest, of adequate and efficienttransportation service by the carriers at the lowest cost consistent with thefurnishing of the service; and to the need of revenues sufficient to enable thecarriers, under honest, economical, and efficient management, to provide theservice.

(h)  Nothing in this section shall be held toextinguish any remedy or right of action not inconsistent herewith. [L 1961, c121, pt of §2; Supp, §106C-18; HRS §271-20]

 

Attorney General Opinions

 

  Carriers may transport property for federal government atrates lower than published rates.  Att. Gen. Op. 63-8.

 

Case Notes

 

  Hawaii household goods movers no longer exempt fromInterstate Commerce Commission regulation.  395 F. Supp. 261.

  In proceedings under subsections (d) and (e), carrier isentitled to hearing.  53 H. 14, 486 P.2d 413.

  Cited:  50 H. 172, 435 P.2d 21.

  Referred to:  50 H. 22, 428 P.2d 411.