Vehicle Industry Registration Procedures Manual

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Section 14 of 38

Chapter 13: Commercial Vehicles

13.090 Passenger-Type Vehicles With Commercial Registration (VC §260)

A passenger-type vehicle that transports passengers “for hire” is required to be registered as a commercial vehicle and display commercial license plates. This includes a taxi, rental limousine, or ambulance that transport persons for compensation or profit. Passenger vehicles that transport property for hire cannot be registered commercially.

Exception: Commercial registration may be obtained for multipurpose vehicles, station wagons, and hatchback-type vehicles owned and registered to a bona fide business or in certain specific instances, as explained in the Multipurpose Vehicles and Station Wagon sections in this chapter.

A bus is a vehicle, including a trailer bus, designed, used, or maintained for carrying more than 15 persons including the driver or a vehicle designed, used, or maintained for carrying more than 10 persons, including the driver, used to transport persons for compensation or profit or by any nonprofit organization or group (VC §233).

A bus is a commercial vehicle when it is used to transport persons for hire, compensation, or profit or when bus transportation is supplied by a profit-making entity and a customer pays for the bus service as part of the overall consideration for the primary service.

Privately-Owned School Bus (PSB)—Refer to Chapter 21.