[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Rahway 5-13-2019 by Ord. No. O-08-19.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Taxicabs — See Ch. 381.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed former Ch. 273, Limousines, adopted 10-12-1993 by Ord. No. A-47-93, as amended.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
CRUISING
The practice of driving about the streets of the City with a limousine so as to solicit passengers or to bring the presence of the limousine to the attention of prospective passengers. It shall be shall be prima facie evidence of cruising if a limousine drives along the streets of this City for any purpose other than transporting a passenger to a definite destination by using the most direct route, responding to a call for a limousine by a prospective passenger, or returning by the most direct route to the limousine's home, terminus, or hack stand after discharging a passenger or going to or from the said terminus or hack stand to the driver's home by the most direct route.
DRIVER
Any person who drives a limousine within the City.
LICENSE
The license to operate issued by the City Clerk in accordance with this chapter and N.J.S.A. 48:16-17.
LICENSING OFFICIAL
The City Clerk or other official as the City Clerk may designate.
LIMOUSINE
Includes any automobile or motor car used in the business of carrying passengers for hire to provide prearranged passenger transportation at a premium fare on a dedicated, nonscheduled, charter basis that is not conducted on a regular route and with a seating capacity of not more than 14 passengers, not including the driver, provided that such a vehicle is certified by the manufacturer of the original vehicle and the second-stage manufacturer, if applicable, to conform to all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards promulgated by the United States Department of Transportation pursuant to 49 CFR Part 571 (49 CFR 571.1 et seq.) and 49 CFR Part 567 (49 CFR 567.1 et seq.). In addition, a vehicle emission control information label, which contains the name and trademark of the manufacturer and an unconditional statement of compliance with the emission requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency, shall be present on the vehicle. Nothing in this chapter contained shall be construed to include taxicabs, hotel buses, buses employed solely in transporting school children or teachers, vehicles owned and operated directly or indirectly by businesses engaged in the practice of mortuary science when those vehicles are used exclusively for providing transportation related to the provision of funeral services, autobuses which are subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation, or interstate autobuses required by the federal or state law or regulations of the Department of Transportation to carry insurance against loss from liability imposed by law on account of bodily injury or death.
LIMOUSINE SERVICE or LIVERY SERVICE
Includes the business of carrying passengers for hire by limousines.
OPERATION
Transporting for hire in such limousine one or more persons, from a point within or without the City to any other point within the City or from within the City to a point outside of the City limits. The operation of a limousine in either of the above-described manners by one other than the owner shall be deemed operation by the owner thereof as well as by the person actually driving the same. The transportation of any person other than the owner or driver in any motor vehicle bearing a sign therein or thereon using the words "limo," "limousine," or "livery service" shall be prima facie evidence of operation.
OWNER
Any person, corporation, or association in whose name title to any limousine is registered with the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles or who appears in such records to be the conditional vendee or lessee thereof, and who maintains its principal office for such limousine service within the City of Rahway and who maintains continuous telephone accommodations where s/he or his/her agent can be readily reached.
PERSON
Includes any individual, co-partnership, association, corporation or joint stock company, their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court whatsoever.
PRINCIPAL PLACE OF BUSINESS
In reference to a municipality, the location of the main place of business of the limousine service in the municipality where the limousine service is conducted, where limousines are dispatched, or where limousine drivers report for duty.
STREET
Includes any street, avenue, park, parkway, highway or other public place.
A. 
The City Clerk shall issue a certificate of compliance to the owner who has fulfilled the terms and provisions of this chapter.
B. 
Nothing in this chapter shall preclude full compliance with the laws of the State of New Jersey, including N.J.S.A. 48:16-13 et seq.
C. 
Each applicant for a certificate of compliance shall also be responsible for registering each vehicle with the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles as set forth in N.J.S.A. 39:3-19.
A. 
Each person applying for a certificate of compliance shall fully complete the limousine license application form available at the City Clerk's Office.
B. 
A copy of the bill of sale for each limousine to be operated on the streets of Rahway shall be filed with the application for a certificate of compliance.
C. 
A copy of the vehicle registration shall be provided to the City Clerk within 48 hours of the vehicle's registration with the Division of Motor Vehicles.
No limousine service whose principal place of business is in the City of Rahway shall be operated wholly or partly along any street in the City of Rahway until the owner of the limousine or limousine service shall have filed with the City Clerk an insurance policy of a company duly licensed to transact business under the insurance laws of this state in the sum of $1,500,000 insuring against loss by reason of the liability imposed by law upon every limousine owner for damages on account of bodily injury or death suffered by any person as the result of an accident occurring by reason of the ownership, maintenance or use of the limousine upon any public street.
The owner of the limousine shall, concurrently with the filing of the insurance policy described above, submit to the City Clerk proof of the execution and delivery to the Division of Motor Vehicles (or Motor Vehicle Commissioner, as appropriate) of a power of attorney, wherein and whereby the owner shall appoint the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles (or the Chief Administrator of the Motor Vehicle Commission, as appropriate) his true and lawful attorney for the purpose of acknowledging service of any process out of a court of competent jurisdiction to be served against the insured by virtue of the indemnity granted under the insurance policy filed.
A. 
The City Clerk of the City of Rahway, upon the applicant's filing of the insurance policy required by N.J.S.A. 48:16-14 and the payment of a fee in the amount of $50, shall issue in duplicate a license to operate showing that the owner of the limousine has complied with the terms and provisions of N.J.S.A. 48:16-13 et seq.
B. 
Said license shall recite the name of the insurance company, the number and date of expiration of the policy, a description of every limousine insured thereunder, and the registration of same.
C. 
The duplicate license shall be filed with the Motor Vehicle Commission before any such car is registered as a limousine.
D. 
The original license shall be retained within the limousine and shall be available for inspection by any police officer in the State. In lieu of the recital of insurance information required on the license pursuant to this subsection, the owner of a limousine may affix to the original license retained within the limousine a notarized letter from an insurance company containing the same insurance information required in the recital, which shall constitute proof of insurance coverage, in which shall also be available for inspection by any police officer in the state. A copy of the notarized letter shall constitute proof to the Director of the Motor Vehicle Commission that the applicant has complied with the insurance provisions required by law.
E. 
Any such insurance policy shall provide therein that a notice of cancellation thereof must be provided to the City of Rahway no later than 30 days prior to such cancellation.
F. 
Additional fee. Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 16-17, the City Clerk of the City of Rahway shall, with limousine services having their principal place of business in the City of Rahway, upon filing of the required insurance policy, charge $10 for each limousine which is covered under the required insurance policy in addition to the $50 fee for each limousine service.
The smoking of tobacco shall not be permitted in any limousine licensed by the City during the operation of such vehicles. The prohibition shall be conspicuously posted in each vehicle for hire.
A. 
The licensing official shall have the power to suspend or revoke an operating license under any of the following provisions:
(1) 
The licensing official may revoke any license of either class if the applicant for the license has been once convicted of a crime in this or any other jurisdiction, or convicted of being a disorderly person or of a violation of Title 39, Motor Vehicles and Traffic Regulations, of the Revised Statutes, or who consistently violates any provision of this chapter or has any judgment unsatisfied or record against him arising out of an automobile accident or who has made false answers in his application for such license or any renewal thereof or who has not complied fully with all requirements of this chapter for such class of license; or
(2) 
The licensing official may suspend:
(a) 
Any limousine driver's license, if the licensee or applicant has in any degree contributed to any injury to person or damage to property arising out of negligent operation of a motor vehicle; or has any communicable or contagious disease; or
(b) 
Any limousine owner's license if the policy of insurance required herein has lapsed, or if such coverage is not maintained at all times. Such suspension shall be for a period not to exceed 30 days.
B. 
Within 10 days of the date of the suspension or revocation, an appeal from any such suspension or revocation may be made to the Business Administrator who shall forthwith schedule a hearing on the appeal. The Business Administrator shall render a decision within two days after completion of the hearing.
Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,250 or by imprisonment for a term not to exceed 90 days, or both.