The provisions of this chapter shall not apply, except as to safety regulations, to:
(1) Motor vehicles used as school buses and while engaged in the transportation of students, under the supervision and control and at the direction of school authorities;
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this subsection, motor vehicles, regardless of ownership, used exclusively:
(a) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products, including fruit, livestock, meats, fertilizer, wood, lumber, cotton, products of grove or orchard, poultry, and eggs, while owned by the producer of the products, including landlord where the relation of landlord and tenant or landlord and cropper is involved, from the farm to a market, warehouse, dairy, or mill, or from one (1) market, warehouse, dairy, or mill to another market, warehouse, dairy, or mill. As used in this paragraph and in paragraph (b) of this subsection, “livestock” means cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, alpacas, llamas, buffaloes, or any other animals of the bovine, ovine, porcine, caprine, equine, or camelid species;
(b) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products, livestock, farm machinery, feed, fertilizer, and other materials and supplies essential to farm operation, from market or shipping terminal to farm;
(c) For both the purposes described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection;
(d) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products from farm to regularly organized fairs and exhibits and return; or
(e) Motor vehicles used for the transportation of fly ash, in bags, sacks, or other containers, the aggregate weight of which does not exceed ten thousand (10,000) pounds; or bottom ash, waste ash, sludge, and pozatec which is being removed from the premises of a power generator facility for the purpose of disposal;
(3) Motor vehicles used exclusively as church buses and while operated in the transportation of persons to and from a church or place of worship or for other religious work under the supervision and control and at the direction of church authorities;
(4) Motor vehicles used exclusively for the transportation of property belonging to a nonprofit cooperative association or its members where the vehicle is owned or leased exclusively by the association;
(5) Motor vehicles owned in whole or in part by any person and used by such person to transport commodities of which such person is the bona fide owner, lessee, consignee, or bailee; provided, however, that such transportation is for the purpose of sale, lease, rent, or bailment, and is an incidental adjunct to an established private business owned and operated by such person within the scope and in furtherance of any primary commercial enterprise of such person other than the business of transportation of property for hire;
(6) Motor vehicles used in pick-up or delivery service within a city or within a city and
its commercial area for a carrier by rail;
(7) Motor vehicles used exclusively for the transportation of coal from the point at which such coal is mined to a railhead or tipple where the railhead or tipple is located at a point not more than fifty (50) air miles from the point at which the coal is mined;
(8) Motor vehicles used as ambulances in transporting wounded, injured, or sick animals or as ambulances as defined in KRS § 311A.010;
(9) Motor vehicles used by transit authorities as created and defined in KRS Chapter
96A except as required by KRS § 96A.170. Vehicles operated under the authority and direct responsibility of such transit authorities, through contractual agreement, shall be included within this exemption, without regard to the legal ownership of the vehicles, but only for such times as they are operated under the authority and responsibility of the transit authority;
(10) Motor vehicles having a seating capacity of fifteen (15) or fewer passengers and while transporting persons between their places of residence, on the one hand, and, on the other, their places of employment, provided the driver himself or herself is on his way to or from his or her place of employment, and further provided that any person who operates or controls the operation of vehicles hereunder of which said person is the owner or lessee, and any spouse of said person and any partnership or corporation with said person or his or her spouse having an interest therein doing such, shall be eligible to so operate an aggregate number of not more than one (1) vehicle on other than a nonprofit basis;
(11) Motor vehicles used to transport cash letters, data processing material, instruments, or documents, regardless of the ownership of any of said cash letters, data processing material, instruments, or documents;
(12) Motor vehicles operated by integrated intermodal small package carriers who provide intermodal-air-and-ground-transportation. For the purposes of this section, “integrated intermodal small package carrier” shall mean an air carrier holding a certificate or qualifying as an indirect air carrier that undertakes, by itself or through a company affiliated through common ownership, to provide intermodal-air-and- ground-transportation, and “intermodal-air-and-ground-transportation” shall mean transportation involving the carriage of articles weighing not more than one hundred fifty (150) pounds by aircraft or other forms of transportation, including by motor vehicle, wholly within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The incidental or occasional use of aircraft in transporting packages or articles shall not constitute an integrated intermodal operation within the meaning of this section;
(13) Motor vehicles operated pursuant to a grant of funds in furtherance of and governed by 49 U.S.C. secs. 5310 or 5311, including all amendments, and whose operators have jurisdictions and services approved annually by the Transportation Cabinet in accordance with 49 C.F.R. Title VI;
(14) Motor vehicles used to transport children to educational events or conservation camps run by, or sponsored by, the Department of Fish and Wildlife;
(15) Motor vehicles used to transport children to events or camps run by, or sponsored
by, the Kentucky Sheriffs Association; or
(16) (a) Motor vehicles used in the transportation of persons who are eighteen (18) years of age or older, if the motor vehicles are owned by a nonprofit organization or being used on behalf of a nonprofit organization that is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
(b) Motor vehicles owned and operated by a nonprofit organization that are exempt under this subsection shall be subject to liability insurance coverage as established by KRS § 281.655.
(c) Motor vehicles owned privately but operated on behalf of a nonprofit organization that are exempt under this subsection shall be subject to liability insurance coverage as established by KRS § 304.39-110.
Effective: July 14, 2022
History: Amended 2022 Ky. Acts ch. 225, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2022. — Amended
2017 Ky. Acts ch. 129, sec. 28, effective June 29, 2017. — Amended 2015 Ky. Acts ch. 19, sec. 5, effective June 24, 2015. — Repealed and reenacted 2009 Ky. Acts ch.
19, sec. 1, effective June 25, 2009. — Amended 2008 Ky. Acts ch. 146, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2008. — Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch. 211, sec. 38, effective July
15, 2002; and ch. 318, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2002. — Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch.
343, sec. 15, effective July 14, 2000. — Amended 1998 Ky. Acts ch. 607, sec. 5, effective July 15, 1998. — Amended 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 233, sec. 2, effective July 15,
1996. — Amended 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 448, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1994. — Amended
1990 Ky. Acts ch. 403, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1990. — Amended 1984 Ky. Acts ch.
238, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1984. — Amended 1980 Ky. Acts ch. 349, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1980. — Amended 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 62, sec. 1, effective June 17,
1978; and ch. 232, sec. 5, effective June 17, 1978. — Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch.
138, sec. 3. — Amended 1972 Ky. Acts ch. 269, sec. 1. — Amended 1968 Ky. Acts ch. 152, sec. 135. — Amended 1964 Ky. Acts ch. 95, sec. 6. — Amended 1962 Ky. Acts ch. 96, sec. 1. — Amended 1958 Ky. Acts ch. 123, sec. 1; and ch. 130, sec. 6. — Amended 1954 Ky. Acts ch. 188, sec. 2. — Created 1950 Ky. Acts ch. 63, sec. 8, effective June 15, 1950.
Legislative Research Commission Note (7/15/2008). The internal numbering of subsection (16) of this section has been altered by the Reviser of Statutes from the numbering in 2008 Ky. Acts ch. 146, sec. 1, under the authority of KRS § 7.136.