Household goods carriers.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including transportation companies. Under existing law, the Household Goods Carriers Act, household goods carriers, as defined, are subject to the jurisdiction and control of the commission. The act prohibits a household goods carrier from engaging, or attempting to engage, in the business of the transportation of used household goods and personal effects, by motor vehicle over any public highway in the state, including advertising, soliciting, offering, or entering into an agreement, without a permit issued by the commission authorizing transportation entirely within the state, or a valid operating authority issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, for interstate transportation. The act declares that it is not to be construed as a regulation of interstate or foreign commerce, except as permitted under the United States Constitution and the acts of Congress. This bill would expand the definition of a household goods carrier to include a household goods carrier that engages in the permitted or unpermitted transportation for compensation or hire as a business by means of a motor vehicle or motor vehicles being used in the transportation of used household goods and personal effects over any public highway in this state. The bill would require a broker, as defined, to be considered a household goods carrier. The bill would additionally prohibit a household goods carrier from arranging, by any means or media, as a broker for the transportation of used household goods and personal effects. The bill would require the commission to establish rules permitting electronic transactions, as specified and would authorize specified documents to be in electronic form, if agreed upon by the carrier and the customer. The bill would require a household goods carrier to add a prominent link to the carrier's Internet Web site that directs consumers to an Internet Web site hosted by the commission that promotes consumer rights and protection. (2) Existing law requires telephone companies and related entities, as specified, upon demand and the order of a magistrate, to provide the commission, or an authorized official of the commission, access to the name and address of the subscriber to a telephone number being used by an unlicensed household goods carrier. Existing law prescribes the circumstances under which telephone corporations may release information regarding residential subscribers without their written consent. This bill would require telephone companies, as prescribed, to provide this access to the commission as specified above, without the written consent of the subscriber. (3) Under the act, every household goods carrier and every officer, director, agent, or employee of any household goods carrier who violates or who fails to comply with, or who procures, aids, or abets any violation by any household goods carrier of the act, or who fails to obey, observe, or comply with any order, decision, rule, regulation, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission, or of any operating permit issued to any household goods carrier, or who procures, aids, or abets any household goods carrier in its failure to obey, observe, or comply with any such order, decision, rule, regulation, direction, demand, requirement, or operating permit, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and if the violation is not willful, is punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment in the county jail, as prescribed, or both. This bill would provide that the fine for this misdemeanor is instead not more than $2,500. The bill would also provide that a fine shall be not less than $1,000 for a violation involving operating or holding one's self as a household goods carrier without a permit. This bill also would provide that a household goods carrier that falsifies permit status, membership in an association, or location is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $2,500 per day of violation. Because a violation of the act or an order of the commission is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the scope of a crime. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.