(a)(1) No person shall operate a commercial motor vehicle used for passenger transportation on any public highway of this state until such person has obtained a commercial driver‘s license with a public passenger endorsement, as defined in § 14-1, from the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, except a nonresident who holds such license with such endorsement issued by another state. (2) No person shall operate a school bus until such person has obtained a commercial driver’s license with a school bus endorsement, except that a person who holds such a license without such endorsements may operate a school bus without passengers for the purpose of road testing or moving the vehicle. (3) No person shall operate a student transportation vehicle, as defined in § 14-212, taxicab, motor vehicle in livery service, motor bus or service bus until such person has obtained an operator‘s license of the proper classification bearing an appropriate public passenger endorsement from the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, issued in accordance with the provisions of this section and § 14-36a, except that a person who holds an operator’s license without such endorsement may operate any such vehicle without passengers for the purpose of road testing or moving the vehicle.

Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes 14-44

  • another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • Commissioner: includes the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles and any assistant to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles who is designated and authorized by, and who is acting for, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles under a designation. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Driver: means any person who drives, operates or is in physical control of a commercial motor vehicle, or who is required to hold a commercial driver's license. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. Source: OCC
  • Felony: means any offense, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Highway: includes any state or other public highway, road, street, avenue, alley, driveway, parkway, place or dedicated roadway for bus rapid transit service, under the control of the state or any political subdivision of the state, dedicated, appropriated or opened to public travel or other use. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Motor bus: includes any motor vehicle, except a taxicab, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Motor vehicle: means any vehicle propelled or drawn by any nonmuscular power, except aircraft, motor boats, road rollers, baggage trucks used about railroad stations or other mass transit facilities, electric battery-operated wheel chairs when operated by persons with physical disabilities at speeds not exceeding fifteen miles per hour, golf carts operated on highways solely for the purpose of crossing from one part of the golf course to another, golf-cart-type vehicles operated on roads or highways on the grounds of state institutions by state employees, agricultural tractors, farm implements, such vehicles as run only on rails or tracks, self-propelled snow plows, snow blowers and lawn mowers, when used for the purposes for which they were designed and operated at speeds not exceeding four miles per hour, whether or not the operator rides on or walks behind such equipment, motor-driven cycles, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Nonresident: means any person whose legal residence is in a state other than Connecticut or in a foreign country. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
  • oath: shall include affirmations in cases where by law an affirmation may be used for an oath, and, in like cases, the word "swear" shall include the word "affirm". See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
  • Officer: includes any constable, state marshal, inspector of motor vehicles, state policeman or other official authorized to make arrests or to serve process, provided the officer is in uniform or displays the officer's badge of office in a conspicuous place when making an arrest. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Operator: means any person who operates a motor vehicle or who steers or directs the course of a motor vehicle being towed by another motor vehicle and includes a driver. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Person: includes any individual, corporation, limited liability company, association, copartnership, company, firm, business trust or other aggregation of individuals but does not include the state or any political subdivision thereof, unless the context clearly states or requires. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Public passenger endorsement: means an endorsement issued to an individual, which authorizes such individual to transport passengers, including, but not limited to, passengers who are students in accordance with subsection (b) or (c) of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • School bus: means any school bus, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Service bus: includes any vehicle except a vanpool vehicle or a school bus designed and regularly used to carry ten or more passengers when used in private service for the transportation of persons without charge to the individual. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • State: means any state of the United States and the District of Columbia unless the context indicates a more specific reference to the state of Connecticut. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Student: means any person under the age of twenty-one years who is attending a preprimary, primary or secondary school program of education. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1
  • Vehicle: includes any device suitable for the conveyance, drawing or other transportation of persons or property, whether operated on wheels, runners, a cushion of air or by any other means. See Connecticut General Statutes 14-1

(b) No operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement shall be issued or renewed in accordance with the provisions of this section or § 14-36a, until the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, or the commissioner’s authorized representative, is satisfied that the applicant is a proper person to receive such an operator’s license bearing an endorsement, holds a valid motor vehicle operator’s license, or, if necessary for the class of vehicle operated, a commercial driver’s license and is at least eighteen years of age. Each applicant for an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement or the renewal of such a license shall furnish the commissioner, or the commissioner’s authorized representative, with satisfactory evidence, under oath, to prove that such person has no criminal record and has not been convicted of a violation of § 14-227a or 14-227m or subdivision (1) or (2) of subsection (a) of § 14-227n within five years of the date of application and that no reason exists for a refusal to grant or renew such an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement. Each applicant for such an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement shall submit with the application proof satisfactory to the commissioner that such applicant has passed a physical examination administered not more than ninety days prior to the date of application and meets the physical qualification standards set forth in 49 C.F.R. § part 391, as amended from time to time. Each applicant for renewal of such license shall present evidence that such applicant is in compliance with the physical qualification standards established in 49 C.F.R. § part 391, as amended from time to time. Each applicant for such an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement shall be fingerprinted before the license bearing a public passenger endorsement is issued.

(c) The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may issue, withhold, renew, suspend, cancel or revoke any public passenger endorsement required to operate a motor vehicle that transports passengers, as provided in subsection (c) of § 14-36a. The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may, in making his or her decision, consider the age, accident and criminal record, moral character and physical condition of any such applicant or public passenger endorsement holder and such other matters as the commissioner may determine. The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may require any such applicant or public passenger endorsement holder to furnish the statements of two or more reputable citizens, which may be required to be under oath, vouching for the good character or other qualifications of the applicant or public passenger endorsement holder.

(d) Upon the arrest of any person who holds an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement, as defined in § 14-1, and who is charged with a felony or violation of § 53a-73a, the arresting officer or department, within forty-eight hours, shall cause a report of such arrest to be made to the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. The report shall be made on a form approved by said commissioner containing such information as the commissioner prescribes. The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may adopt regulations, in accordance with chapter 54, to implement the provisions of this subsection.

(e) (1) Prior to issuing an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement pursuant to subsection (a) of this section, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall require each applicant to submit to state and national criminal history records checks, conducted in accordance with § 29-17a. The Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection shall complete such state and national criminal history records checks required pursuant to this section within sixty days of receiving such a request for a check of such records. If notice of a state or national criminal history record is received, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may, subject to the provisions of § 46a-80, refuse to issue an operator’s license bearing such public passenger endorsement and, in such case, shall immediately notify the applicant, in writing, of such refusal. Each applicant for a public passenger endorsement to operate a school bus or student transportation vehicle shall submit to a check of the state child abuse and neglect registry established pursuant to § 17a-101k. If notification that the applicant is listed as a perpetrator of abuse on the state child abuse and neglect registry is received, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles may refuse to issue an operator’s license bearing such public passenger endorsement and, in such case, shall immediately notify the applicant, in writing, of such refusal. The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall not issue a temporary operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement for operation of a school bus or student transportation vehicle.

(2) The fingerprints of an applicant for a public passenger endorsement to operate a school bus may be captured electronically or by other means in accordance with § 29-17a.

(3) For the purposes of this subdivision, “certificate or permit holder” means any person, association, limited liability company or corporation that holds a certificate of public convenience and necessity to operate a taxicab, as described in § 13b-97 or holds a permit to operate a motor vehicle in livery service, as described in § 13b-103. Any certificate or permit holder who seeks to employ a person who has applied for a public passenger endorsement to operate a taxicab or motor vehicle in livery service under subdivision (3) of subsection (a) of this section may permit such person to operate a taxicab or motor vehicle in livery service prior to the approval by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of the application for such endorsement, but in no event for a period longer than ninety days after the date of application for such endorsement, provided such certificate or permit holder determines such person meets the requirements to operate a taxicab or motor vehicle in livery service set forth in regulations adopted by the commissioner pursuant to subsection (f) of this section. In making such determination, such certificate or permit holder shall (A) conduct, or have a consumer reporting agency regulated under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act conduct, a local, state and national criminal history records check, including a search of state and national sexual offender registry databases, and (B) review such person’s driving history record maintained by the commissioner and dated not more than seven days prior to the date of such review. A person who is approved by a certificate or permit holder under this subdivision shall carry and present, upon request, a copy of such person’s application to the commissioner and criminal history records check when such person is operating a taxicab or motor vehicle in livery service.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the commissioner shall not issue an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement to transport passengers who are students, and shall suspend any such public passenger endorsement that has been issued, to any person who has been convicted of a serious criminal offense, as determined by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, or convicted of any provision of federal law or the law of any other state, the violation of which involves conduct that is substantially similar to a violation determined by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to be a serious criminal offense, if any part of the sentence of such conviction has not been completed, or has been completed during the preceding five years. The Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall adopt regulations, in accordance with chapter 54, to implement the provisions of this subsection.

(g) Any applicant who is refused an operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement or the renewal of such a license, or whose operator’s license bearing a public passenger endorsement or the renewal of such a license is withdrawn or revoked on account of a criminal record, shall be entitled to a hearing if requested in writing within twenty days. The hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the requirements of chapter 54 and the applicant may appeal from the final decision rendered therein in accordance with § 4-183.

(h) Notwithstanding the provisions of § 14-10, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles shall furnish to any board of education or to any public or private organization that is actively engaged in providing public transportation, including the transportation of school children, a report containing the names and motor vehicle operator license numbers of each person who has been issued an operator’s license with one or more public passenger endorsements, authorizing such person to transport passengers in accordance with the provisions of § 14-36a, but whose license or any such public passenger endorsement has been withdrawn, suspended or revoked by the commissioner in accordance with the provisions of this section, or any other provision of this title. The report shall be issued and updated periodically in accordance with a schedule to be established by the commissioner. Such report may be transmitted or otherwise made available to authorized recipients by electronic means.

(i) Violation of any provision of this section shall be an infraction.

  Previous section
Next section  
 Chapter 246 Contents