No person shall be required to obtain the registration certificate, license plates, or decals for or pay a registration fee for any motor vehicle, trailer, boat trailer, or semitrailer, or any combination thereof not having a gross vehicle weight exceeding 12,000 pounds used by commercial fishermen, their agents, or employees for the purpose of:

Terms Used In Virginia Code 46.2-674

  • Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
  • Semitrailer: means every vehicle of the trailer type so designed and used in conjunction with a motor vehicle that some part of its own weight and that of its own load rests on or is carried by another vehicle. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
  • Trailer: means every vehicle without motive power designed for carrying property or passengers wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, including manufactured homes. See Virginia Code 46.2-100
  • Vehicle: means every device in, on or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a highway, except personal delivery devices and devices moved by human power or used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks. See Virginia Code 46.2-100

1. Transporting boats or other equipment used in commercial fishing no more than 50 miles between his place of residence or business and the waters within the territorial limits of the Commonwealth or the adjacent marginal seas;

2. Any return trip to his place of residence or business; or

3. Transporting harvested seafood no more than 50 miles between the place where the seafood is first brought ashore and the transporter’s place of business or the location of the seafood’s first point of sale.

Code 1950, § 46-45; 1950, p. 693; 1952, c. 498; 1956, cc. 292, 568; 1958, c. 541, § 46.1-45; 1962, cc. 214, 535; 1964, c. 611; 1966, c. 654; 1968, c. 46; 1970, c. 192; 1972, c. 609; 1973, c. 495; 1978, c. 307; 1988, cc. 76, 568; 1989, c. 727; 1997, c. 500; 2013, c. 777; 2016, c. 142.