§271-25 Accounts, records, and reports. (a) The public utilities commission may require annual, periodical, or special reports from all motor carriers, prescribe the manner and form in which the reports shall be made, and require from the carriers specific and full, true, and correct answers to all questions upon which the commission may deem information to be necessary. The annual reports shall give an account of the affairs of the carrier in such form and detail as may be prescribed by the commission. The commission may also require any motor carrier to file with it a true copy of any contract, agreement, or arrangement between the carrier and any other carrier or person in relation to any traffic affected by this chapter. The commission shall not, however, make public any contract, agreement, or arrangement between a contract carrier by motor vehicle and a shipper, or any of the terms or conditions thereof, except as a part of the record in a formal proceeding where it considers the action consistent with the public interest; provided that if it appears from an examination of any such contract that it fails to conform to the published schedule of the contract carrier by motor vehicle as required by section 271-22(a), the commission may, in its discretion, make public such of the provisions of the contract as the commission considers necessary to disclose such failure and the extent thereof.

(b) The annual reports shall contain all the required information for the period of twelve months ending on December 31 in each year, unless the commission shall specify a different date, and shall be made out under oath and filed with the commission within three months after the close of the year for which the report is made, unless additional time be granted in any case by the commission. Such periodical or special reports as may be required by the commission under subsection (a) shall also be under oath, whenever the commission so requires.

(c) The commission may prescribe for motor carriers the classes of property for which depreciation charges may properly be included under operating expenses, and the rate or rates of depreciation which shall be charged with respect to each of the classes of property, classifying the carriers as it may deem proper for this purpose. The commission may, when it deems necessary, modify the classes and rates so prescribed. When the commission shall have exercised its authority under the foregoing provisions of this subsection, motor carriers shall not charge to operating expenses any depreciation charges on classes of property other than those prescribed by the commission, or charge with respect to any class of property a rate of depreciation other than that prescribed therefor by the commission, and no carrier shall include under operating expenses any depreciation charge in any form other than as prescribed by the commission.

(d) The commission may, in its discretion, prescribe the forms of any and all accounts, records, and memoranda to be kept by motor carriers and lessors, including the accounts, records, and memoranda of the movement of traffic, as well as of the receipts and expenditures of moneys. The commission may issue orders specifying the operating, accounting, or financial papers, records, books, blanks, tickets, stubs, correspondence, or documents of motor carriers or lessors as may after a reasonable time be destroyed, and prescribing the length of time the same shall be preserved. The commission or its duly authorized special agents, accountants, or examiners shall at all times have access to and authority, under its order, to inspect and examine any and all lands, buildings, or equipment of motor carriers and lessors and shall have authority to inspect and copy any and all accounts, books, records, memoranda, correspondence, and other documents of carriers and lessors (as defined in this section), and such accounts, books, records, memoranda, correspondence, and other documents of any person controlling, controlled by, or under common control with any such carriers, as the commission deems relevant to the person's relation to or transaction with the carriers. Motor carriers, lessors, and aforesaid persons shall submit their accounts, books, records, memoranda, correspondence, and other documents for the inspection and copying authorized by this subsection, and motor carriers and lessors shall submit their lands, buildings, and equipment for examination and inspection, to any duly authorized special agent, accountant, or examiner of the commission upon demand and display of proper credentials. As used in this subsection, the words "keep" and "kept" mean made, prepared, or compiled, as well as retained; the term "lessor" means a lessor of any right to operate as a motor carrier; and the term "motor carrier" or "lessor" includes a receiver or trustee of any such motor carrier or lessor.

(e) No report by any motor carrier of any accident arising in the course of the operation of such carriers, made pursuant to any requirement of the commission, and no report by the commission of any investigation of any accident, shall be admitted as evidence, or used for any other purpose, in any suit or action for damages growing out of any matter mentioned in the report or investigation. [L 1961, c 121, pt of §2; Supp, §106C-23; HRS §271-25]