SECTIONS 5221-5230 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 5221-5230

5221. Each household goods carrier maintaining an office or place
of business within this State and offering intrastate service shall
keep therein all books, accounts, papers, and records required by the
commission to be kept within this State. No such books, accounts,
papers, or records shall be at any time removed from the State except
upon such conditions as the commission prescribes. Carriers
performing intrastate service as household goods carriers, which do
not maintain an office or place of business within this State, shall
make books, accounts, papers and records pertaining to such
intrastate service available to the commission at its request at a
place designated within this State for examination by the commission
or in the alternative reimburse the commission for the actual expense
of examining such books, accounts, papers, or records at the place
outside of the State where such records are kept.
The commission may require annual, periodical, or special reports
to be filed by all household goods carriers, prescribe the manner and
form in which reports shall be made, and may require specific
answers to all questions upon which the commission deems information
to be necessary. The reports shall be under oath whenever the
commission so requires.

5222. The commission may require any household goods carrier to
file with it a true copy of any contract, agreement, or arrangement
between the carrier and any other carrier in relation to any traffic
affected by this chapter.

5223. The commission may prescribe the forms of any accounts,
records, and memoranda, including those pertaining to the movement of
traffic and the receipt or expenditure of money, to be kept by
household goods carriers, and the length of time the accounts,
records, and memoranda shall be preserved.

5224. Where the commission has prescribed the forms of accounts,
records, and memoranda to be kept by household goods carriers for any
of its business, it is unlawful for any household goods carrier to
keep any accounts, records, or memoranda for such business other than
those so prescribed or those prescribed by or under the authority of
any other state or of the United States, excepting such accounts,
records, or memoranda as are explanatory of and supplemental to the
accounts, records, or memoranda prescribed by the commission.

5225. The commission, its authorized employees, representatives,
and inspectors shall at all times have access to all lands,
buildings, and equipment of household goods carriers used in
connection with the operation of their business as such carriers in
this state, and also all accounts, records, and memoranda, including
all documents, books, papers, and correspondence kept or required to
be kept by household goods carriers, and may photocopy or
electrostatically or photostatically reproduce at the commission's
expense any of these accounts, records, memoranda, documents, books,
papers, and correspondence at either the premises of the carrier or
the offices of the commission. A carrier may determine whether the
copying or reproduction is done at its premises or at the offices of
the commission, and where copying or reproduction expenses are
incurred by the carrier, the commission shall, upon request,
reimburse the carrier for the expenses.

5226. The employees, representatives, and inspectors of the
commission may, under its order or direction, inspect and examine any
lands, buildings, equipment, accounts, books, records, and
memoranda, including all documents, papers, and correspondence kept
or required to be kept by household goods carriers.

5227. Sections 5221 to 5226, inclusive, shall, to the extent deemed
necessary by the commission, apply to persons having control, direct
or indirect, over or affiliated with any household goods carrier.

5228. Any employee of the commission who divulges any fact or
information which comes to his knowledge during the course of the
examination of the accounts, records, and memoranda of household
goods carriers, except as he is authorized or directed by the
commission or by a court of competent jurisdiction or judge thereof,
is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of not more
than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment in the county
jail for not more than three (3) months, or both.

5229. (a) Every household goods carrier shall furnish the
commission annually, as specified by the commission, a list, prepared
under oath, of all vehicles used in transportation for compensation
during the preceding year. The commission shall furnish a copy of
this list to the Department of the California Highway Patrol and to
the carrier's insurer, if the carrier's accident liability protection
is provided by a policy of insurance.
(b) If the household goods carrier's insurer informs the
commission that the carrier has failed to obtain insurance coverage
for any vehicle reported on the list, the commission may, in addition
to any other applicable penalty provided in this chapter, for a
first occurrence, suspend the carrier's permit or impose a fine, or
both, and for a second or subsequent occurrence may suspend or revoke
the permit or impose a fine, or both.

5230. Every household goods carrier earning over three hundred
fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) in annual gross operating revenue
shall, under oath, file annually a report indicating the number,
classification, and compensation of all employees and owner-operator
drivers hired or engaged during the reporting period. The commission
shall submit a copy of the report to the administrator of the carrier'
s workers' compensation self-insurance plan if the carrier is
self-insured, or to the carrier's workers' compensation insurer if
the carrier's workers' compensation protection is provided by a
policy or policies of insurance. The commission shall not be
obligated to undertake an independent investigation of the adequacy
of workers' compensation insurance coverage based on the information
contained in the report, if the carrier has complied with Section
5135.