Bill
HB 4782
Water carriers within Michigan must file rates within 30 days; the Department of State Police must decide within 30 days and may suspend rates, with hearings to follow.
HB 4782 — Summary of Transportation: Water Carriers Regulation
Overview
- Purpose: Amend 1921 PA 246 (as amended by 2017 PA 240) to regulate the scheduling and adjustment of rates, fares, and charges for carriers by water operating wholly within Michigan. The bill sets filing, review, and decision timelines for these rates by the Department of State Police, and preserves an exemption for ferry operations under municipal agreements.
- Scope: Applies to persons, firms, and corporations transporting freight, passengers, or express by water wholly within Michigan.
Key Provisions
- Filing of rates
- Within 30 days after the act takes effect, every water carrier must file a schedule of rates, fares, and charges for carrying freight, passengers, and express, using the form prescribed by the department.
- Filed rates remain in force until superseded by a new filing.
- Department of State Police (DSP) review
- DSP must make a decision on all filed rates within 30 days of filing.
- The DSP may suspend a filed rate, fare, charge, or tariff for up to 30 days either on its own motion or upon request.
- If suspended, the DSP must immediately notify the carrier and, within 10 days, set a hearing date no more than 20 days after suspension.
- The DSP must notify the carrier and other interested parties of the hearing date.
- After the hearing, the DSP sets the applicable rate, fare, charge, or tariff; the determined rate remains in force until superseded by subsequent action.
- Municipal ferry exemption
- Ferry companies operating within a municipality under an agreement with that municipality are not affected by this act as to fares or operations.
- Such ferry companies may set rates for freight, passengers, and express unless the municipal agreement explicitly prohibits it.
Affected Parties
- Primary: Carriers by water that operate entirely within Michigan.
- Indirect: Municipalities and ferry operators with existing agreements governing their service and pricing.
Procedural and Timeline Aspects
- Introduced: March 13, 2025
- First readings and referrals progressed in spring 2025; reintroduced and electronically reproduced August 21, 2025.
- Status: Referred to Committee on Government Operations; bill introduced by Rep. Jay DeBoyer.
- Key timeline mechanics: 30-day filing window; 30-day DSP decision window; potential 30-day suspension with a hearing within 30 days of suspension (hearing date within 20 days of suspension).
Potential Impact
- Regulatory oversight of water carrier pricing within Michigan would be consolidated under DSP with explicit filing and hearing procedures.
- Carriers might experience shorter or more tightly regulated intervals for adjusting rates, with formal hearing processes shaping adjustments.
- Municipal ferry operators under existing agreements retain pricing autonomy, contingent on the terms of their contracts.
- Overall, the bill aims to formalize and expedite rate review for intrastate water carriers while preserving negotiated ferry arrangements.
Effective Date
- The text provided does not specify an explicit effective date. A future enactment would determine when these provisions take effect, subject to standard legislative effective-date rules.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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