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



(b)  It shall be the duty of every common
carrier 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 the
manner and method of presenting, marking, packing, and delivering property for
transportation, the facilities for transportation, and all other matters
relating to or connected with the transportation of property.



(c)  All charges made for any service rendered
by any common carrier by motor vehicle in the transportation of passengers or
property or in connection therewith shall be just and reasonable, and every
unjust and unreasonable charge for such service or any part thereof, is
prohibited and declared to be unlawful.  It shall be unlawful for any common
carrier by motor vehicle to make, give, or cause any undue or unreasonable
preference or advantage to any particular person, locality, region, district,
island, or description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever; or to subject any
particular person, locality, region, district, island, or description of
traffic to any unjust discrimination or undue or unreasonable prejudice or
disadvantage in any respect whatsoever; provided that this subsection shall not
be construed to apply to discrimination, prejudice, or disadvantage to the
traffic of any other carrier of whatever description.



(d)  Any person, organization, or body politic
may make complaint in writing to the public utilities commission that any such
rate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation, or practice, in effect or
proposed to be put into effect, is or will be in violation of this section or
of section 271-21.  Whenever, after hearing, upon complaint or an investigation
of its own initiative, the commission shall be of the opinion that any
individual rate, fare, or charge, demanded, charged, or collected by any common
carrier or carriers by motor vehicle for transportation, or any classification,
rule, regulation, or practice whatsoever of the carrier or carriers, affecting
such rate, fare, or charge or the value of the service thereunder, is or will
be unjust or unreasonable, or unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential or
unduly prejudicial, it shall determine and prescribe the lawful rate, fare, or
charge or the maximum or minimum or maximum and minimum rate, fare, or charge
thereafter to be observed, or the lawful classification, rule, regulation, or
practice thereafter to be made effective.



(e)  Whenever there is filed with the
commission any schedule stating a new rate, fare, charge, or classification for
the transportation of passengers or property by a common carrier or carriers by
motor vehicle, or any rule, regulation, or practice affecting such rate, fare,
or charge, or the value of the service thereunder, the commission may upon
complaint of any interested person or upon its own initiative at once and, if
it so orders, without answer or other formal pleading by the interested carrier
or carriers, but upon reasonable notice, enter upon a hearing concerning the
lawfulness of the rate, fare, or charge, or the rule, regulation, or practice,
and pending the hearing and the decision thereon the commission, by filing the
schedule and delivering to the carrier or carriers affected thereby a statement
in writing of its reasons for such suspension, may from time to time suspend
the 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 five
months beyond the time when it would otherwise go into effect, and after
hearing, whether completed before or after the rate, fare, charge,
classification, rule, regulation, or practice goes into effect, the commission
may make such order with reference thereto as would be proper in a proceeding
instituted after it had become effective.  If the proceeding has not been
concluded and an order made within the period of suspension, the proposed
changed rate, fare, or charge, or classification, rule, regulation, or
practice, shall go into effect at the end of such period; provided that this
subsection shall not apply to any initial schedule or schedules filed by any
carrier in bona fide operation when this section takes effect.  At any hearing
involving 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 show
that the proposed changed rate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation,
or practice, is just and reasonable.



(f)  In any proceeding to determine the justness
or reasonableness of any rate, fare, or charge of any carrier, there shall not
be taken into consideration or allowed as evidence or elements of value of the
property of the carrier, either goodwill, earning power, or the certificate
under which the carrier is operating; and in applying for and receiving a
certificate under this [chapter] any carrier shall be deemed to have agreed to
the provisions of this subsection on its own behalf and on behalf of all
transferees of the certificate.



(g)  In the exercise of its power to prescribe
just and reasonable rates, fares, and charges for the transportation of
passengers or property by common carriers by motor vehicle, and
classifications, regulations, and practices relating thereto, the commission
shall give due consideration, among other factors, to the effect of rates upon
the movement of traffic by the carrier or carriers for which the rates are
prescribed; to the need, in the public interest, of adequate and efficient
transportation service by the carriers at the lowest cost consistent with the
furnishing of the service; and to the need of revenues sufficient to enable the
carriers, under honest, economical, and efficient management, to provide the
service.



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



 



Attorney General Opinions



 



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



 



Case Notes



 



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



  In proceedings under subsections (d) and (e), carrier is
entitled 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.