60-4,131. Sections; applicability; terms, defined.

(1) Sections 60-462.01 and 60-4,132 to 60-4,172 shall apply to the operation of any commercial motor vehicle.

(2) For purposes of such sections:

(a) Disqualification means:

(i) The suspension, revocation, cancellation, or any other withdrawal by a state of a person's privilege to operate a commercial motor vehicle;

(ii) A determination by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, under the rules of practice for motor carrier safety contained in 49 C.F.R. part 386, that a person is no longer qualified to operate a commercial motor vehicle under 49 C.F.R. part 391; or

(iii) The loss of qualification which automatically follows conviction of an offense listed in 49 C.F.R. 383.51;

(b) Downgrade means the state:

(i) Allows the driver of a commercial motor vehicle to change his or her self-certification to interstate, but operating exclusively in transportation or operation excepted from 49 C.F.R. part 391, as provided in 49 C.F.R. 390.3(f), 391.2, 391.68, or 398.3;

(ii) Allows the driver of a commercial motor vehicle to change his or her self-certification to intrastate only, if the driver qualifies under a state's physical qualification requirements for intrastate only;

(iii) Allows the driver of a commercial motor vehicle to change his or her certification to intrastate, but operating exclusively in transportation or operations excepted from all or part of a state driver qualification requirement; or

(iv) Removes the commercial driver's license privilege from the operator's license;

(c) Employee means any operator of a commercial motor vehicle, including full-time, regularly employed drivers; casual, intermittent, or occasional drivers; and leased drivers and independent, owner-operator contractors, while in the course of operating a commercial motor vehicle, who are either directly employed by or under lease to an employer;

(d) Employer means any person, including the United States, a state, the District of Columbia, or a political subdivision of a state, that owns or leases a commercial motor vehicle or assigns employees to operate a commercial motor vehicle;

(e) Endorsement means an authorization to an individual's CLP-commercial learner's permit or commercial driver's license required to permit the individual to operate certain types of commercial motor vehicles;

(f) Foreign means outside the fifty United States and the District of Columbia;

(g) Imminent hazard means the existence of a condition relating to hazardous material that presents a substantial likelihood that death, serious illness, severe personal injury, or a substantial endangerment to health, property, or the environment may occur before the reasonably foreseeable completion date of a formal proceeding begun to lessen the risk of that death, illness, injury, or endangerment;

(h) Issue and issuance means initial issuance, transfer, renewal, or upgrade of a CLP-commercial learner's permit, commercial driver's license, nondomiciled CLP-commercial learner's permit, or nondomiciled commercial driver's license, as described in 49 C.F.R. 383.73;

(i) Medical examiner means an individual certified by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and listed on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners in accordance with 49 C.F.R. part 390, subpart D;

(j) Medical examiner's certificate means a form meeting the requirements of 49 C.F.R. 391.43 issued by a medical examiner in compliance with such regulation;

(k) Medical variance means the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has provided a driver with either an exemption letter permitting operation of a commercial motor vehicle pursuant to 49 C.F.R. 381, subpart C, or 49 C.F.R. 391.64 or a Skill Performance Evaluation Certificate permitting operation of a commercial motor vehicle pursuant to 49 C.F.R. 391.49;

(l) Nondomiciled CLP-commercial learner's permit or nondomiciled commercial driver's license means a CLP-commercial learner's permit or commercial driver's license, respectively, issued by this state or other jurisdiction under either of the following two conditions:

(i) To an individual domiciled in a foreign country meeting the requirements of 49 C.F.R. 383.23(b)(1); or

(ii) To an individual domiciled in another state meeting the requirements of 49 C.F.R. 383.23(b)(2);

(m) Representative vehicle means a motor vehicle which represents the type of motor vehicle that a driver applicant operates or expects to operate;

(n) State means a state of the United States and the District of Columbia;

(o) State of domicile means that state where a person has his or her true, fixed, and permanent home and principal residence and to which he or she has the intention of returning whenever he or she is absent;

(p) Tank vehicle means any commercial motor vehicle that is designed to transport any liquid or gaseous materials within a tank or tanks that have an individual rated capacity of more than one hundred nineteen gallons and an aggregate rated capacity of one thousand gallons or more and that are either permanently or temporarily attached to the vehicle or the chassis. A commercial motor vehicle transporting an empty storage container tank, not designed for transportation, with a rated capacity of one thousand gallons or more that is temporarily attached to a flatbed trailer is not considered a tank vehicle;

(q) Third-party skills test examiner means a person employed by a third-party tester who is authorized by this state to administer the commercial driver's license skills tests specified in 49 C.F.R. part 383, subparts G and H;

(r) Third-party tester means a person, including, but not limited to, another state, a motor carrier, a private driver training facility or other private institution, or a department, agency, or instrumentality of a local government, authorized by this state to employ skills test examiners to administer the commercial driver's license skills tests specified in 49 C.F.R. part 383, subparts G and H;

(s) United States means the fifty states and the District of Columbia; and

(t) Vehicle group means a class or type of vehicle with certain operating characteristics.

Source:Laws 1989, LB 285, § 81; Laws 1990, LB 980, § 11; Laws 1993, LB 420, § 5; Laws 1996, LB 323, § 2; Laws 2003, LB 562, § 7; Laws 2005, LB 76, § 7; Laws 2011, LB178, § 5; Laws 2014, LB983, § 20; Laws 2016, LB666, § 4; Laws 2016, LB977, § 14; Laws 2018, LB629, § 2; Laws 2018, LB909, § 86.