Article 5. Reports, Records, And Inspections of California Public Utilities Code >> Division 2. >> Chapter 7. >> Article 5.

Each household goods carrier maintaining an office or place of business within this State and offering intrastate service shall keep therein all books, accounts, papers, and records required by the commission to be kept within this State. No such books, accounts, papers, or records shall be at any time removed from the State except upon such conditions as the commission prescribes. Carriers performing intrastate service as household goods carriers, which do not maintain an office or place of business within this State, shall make books, accounts, papers and records pertaining to such intrastate service available to the commission at its request at a place designated within this State for examination by the commission or in the alternative reimburse the commission for the actual expense of examining such books, accounts, papers, or records at the place outside of the State where such records are kept. The commission may require annual, periodical, or special reports to be filed by all household goods carriers, prescribe the manner and form in which reports shall be made, and may require specific answers to all questions upon which the commission deems information to be necessary. The reports shall be under oath whenever the commission so requires.

The commission may require any household goods carrier to file with it a true copy of any contract, agreement, or arrangement between the carrier and any other carrier in relation to any traffic affected by this chapter.

The commission may prescribe the forms of any accounts, records, and memoranda, including those pertaining to the movement of traffic and the receipt or expenditure of money, to be kept by household goods carriers, and the length of time the accounts, records, and memoranda shall be preserved.

Where the commission has prescribed the forms of accounts, records, and memoranda to be kept by household goods carriers for any of its business, it is unlawful for any household goods carrier to keep any accounts, records, or memoranda for such business other than those so prescribed or those prescribed by or under the authority of any other state or of the United States, excepting such accounts, records, or memoranda as are explanatory of and supplemental to the accounts, records, or memoranda prescribed by the commission.

The commission, its authorized employees, representatives, and inspectors shall at all times have access to all lands, buildings, and equipment of household goods carriers used in connection with the operation of their business as such carriers in this state, and also all accounts, records, and memoranda, including all documents, books, papers, and correspondence kept or required to be kept by household goods carriers, and may photocopy or electrostatically or photostatically reproduce at the commission's expense any of these accounts, records, memoranda, documents, books, papers, and correspondence at either the premises of the carrier or the offices of the commission. A carrier may determine whether the copying or reproduction is done at its premises or at the offices of the commission, and where copying or reproduction expenses are incurred by the carrier, the commission shall, upon request, reimburse the carrier for the expenses.

The employees, representatives, and inspectors of the commission may, under its order or direction, inspect and examine any lands, buildings, equipment, accounts, books, records, and memoranda, including all documents, papers, and correspondence kept or required to be kept by household goods carriers.

Sections 5221 to 5226, inclusive, shall, to the extent deemed necessary by the commission, apply to persons having control, direct or indirect, over or affiliated with any household goods carrier.

Any employee of the commission who divulges any fact or information which comes to his knowledge during the course of the examination of the accounts, records, and memoranda of household goods carriers, except as he is authorized or directed by the commission or by a court of competent jurisdiction or judge thereof, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than three (3) months, or both.

(a) Every household goods carrier shall furnish the commission annually, as specified by the commission, a list, prepared under oath, of all vehicles used in transportation for compensation during the preceding year. The commission shall furnish a copy of this list to the Department of the California Highway Patrol and to the carrier's insurer, if the carrier's accident liability protection is provided by a policy of insurance.
  (b) If the household goods carrier's insurer informs the commission that the carrier has failed to obtain insurance coverage for any vehicle reported on the list, the commission may, in addition to any other applicable penalty provided in this chapter, for a first occurrence, suspend the carrier's permit or impose a fine, or both, and for a second or subsequent occurrence may suspend or revoke the permit or impose a fine, or both.

Every household goods carrier earning over three hundred fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) in annual gross operating revenue shall, under oath, file annually a report indicating the number, classification, and compensation of all employees and owner-operator drivers hired or engaged during the reporting period. The commission shall submit a copy of the report to the administrator of the carrier' s workers' compensation self-insurance plan if the carrier is self-insured, or to the carrier's workers' compensation insurer if the carrier's workers' compensation protection is provided by a policy or policies of insurance. The commission shall not be obligated to undertake an independent investigation of the adequacy of workers' compensation insurance coverage based on the information contained in the report, if the carrier has complied with Section 5135.