Exempt carrier authority - Virginia

Intrastate

Certain for-hire operations are not required to obtain operating authority, including but not limited to:

• Motor vehicles that deliver property within the boundaries of the same Virginia city or town where the property was picked up;
• Motor vehicles operated and used by a cooperative association that is a non-profit corporation and used only in its business;
• Motor vehicles carrying only newspapers, water, livestock, poultry, poultry products, buttermilk, fresh milk and cream, meats, butter and cheese produced on a farm, fish, shellfish, slate, horticultural or agricultural commodities (not including manufactured products thereof), and forest products, including lumber and staves (but not including manufactured products thereof);
• Motor vehicles transporting farm supplies to farms;
• Motor vehicles hauling for the Department of Transportation;
• Motor vehicles carrying fertilizer to warehouses for later distribution to local farms;
• Motor vehicles collecting and disposing of trash, garbage, or refuse;
• Motor vehicles used for transporting property by an air carrier or carrier affiliated with a direct air carrier whether or not such property has had or will have a prior or subsequent air movement; and
• Motor carriers exclusively operating passenger cars, motorcycles, autocycles, mopeds, and vehicles with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less.

Although exempt from authority, before any vehicle is used by a carrier to transport property for compensation in Virginia, the owner of the vehicle must declare to the Department that the vehicle is for-hire.

If a carrier has both exempt and non-exempt operations, the carrier must obtain operating authority. If the carrier has vehicles that are used in both exempt and non-exempt operations, the carrier must register the vehicles under the carrier’s operating authority.

Contact the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles for further assistance.

Interstate

Virginia is a participating member of the Unified Carrier Registration Agreement (UCRA). Online registration and fee payment is recommended and available to all carriers at the national UCRA website at www.ucr.in.gov.

Refer to Unified Carrier Registration Agreement (UCRA) for the current fee schedule.

View agency contact information.