16 Tex. Admin. Code § 86.10 - Definitions

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.

Notes

16 Tex. Admin. Code § 86.10

The provisions of this §86.10 adopted to be effective April 15, 2008, 33 TexReg 2940; amended to be effective May 3, 2010, 35 TexReg 3486; amended to be effective January 16, 2012, 37 TexReg 116; Amended by Texas Register, Volume 43, Number 01, January 5, 2018, TexReg 0091, eff. 1/15/2018