2009 Iowa Code
Title 8 - Transportation
Subtitle 2 - Vehicles
CHAPTER 321 - MOTOR VEHICLES AND LAW OF THE ROAD
321.19 - EXEMPTIONS -- DISTINGUISHING PLATES -- DEFINITIONS OF URBAN TRANSIT COMPANY AND REGIONAL TRANSIT SYSTEM.

        321.19  EXEMPTIONS -- DISTINGUISHING PLATES --
      DEFINITIONS OF URBAN TRANSIT COMPANY AND REGIONAL TRANSIT SYSTEM.
         1.  All vehicles owned or leased for a period of sixty days or
      more by the government and used in the transaction of official
      business by the representatives of foreign governments or by
      officers, boards, or departments of the government of the United
      States, and by the state, counties, municipalities and other
      political subdivisions of the state including vehicles used by an
      urban transit company operated by a municipality or a regional
      transit system, and self-propelling vehicles used neither for the
      conveyance of persons for hire, pleasure, or business nor for the
      transportation of freight other than those used by an urban transit
      company operated by a municipality or a regional transit system, all
      fire trucks, providing they are not owned and operated for a
      pecuniary profit, and authorized emergency vehicles used only in
      disaster relief owned and operated by an organization not operated
      for pecuniary profit, are exempted from the payment of the
      registration fees imposed by this chapter, except as provided for
      urban transit companies in subsection 2, but are not exempt from the
      penalties provided in this chapter.
         The department shall furnish, on application, free of charge,
      distinguishing plates for vehicles thus exempted, which plates except
      plates on state patrol vehicles shall bear the word "official" and
      the department shall keep a separate record.  Registration plates
      issued for state patrol vehicles, except unmarked patrol vehicles,
      shall bear two red stars on a yellow background, one before and one
      following the registration number on the plate, which registration
      number shall be the officer's badge number.  Registration plates
      issued for county sheriff's patrol vehicles shall display one
      seven-pointed gold star followed by the letter "S" and the call
      number of the vehicle.  However, the director of the department of
      administrative services or the director of transportation may order
      the issuance of regular registration plates for any exempted vehicle
      used by peace officers in the enforcement of the law, persons
      enforcing chapter 124 and other laws relating to controlled
      substances, persons in the department of justice, the alcoholic
      beverages division of the department of commerce, disease
      investigators of the Iowa department of public health, the department
      of inspections and appeals, and the department of revenue, who are
      regularly assigned to conduct investigations which cannot reasonably
      be conducted with a vehicle displaying "official" state registration
      plates, persons in the Iowa lottery authority whose regularly
      assigned duties relating to security or the carrying of lottery
      tickets cannot reasonably be conducted with a vehicle displaying
      "official" registration plates, persons in the department of economic
      development who are regularly assigned duties relating to existing
      industry expansion or business attraction, and mental health
      professionals or health care professionals who provide off-site or
      in-home medical or mental health services to clients of publicly
      funded programs.  For purposes of sale of exempted vehicles, the
      exempted governmental body, upon the sale of the exempted vehicle,
      may issue for in-transit purposes a pasteboard card bearing the words
      "Vehicle in Transit", the name of the official body from which the
      vehicle was purchased, together with the date of the purchase plainly
      marked in at least one-inch letters, and other information required
      by the department.  The in-transit card is valid for use only within
      forty-eight hours after the purchase date as indicated on the bill of
      sale which shall be carried by the driver.
         2.  "Urban transit company" means any person, firm,
      corporation, company, or municipality which operates buses or trolley
      cars or both, primarily upon the streets of cities over well-defined
      routes between certain termini, for the transportation of passengers
      for a uniform fare, and which accepts for passengers all who present
      themselves for transportation without discrimination up to the limit
      of the capacity of each vehicle.  Included are street railways,
      plants, equipment, property, and rights, used and useful in the
      transportation of passengers.  Motor carriers and interurbans subject
      to the jurisdiction of the state department of transportation, and
      taxicabs, are not included.
         The department, in accordance with subsection 1, shall furnish
      distinguishing plates for vehicles used by urban transit companies
      operated by a municipality.  No other provision of law providing for
      the payment of taxes, registration, or license fees for vehicles
      shall be applicable to any bus, car, or vehicle for the
      transportation of passengers owned and operated by any urban transit
      company.
         Chapter 326 is not applicable to urban transit companies or
      systems.
         3.  "Regional transit system" means a public transit system
      serving one county or all or part of a multicounty area whose
      boundaries correspond to the same boundaries as those of the regional
      planning areas designated by the governor, except as agreed upon by
      the department.  Each county board of supervisors within the region
      is responsible for determining the service and funding within its
      county.  However, the administration and overhead support services
      for the overall regional transit system shall be consolidated into
      one existing or new agency to be mutually agreed upon by the
      participating members.  Privately chartered bus services and uses
      other than providing services that are open and public on a shared
      ride basis shall not be construed to be a regional transit system.
      

         Section History: Early Form

         [C24, 27, 31, 35, § 4867, 4922; C39, § 5001.03; C46, 50, 54,
      58, 62, § 321.19; C66, 71, 73, § 321.19, 386C.1--386C.3; C75, 77, 79,
      81, § 321.19] 

         Section History: Recent Form

         83 Acts, ch 40, § 1; 84 Acts, ch 1253, § 1--3; 85 Acts, ch 67, §
      34; 85 Acts, ch 115, § 2; 86 Acts, ch 1042, § 10; 92 Acts, ch 1244, §
      41; 95 Acts, ch 118, § 5; 96 Acts, ch 1034, § 19; 96 Acts, ch 1066, §
      1; 96 Acts, ch 1211, § 33; 97 Acts, ch 104, §6; 97 Acts, ch 158, §1;
      98 Acts, ch 1028, §1; 98 Acts, ch 1074, §21; 99 Acts, ch 141, § 37;
      2003 Acts, ch 145, §244; 2003 Acts, ch 178, §109, 121; 2003 Acts, ch
      179, §142; 2005 Acts, ch 35, §31; 2006 Acts, ch 1022, §1; 2008 Acts,
      ch 1113, §49
         Referred to in § 8A.362, 321.39, 321.166, 321E.11, 331.557, 721.8
         See also § 8A.362, 321.170