The weight fees for commercial vehicles specified in Sections 9400 and 9400.1 do not apply to any of the following:

(a) A vehicle operated by a passenger stage corporation, as defined in Section 226 of the Public Utilities Code, that is subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission, if all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The vehicle is operated exclusively on any line or lines having a one-way route mileage not exceeding 15 miles, and each of those lines is operated in either of the following areas:

(A) In urban or suburban areas or between cities in close proximity.

(B) Between nonadjacent urban or suburban areas or cities, the area between which is substantially residential, commercial, or industrial as distinguished from rural.

(2) The principal business of the passenger stage corporation is the operation of vehicles on a route or routes as defined in paragraph (1).

(b) A vehicle operated exclusively on any line or lines within the limits of a single city by a person engaged as a common carrier of passengers between fixed termini or over a regular route, 98 percent of whose operations, as measured by total route mileage operated, are exclusively within the limits of a single city, and who by reason thereof is not a passenger stage corporation subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission.

(c) Vanpool vehicles.

(d) A vehicle purchased with federal funds under the authority of paragraph (2) of subsection (a) of Section 5310 of Title 49 of the United States Code or Chapter 35 (commencing with Section 3001) of Title 42 of the United States Code for the purpose of providing specialized transportation services to senior citizens and handicapped persons by public and private nonprofit operators of specialized transportation service agencies.

(e) A vehicle operated solely for the purpose of providing specialized transportation services to senior citizens and persons with disabilities, by a nonprofit, public benefit consolidated transportation service agency designated under Section 15975 of the Government Code.

(Amended by Stats. 2003, Ch. 594, Sec. 32. Effective January 1, 2004.)