A. An intrastate motor carrier shall not lease a motor vehicle or operate a leased motor vehicle in the course of its transportation service except as provided by commission rule. The commission may approve a motor vehicle lease without notice or a public hearing.

B. A motor carrier may use employed or contract drivers or taxicab association member drivers in the provision of a transportation service. Regardless of the provisions of any written or oral agreement between a motor carrier and a contract driver or taxicab association member driver, motor carriers providing transportation services that use contract drivers or taxicab association member drivers remain fully responsible to the commission for complying with all provisions of the Motor Carrier Act and commission rules applicable to transportation service carriers.

C. Motor carriers providing intrastate transportation services that use contract drivers or taxicab association member drivers shall maintain, at their principal places of business within the state, a current written agreement with each such driver. No agreement with any contract driver or taxicab association member driver shall contain any provision contrary to a provision of the Motor Carrier Act or a rule of the commission. Each written agreement shall contain a clause that requires the contract driver or taxicab association member driver to adhere to all provisions of the Motor Carrier Act and to all commission rules applicable to transportation service carriers.

History: Laws 2003, ch. 359, § 24; 2013, ch. 73, § 22; 2013, ch. 77, § 22.

The 2013 amendment, effective July 1, 2013, provided for the use of employed or contract drivers; in the catchline, added "driver contracts"; in Subsection A, in the first sentence, after "leased motor vehicle", deleted "without approval of each motor vehicle lease from the commission" and added "in the course of its transportation service except as provided by commission rule"; deleted former Subsection B, which required carriers to file separate leases for each vehicle leased; deleted former Subsection C, which prohibited the commission from approving a lease if the purpose of the lease is to circumvent the act; deleted former Subsection D, which required the commission to specify which of two parties to a lease was responsible for complying with the financial responsibility and safety requirements of the act; and added Subsections B and C.

Laws 2013, ch. 73, § 22 and Laws 2013, ch. 77, § 22, both effective July 1, 2013, enacted identical amendments to this section. The section was set out as amended by Laws 2013, ch. 77, § 22. See 12-1-8 NMSA 1978.