The State Corporation Commission shall prescribe and enforce the rates of pilotage and other charges to be observed in the business of pilotage, but before the Commission fixes or prescribes rates or charges it shall give ten days' notice of the time and place of a hearing by publication in a newspaper of general circulation in each of the Cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News. For the purpose of determining the fair basis of such rates and charges, the Commission shall, for the two years next preceding, have access to the books and records of the individual pilots who have no organized association, and of any association of pilots who have an organized association whose rates are to be fixed by the Commission, and shall have the same powers given by law in fixing rates and charges of transportation companies.

The Commission shall fix amounts that will be a fair charge for the service rendered. The Commission shall have due regard for necessary operating expenses, maintenance of, depreciation on, and return on investment in properties used and useful in the business of pilotage, and the rates and charges 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 shall be enforced as provided by law, and the Commission shall have the power to change or alter rates or charges after notice and hearing as provided in this section.

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