QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 4136)
RA 4136 is known as the “Land Transportation and Traffic Code.” Its provisions control, as far as they apply, the registration and operation of motor vehicles and the licensing of owners, dealers, conductors, drivers, and similar matters.
Vehicles excluded include road rollers, trolley cars, street-sweepers, sprinklers, lawn mowers, bulldozers, graders, fork-lifts, amphibian trucks, and cranes if not used on public highways; vehicles running only on rails or tracks; and tractors, trailers, and traction engines used exclusively for agricultural purposes.
Trailers with any number of wheels, when propelled or intended to be propelled by attachment to a motor vehicle, are classified as separate motor vehicles with no power rating.
A professional driver is one hired or paid for driving/operating a motor vehicle, whether for private use or hire to the public; it includes any person driving his own motor vehicle for hire.
No motor vehicle may be used or operated on any public highway unless properly registered for the current year in accordance with the Act.
For-hire motor vehicles: on or before the last working day of February; Privately-owned motor vehicles: from March 1 to the last working day of May; All other motor vehicles: from June 1 to the last working day of June (subject to plate return exception). Late registration becomes delinquent and invalid.
No repair/change involving exchange, elimination, effacing, or replacing of the original or registered serial/motor number is allowed. Any vehicle showing traces of motor-number alteration may be refused registration or re-registration unless satisfactorily explained and approved by the Commissioner.
They must be recorded in the Land Transportation Commission and properly noted on the face of outstanding certificates of registration. Without such notation of the encumbrance (or cancellation), no certificate of registration shall be issued.
These cannot be used for hire under any circumstances and cannot solicit, accept, or transport passengers or freight for pay.
Laborers necessary to handle freight may ride provided: seats are not installed in the rear compartment; only up to ten laborers needed may ride; and the combined weight of cargo and passengers does not exceed the truck’s registered net capacity. Also, a vehicle habitually carrying others’ freight or unrelated passengers is conclusively presumed “for hire.”
Dealer’s registration covers motor vehicles imported/handled by dealers for sale. Dealer-registered vehicles cannot be used to carry passengers or freight in the dealer’s business or for hire. They may only transport the vehicle itself (e.g., from pier/factory to warehouse/sales room) or for delivery to a purchaser or for test/demonstration.
Permissible maximum weights: per most heavily loaded wheel—3,600 kg; per most heavily loaded axle—8,000 kg; per most heavily loaded axle group (two axles 1m to <2m apart)—14,500 kg. No provincial, city, or municipal authority may enact/enforce any ordinance setting or regulating maximum gross weight.
Overall width: 2.5 meters; overall height: 4 meters; overall length: 10m for freight vehicles with two axles; 11m for passenger vehicles with two axles; 14m for vehicles with three or more axles; vehicle+trailer combination not exceeding 18m in overall projected length. No articulated vehicle may draw/pull a trailer and no vehicle drawing a trailer may draw another trailer.
A properly numbered certificate of registration is issued after inspection and payment. It must be preserved and carried in the car as evidence of registration (or a true copy/photostat may be carried). The certificate is the authority for operation while valid and not suspended/revoked.