Rhode Island § 39-14-1 - Taxicabs and Limited Public Motor Vehicles

§ 39-14-1. Definitions.

Terms used in this chapter shall be construed as follows, unless another meaning is expressed or is clearly apparent from the language or context:

(1) “Certificate” means a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued to a common carrier.

(2) “Common carrier” means any person who holds himself, herself, or itself out to the general public as engaging in the transportation by motor vehicle of passengers for compensation in a taxicab or in a limited public motor vehicle.

(3) “Driver” means any person operating a motor vehicle used for the transportation of passengers which he or she owns or is operating with the expressed or implied consent of the owner.

(4) “Limited public motor vehicle” means and includes every motor vehicle for hire, other than a jitney, as defined in § 39-13-1, or a taxicab, as defined in this chapter, equipped with a taximeter used for transporting members of the general public for compensation only from a designated location on private property to such points as may be directed by the passenger.

(5) “Motor carrier” means a common carrier by motor vehicle.

(6) “Person” means and includes any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or company, and his, her, or its lessee, trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative, and, where the context requires, “driver” as defined in this section.

(7) “Taxicab” means and includes every motor vehicle for hire, other than a jitney as defined in § 39-13-1, equipped with a taximeter, used for transporting members of the general public for compensation to any place within this state as may be directed by a passenger on a call-and-demand basis, when the solicitation or acceptance of the passenger occurs within the location named in the certificate; provided, that the vehicle’s driver may, if and when solicited on a public highway at any location at which he or she is discharging a passenger, which location is not shown in the certificate, provide transportation from the location only to a place named in the certificate.

(8) “Taximeter” means any instrument or device by which the charge for transportation in any taxicab or limited public motor vehicle is mechanically calculated and indicated by means of figures, either for distances traveled or for waiting time, or for both.

(9) “Wheelchair-accessible taxicab” means a taxicab designed and equipped to allow the transportation of a person(s) who uses a wheelchair without requiring that person(s) to be removed from the wheelchair, but the taxicab is not restricted to transporting only persons using wheelchairs.