Natural or legal persons who, on the date of publication of this law, are engaged in the activity of transporting persons in vehicles of the micro-bus modality, without a fixed itinerary, whose services are contracted by trip, time, or in both forms, who have operated according to the provisions of Article 323 of the Código de Comercio and who, in accordance with this law, must operate henceforth under a special permit, must accredit their status before the Consejo de Transporte Público.
For these purposes, they must provide the following:
- a)Express request, duly authenticated by an attorney, that they be permitted to avail themselves of the provisions herein, designating a place to receive notifications.
- b)Certification of legal status, in the case of legal persons.
- c)Certification issued by the Ministry of Finance and by the municipal license department of the municipality where they are operating, demonstrating their proper registration in the activity, in accordance with the legal system.
- d)Certification of being registered with the CCSS, unless they are in a case of exception, which they must prove.
- e)Certified copy of the latest income tax declaration filed with the Dirección General de Tributación.
- f)Certified copy of the contract or contracts entered into with the persons, institutions, or companies that use their service.
- g)Notarized sworn statement given before a notary public, indicating that they have habitually engaged in the related activity, from what date, and the characteristics of the service they have been providing. They must also accredit the number and characteristics of the motor vehicles they have been using.
- h)Proof of being up to date in the payment of fines under Law No. 7331, Ley de Tránsito por Vías Públicas Terrestres.
- i)Proof of being up to date in the payment of the insurance policies for transporting persons for each of their units, in Tariff Class 21.
By means of said evidence and any other additional evidence that the petitioner deems convenient and necessary to provide, it must be proven, in a reliable manner and to the satisfaction of the Consejo de Transporte Público, that the respective service was capable of being provided under Article 323 of the Código de Comercio, and that from its inception, it did not share the legal nature or the specific elements that characterize the activities that Law No. 3503, Ley Reguladora del Transporte Remunerado de Personas en Vehículos Automotores, of May 10, 1965, has been regulating as a public service.
All of these requirements must be submitted to the Consejo de Transporte Público within the peremptory term of one month, counted from the publication of this law; otherwise, said persons may not continue providing the service. The Consejo de Transporte Público shall issue a receipt for all these requirements, which the respective vehicles shall carry during the term indicated further below, until the Council issues its resolution. This receipt does not prejudge the admissibility of the request.
The Consejo de Transporte Público must carefully analyze each request, in order to corroborate that it meets all requirements and to guarantee, in light of the public interest involved, that it is not a case of illegal provision of the public service or a case of fraud of law (fraude de ley); to do so, it may request additional documents or clarifications from the petitioner and even order further evidence to better resolve the matter.
To those persons whose petitions are deemed admissible, the Consejo de Transporte Público shall issue a special operation permit for a term of up to three years, renewable, during which the Consejo de Transporte Público and the Policía de Tránsito shall exercise oversight and control duties, for the purpose of verifying the operational conditions of the service provision.
Hereafter, the stipulations established by Ley N.º 3503, Ley Reguladora del Transporte Remunerado de Personas en Vehículos Automotores, of May 10, 1965, and its amendments, and the regulation for the operation of special remunerated motor vehicle passenger transport services, Decreto Ejecutivo N.º 15203 - MOPT, of January 31, 1984, and its amendments, or any that may replace it in the future, shall apply to it, insofar as they are applicable and consistent with the nature of the service in question, in the judgment of said Council. Likewise, they must be up to date in their obligations with the CCSS and in the payment of fines arising from Ley N.º 7331, Ley de Tránsito por Vías Públicas Terrestres. The number of vehicles per permit shall be determined according to technical criteria and may not be increased during the term of the permit.
Persons whose application does not meet the established requirements, or is deemed inadmissible for other reasons provided for by the legal system, shall be declared without the right to proceed and, therefore, must cease their operations immediately from the moment they are notified of the rejection of their application. The same consequence shall apply to persons whom the Council determines have been illegally providing the public service, when it has not been duly demonstrated that the activity in question is not framed as a public service, or that it is a case of fraud of law. In these cases and without prejudice to the duty to refrain from providing service, the person may choose to transform their application into a formal request for the granting of a special permit; to do so, they must fulfill the applicable requirements in accordance with Ley N.º 3503, Ley Reguladora del Transporte Remunerado de Personas en Vehículos Automotores, of May 10, 1965, and other applicable regulations, a process that shall be handled in the usual manner until the Council decides what is appropriate, according to its powers.
The Consejo de Transporte Público shall have a period of two months to resolve the applications referred to in this transitional provision, which may be extended for an additional month in cases whose complexity so warrants, and the justification for this measure must be duly stated. Positive silence shall not apply to these applications. In the event of an extension, this shall be recorded on the certificate that the vehicles must carry, if so requested by the interested person.
Takes effect upon its publication.
Given in the City of San José, on the sixteenth day of the month of June of the year two thousand eleven.