2023 Texas Statutes › Transportation Code › Title 7 - Vehicles and Traffic › Subtitle A - Certificates of Title and Registration of Vehicles › Chapter 502 - Registration of Vehicles › Subchapter A. General Provisions › Section 502.001. Definitions

Sec. 502.001.  DEFINITIONS.  In this chapter:
(1)  Repealed by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1233 (H.B. 1548), Sec. 41(3), eff. June 14, 2019.
(2)  "Apportioned license plate" means a license plate issued in lieu of a truck, motor bus, or combination license plate to a motor carrier in this state who proportionally registers a vehicle owned or leased by the carrier in one or more other states.
(3)  "Board" means the board of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
(4)  "Combination license plate" means a license plate issued for a truck or truck-tractor that is used or intended to be used in combination with a semitrailer that has a gross weight of more than 6,000 pounds.
(5)  "Combined gross weight" means the empty weight of the truck-tractor or commercial motor vehicle combined with the empty weight of the heaviest semitrailer used or to be used in combination with the truck-tractor or commercial motor vehicle plus the heaviest net load to be carried on the combination during the registration year.
(6)  "Commercial fleet" means a group of at least 12 nonapportioned motor vehicles, semitrailers, or trailers owned, operated, or leased by a corporation, limited or general partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity and used for the business purposes of that entity.
(7)  "Commercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle, other than a motorcycle or moped, designed or used primarily to transport property.  The term includes a passenger car reconstructed and used primarily for delivery purposes.  The term does not include a passenger car used to deliver the United States mail.
(8)  "Construction machinery" means a vehicle that:
(A)  is used for construction;
(B)  is built from the ground up;
(C)  is not mounted or affixed to another vehicle such as a trailer;
(D)  was originally and permanently designed as machinery;
(E)  was not in any way originally designed to transport persons or property; and
(F)  does not carry a load, including fuel.
(9)  "Credit card" has the meaning assigned by Section 501.002.
(10)  "Debit card" has the meaning assigned by Section 501.002.
(11)  "Department" means the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
(12)  Repealed by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 485 (H.B. 2188), Sec. 10, eff. September 1, 2019.
(13)  "Electric personal assistive mobility device" has the meaning assigned by Section 551.201.
(14)  "Empty weight" means the unladen weight of a truck-tractor or commercial motor vehicle and semitrailer combination fully equipped, as certified by a public weigher or license and weight inspector of the Department of Public Safety.
(15)  "Farm semitrailer" or "farm trailer" means a vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm vehicle.
(16)  "Farm tractor" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.201.
(17)  "Forestry vehicle" means a vehicle designed and used exclusively for transporting forest products in their natural state, including logs, debarked logs, untreated ties, stave bolts, plywood bolts, pulpwood billets, wood chips, stumps, sawdust, moss, bark, and wood shavings, and property used in production of those products.
(17-a)  "Former military vehicle" means a vehicle, including a trailer, that:
(A)  was manufactured for use in any country's military forces; and
(B)  is not operated on continuous tracks.
(18)  Repealed by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1233 (H.B. 1548), Sec. 41(3), eff. June 14, 2019.
(19)  "Gross vehicle weight" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.401.
(20)  "Implements of husbandry" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.201.
(21)  "Light truck" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.201.
(22)  "Moped" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.201.
(23)  "Motor bus" includes every vehicle used to transport persons on the public highways for compensation, other than:
(A)  a vehicle operated by muscular power; or
(B)  a municipal bus.
(24)  "Motorcycle" has the meaning assigned by Section 521.001 or 541.201, as applicable.
(25)  "Motor vehicle" means a vehicle that is self-propelled.
(26)  "Motorized mobility device" has the meaning assigned by Section 552A.0101.
(27)  "Municipal bus" includes every vehicle, other than a passenger car, used to transport persons for compensation exclusively within the limits of a municipality or a suburban addition to the municipality.
(28)  "Net carrying capacity" means the heaviest net load that is able to be carried on a vehicle, but not less than the manufacturer's rated carrying capacity.
(29)  "Oil well servicing, cleanout, or drilling machinery":
(A)  has the meaning assigned by Section 623.149; or
(B)  means a mobile crane:
(i)  that is an unladen, self-propelled vehicle constructed as a machine and used solely to raise, shift, or lower heavy weights by means of a projecting, swinging mast with an engine for power on a chassis permanently constructed or assembled for that purpose; and
(ii)  for which the owner has secured a permit from the department under Section 623.142.
(30)  "Operate temporarily on the highways" means to travel between:
(A)  different farms;
(B)  a place of supply or storage and a farm; or
(C)  an owner's farm and the place at which the owner's farm produce is prepared for market or is marketed.
(31)  "Owner" means a person who:
(A)  holds the legal title of a vehicle;
(B)  has the legal right of possession of a vehicle; or
(C)  has the legal right of control of a vehicle.
(32)  "Passenger car" has the meaning assigned by Section 541.201.
(33)  "Power sweeper" means an implement, with or without motive power, designed for the removal by a broom, vacuum, or regenerative air system of debris, dirt, gravel, litter, or sand from asphaltic concrete or cement concrete surfaces, including surfaces of parking lots, roads, streets, highways, and warehouse floors. The term includes a vehicle on which the implement is permanently mounted if the vehicle is used only as a power sweeper.
(34)  "Private bus" means a bus that:
(A)  is not operated for hire; and
(B)  is not a municipal bus or a motor bus.
(35)  "Public highway" includes a road, street, way, thoroughfare, or bridge:
(A)  that is in this state;
(B)  that is for the use of vehicles;
(C)  that is not privately owned or controlled; and
(D)  over which the state has legislative jurisdiction under its police power.
(36)  "Public property" means property owned or leased by this state or a political subdivision of this state.
(37)  Repealed by Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1233 (H.B. 1548), Sec. 41(3), eff. June 14, 2019.
(38)  "Road tractor" means a vehicle designed for the purpose of mowing the right-of-way of a public highway or a motor vehicle designed or used for drawing another vehicle or a load and not constructed to carry:
(A)  an independent load; or
(B)  a part of the weight of the vehicle and load to be drawn.
(39)  "Semitrailer" means a vehicle designed or used with a motor vehicle so that part of the weight of the vehicle and its load rests on or is carried by another vehicle.
(39-a) "Shipping weight" means the weight generally accepted as the empty weight of a vehicle.
(40)  "Token trailer" means a semitrailer that:
(A)  has a gross weight of more than 6,000 pounds; and
(B)  is operated in combination with a truck or a truck-tractor that has been issued:
(i)  an apportioned license plate;
(ii)  a combination license plate; or
(iii)  a forestry vehicle license plate.
(41)  "Tow truck" means a motor vehicle adapted or used to tow, winch, or otherwise move another motor vehicle.
(42)  "Trailer" means a vehicle that:
(A)  is designed or used to carry a load wholly on its own structure; and
(B)  is drawn or designed to be drawn by a motor vehicle.
(43)  "Travel trailer" has the meaning assigned by Section 501.002.
(44)  "Truck-tractor" means a motor vehicle:
(A)  designed and used primarily for drawing another vehicle; and
(B)  not constructed to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load to be drawn.
(45)  "Vehicle" means a device in or by which a person or property is or may be transported or drawn on a public highway, other than a device used exclusively on stationary rails or tracks.
Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.  Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 625, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
Amended by:
Acts 2005, 79th Leg., Ch. 586 (H.B. 1646), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2005.
Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1280 (H.B. 3849), Sec. 1, eff. June 15, 2007.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 933 (H.B. 3097), Sec. 2E.01, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1136 (H.B. 2553), Sec. 5, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1173 (H.B. 3433), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 1232 (S.B. 1759), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1296 (H.B. 2357), Sec. 71, eff. January 1, 2012.
Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 131 (S.B. 487), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2013.
Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1135 (H.B. 2741), Sec. 62, eff. September 1, 2013.
Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 968 (S.B. 2075), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2017.
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 485 (H.B. 2188), Sec. 10, eff. September 1, 2019.
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 612 (S.B. 969), Sec. 1, eff. June 10, 2019.
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 882 (H.B. 3171), Sec. 2.03, eff. September 1, 2019.
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1079 (H.B. 1755), Sec. 6, eff. September 1, 2019.
Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1233 (H.B. 1548), Sec. 41(3), eff. June 14, 2019.
Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 388 (H.B. 433), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2023.