2006 Code of Virginia § 54.1-918 - State Corporation Commission to prescribe and enforce rates of pilotage and other charges

54.1-918. State Corporation Commission to prescribe and enforce rates ofpilotage and other charges.

The State Corporation Commission shall prescribe and enforce the rates ofpilotage and other charges to be observed in the business of pilotage, butbefore the Commission fixes or prescribes rates or charges it shall give tendays' notice of the time and place of a hearing by publication in a newspaperof general circulation in each of the Cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth andNewport News. For the purpose of determining the fair basis of such rates andcharges, the Commission shall, for the two years next preceding, have accessto the books and records of the individual pilots who have no organizedassociation, and of any association of pilots who have an organizedassociation whose rates are to be fixed by the Commission, and shall have thesame powers given by law in fixing rates and charges of transportationcompanies.

The Commission shall fix amounts that will be a fair charge for the servicerendered. The Commission shall have due regard for necessary operatingexpenses, maintenance of, depreciation on, and return on investment inproperties used and useful in the business of pilotage, and the rates andcharges of pilotage at comparable and competing ports of the United States.

When such rates and charges have been fixed and prescribed by the Commission,they shall be the legal rates and charges of pilotage in Virginia, and shallbe enforced as provided by law, and the Commission shall have the power tochange or alter rates or charges after notice and hearing as provided in thissection.

(Code 1950, 54-562; 1988, c. 765; 1992, c. 10.)