The following words and terms, when used in this chapter will
have the following meanings, unless the context clearly shows otherwise:
(1) Advisory board--The Towing and Storage Advisory
Board.
(2) Applicant--The person or entity submitting an application
for a permit or license issued by the department.
(3) Certificate of insurance--A certificate prescribed
by and filed with the department in which an insurance carrier or
surety company, approved in this state, warrants that a towing company
for whom the certificate is filed has the minimum coverage as required
by §86.400.
(4) Commission--The Texas Commission of Licensing and
Regulation.
(5) Consent tow--Any tow of a motor vehicle in which
the tow truck is summoned by the owner or operator of the vehicle
or by a person who has possession, custody, or control of the vehicle.
The term does not include an incident management tow or a private
property tow.
(6) Conspicuous--Written in a size, color, and contrast
so as to be readily noticed and understood.
(7) Contested case--A proceeding, including a licensing
proceeding, in which the legal rights, duties, or privileges of a
party are to be determined by a state agency after an opportunity
for adjudicative hearing.
(8) Department--The Texas Department of Licensing and
Regulation.
(9) Driver's License--Has the meaning assigned by 521.001,
Transportation Code.
(10) Incident--an unplanned randomly occurring traffic
event that adversely affects normal traffic operations.
(11) Incident management tow--Any tow of a vehicle
in which the tow truck is summoned to the scene of a traffic accident
or to an incident, including the removal of a vehicle, commercial
cargo, and commercial debris from an accident or incident scene.
(12) License holder or Licensee--The person to which
the department issued a license.
(13) Nonconsent tow--Any tow of a motor vehicle that
is not a consent tow, including:
(A) an incident management tow; and
(B) a private property tow.
(14) Parking facility--Public or private property used,
wholly or partly, for restricted or paid vehicle parking. The term
includes:
(A) a restricted space on a portion of an otherwise
unrestricted parking facility; and
(B) a commercial parking lot, a parking garage, and
a parking area serving or adjacent to a business, church, school,
home, apartment complex, property governed by a property owners' association,
or government-owned property leased to a private person, including:
(i) a portion of the right-of-way of a public roadway
that is leased by a governmental entity to the parking facility owner;
and
(ii) the area between the facility's property line
abutting a county or municipal public roadway and the center line
of the roadway's drainage way or the curb of the roadway, whichever
is farther from the facility's property line.
(15) Parking facility authorized agent--An employee
or agent of a parking facility owner with the authority to:
(A) authorize the removal of a vehicle from the parking
facility on behalf of the parking facility owner; and
(B) accept service on behalf of the parking facility
owner of a notice of hearing requested under this chapter.
(16) Parking facility owner--
(A) an individual, corporation, partnership, limited
partnership, limited liability company, association, trust, or other
legal entity owning or operating a parking facility;
(B) a property owners' association having control under
a dedicatory instrument, as that term is defined in §202.001,
Property Code, over assigned or unassigned parking areas; or
(C) a property owner having an exclusive right under
a dedicatory instrument, as that term is defined in §202.001,
Property Code, to use a parking space.
(17) Permit holder--The person to which the department
issued a permit.
(18) Private property tow--Any tow of a vehicle authorized
by a parking facility owner without the consent of the owner or operator
of the vehicle.
(19) Public roadway--A public street, alley, road,
right-of-way, or other public way, including paved and unpaved portions
of the right-of-way.
(20) Tow truck--A motor vehicle, including a wrecker,
equipped with a mechanical device used to tow, winch, or otherwise
move another motor vehicle. The term does not include:
(A) a motor vehicle owned and operated by a governmental
entity, including a public school district;
(B) a motor vehicle towing:
(i) a race car;
(ii) a motor vehicle for exhibition; or
(iii) an antique motor vehicle;
(C) a recreational vehicle towing another vehicle;
(D) a motor vehicle used in combination with a tow
bar, tow dolly, or other mechanical device if the vehicle is not operated
in the furtherance of a commercial enterprise;
(E) a motor vehicle that is controlled or operated
by a farmer or rancher and used for towing a farm vehicle; or
(F) a motor vehicle that:
(i) is owned or operated by an entity the primary business
of which is the rental of motor vehicles; and
(ii) only tows vehicles rented by the entity.
(21) Towing company--An individual, association, corporation,
or other legal entity that controls, operates, or directs the operation
of one or more tow trucks over a public roadway in this state but
does not include a political subdivision of the state.
(22) Towing operator--The person to which the department
issued a towing operator license.
(23) Unauthorized vehicle--A vehicle parked, stored,
or located on a parking facility without the consent of the parking
facility owner.
(24) Vehicle--A device in, on, or by which a person
or property may be transported on a public roadway. The term includes
an operable or inoperable automobile, truck, motorcycle, recreational
vehicle, or trailer but does not include a device moved by human power
or used exclusively on a stationary rail or track.
(25) Vehicle owner--A person:
(A) named as the purchaser or transferee in the certifi-cate
of title issued for the vehicle under Chapter 501, Transportation
Code;
(B) in whose name the vehicle is registered under Chap-ter
502, Transportation Code, or a member of the person's immediate family;
(C) who holds the vehicle through a lease agreement;
(D) who is an unrecorded lienholder entitled to possess
the vehicle under the terms of a chattel mortgage; or
(E) who is a lienholder holding an affidavit of reposses-sion
and entitled to repossess the vehicle.
(26) Vehicle storage facility--A vehicle storage facility,
as defined by Texas Occupations Code, §2303.002 that is operated
by a person who holds a license issued under Texas Occupations Code,
Chapter 2303 to operate the facility.
|
