Download as PDF
281.605 Exemption of motor vehicles used for certain purposes.
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply, except as to safety regulations, to:
(1) Motor vehicles used as school buses and while engaged in the transportation of
students, under the supervision and control and at the direction of school
authorities;
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (e) of this subsection, motor vehicles, regardless of
ownership, used exclusively:
(a) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products, including fruit,
livestock, meats, fertilizer, wood, lumber, cotton, products of grove or
orchard, poultry, and eggs, while owned by the producer of the products,
including landlord where the relation of landlord and tenant or landlord and
cropper is involved, from the farm to a market, warehouse, dairy, or mill, or
from one (1) market, warehouse, dairy, or mill to another market, warehouse,
dairy, or mill;
(b) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products, livestock, farm
machinery, feed, fertilizer, and other materials and supplies essential to farm
operation, from market or shipping terminal to farm;
(c) For both the purposes described in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection;
(d) For the transportation of agricultural and dairy products from farm to regularly
organized fairs and exhibits and return; or
(e) Motor vehicles used for the transportation of fly ash, in bags, sacks, or other
containers, the aggregate weight of which does not exceed ten thousand
(10,000) pounds; or bottom ash, waste ash, sludge, and pozatec which is being
removed from the premises of a power generator facility for the purpose of
disposal;
(3) Motor vehicles used exclusively as church buses and while operated in the
transportation of persons to and from a church or place of worship or for other
religious work under the supervision and control and at the direction of church
authorities;
(4) Motor vehicles used exclusively for the transportation of property belonging to a
nonprofit cooperative association or its members where the vehicle is owned or
leased exclusively by the association;
(5) Motor vehicles owned in whole or in part by any person and used by such person to
transport commodities of which such person is the bona fide owner, lessee,
consignee, or bailee; provided, however, that such transportation is for the purpose
of sale, lease, rent, or bailment, and is an incidental adjunct to an established private
business owned and operated by such person within the scope and in furtherance of
any primary commercial enterprise of such person other than the business of
transportation of property for hire;
(6) Motor vehicles used in pick-up or delivery service within a city or within a city and
its commercial area for a carrier by rail;
(7) Motor vehicles used exclusively for the transportation of coal from the point at
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
(16)
which such coal is mined to a railhead or tipple where the railhead or tipple is
located at a point not more than fifty (50) air miles from the point at which the coal
is mined;
Motor vehicles used as ambulances in transporting wounded, injured, or sick
animals or as ambulances as defined in KRS 311A.010;
Motor vehicles used by transit authorities as created and defined in KRS Chapter
96A except as required by KRS 96A.170. Vehicles operated under the authority and
direct responsibility of such transit authorities, through contractual agreement, shall
be included within this exemption, without regard to the legal ownership of the
vehicles, but only for such times as they are operated under the authority and
responsibility of the transit authority;
Motor vehicles having a seating capacity of fifteen (15) or fewer passengers and
while transporting persons between their places of residence, on the one hand, and,
on the other, their places of employment, provided the driver himself is on his way
to or from his place of employment, and further provided that any person who
operates or controls the operation of vehicles hereunder of which said person is the
owner or lessee, and any spouse of said person and any partnership or corporation
with said person or his spouse having an interest therein doing such, shall be
eligible to so operate an aggregate number of not more than one (1) vehicle on other
than a nonprofit basis;
Motor vehicles used to transport cash letters, data processing material, instruments,
or documents, regardless of the ownership of any of said cash letters, data
processing material, instruments, or documents;
Motor vehicles operated by integrated intermodal small package carriers who
provide intermodal-air-and-ground-transportation. For the purposes of this section,
"integrated intermodal small package carrier" shall mean an air carrier holding a
certificate or qualifying as an indirect air carrier that undertakes, by itself or through
a company affiliated through common ownership, to provide intermodal-air-andground-transportation, and "intermodal-air-and-ground-transportation" shall mean
transportation involving the carriage of articles weighing not more than one hundred
fifty (150) pounds by aircraft or other forms of transportation, including by motor
vehicle, wholly within the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The incidental or
occasional use of aircraft in transporting packages or articles shall not constitute an
integrated intermodal operation within the meaning of this section;
Motor vehicles operated pursuant to a grant of funds in furtherance of and governed
by 49 U.S.C. secs. 5310 or 5311, including all amendments, and whose operators
have jurisdictions and services approved annually by the Transportation Cabinet in
accordance with 49 C.F.R. Title VI;
Motor vehicles used to transport children to educational events or conservation
camps run by, or sponsored by, the Department of Fish and Wildlife;
Motor vehicles used to transport children to events or camps run by, or sponsored
by, the Kentucky Sheriffs Association; or
(a) Motor vehicles used in the transportation of persons who are sixty (60) years
(b)
(c)
of age or older or who are visually impaired, if the motor vehicles are owned
by a nonprofit organization or being used on behalf of a nonprofit
organization that is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3)
of the Internal Revenue Code.
Motor vehicles owned and operated by a nonprofit organization that are
exempt under this subsection shall be subject to liability insurance coverage as
established by KRS 281.655.
Motor vehicles owned privately but operated on behalf of a nonprofit
organization that are exempt under this subsection shall be subject to liability
insurance coverage as established by KRS 304.39-110.
Effective: June 24, 2015
History: Amended 2015 Ky. Acts ch. 19, sec. 5, effective June 24, 2015. -- Repealed
and reenacted 2009 Ky. Acts ch. 19, sec. 1, effective June 25, 2009. -- Amended
2008 Ky. Acts ch. 146, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2008. -- Amended 2002 Ky. Acts ch.
211, sec. 38, effective July 15, 2002; and ch. 318, sec. 1, effective July 15, 2002. -Amended 2000 Ky. Acts ch. 343, sec. 15, effective July 14, 2000. -- Amended 1998
Ky. Acts ch. 607, sec. 5, effective July 15, 1998. -- Amended 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 233,
sec. 2, effective July 15, 1996. -- Amended 1994 Ky. Acts ch. 448, sec. 1, effective
July 15, 1994. -- Amended 1990 Ky. Acts ch. 403, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1990. -Amended 1984 Ky. Acts ch. 238, sec. 1, effective July 13, 1984. -- Amended 1980
Ky. Acts ch. 349, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1980. -- Amended 1978 Ky. Acts ch. 62,
sec. 1, effective June 17, 1978; and ch. 232, sec. 5, effective June 17, 1978. -Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 138, sec. 3. -- Amended 1972 Ky. Acts ch. 269, sec. 1. - Amended 1968 Ky. Acts ch. 152, sec. 135. -- Amended 1964 Ky. Acts ch. 95, sec.
6. -- Amended 1962 Ky. Acts ch. 96, sec. 1. -- Amended 1958 Ky. Acts ch. 123, sec.
1; and ch. 130, sec. 6. -- Amended 1954 Ky. Acts ch. 188, sec. 2. -- Created 1950
Ky. Acts ch. 63, sec. 8, effective June 15, 1950.
Legislative Research Commission Note (7/15/2008). The internal numbering of
subsection (16) of this section has been altered by the Reviser of Statutes from the
numbering in 2008 Ky. Acts ch. 146, sec. 1, under the authority of KRS 7.136.
Disclaimer: These codes may not be the most recent version. Kentucky may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.