                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

REGISTRATION OF SURFACE TRANSPORTATION AND REMOVAL SERVICES; PENALTY (§
54.1-2819)

Any person or private business, except a common carrier engaged in interstate
commerce, the Commonwealth and its agencies, or an emergency medical services
agency holding a permit issued by the Commissioner of Health pursuant to §
32.1-111.6, shall apply for and receive a registration as a transportation and
removal service in order to be authorized to engage in the business of surface
transportation or removal of dead human bodies in the Commonwealth.
		Surface transportation and removal services shall not arrange or conduct
funerals, provide for the care or preparation, including embalming, of dead
human bodies, or sell or provide funeral-related goods and services without the
issuance of a funeral service establishment license.
		The Board shall promulgate regulations for such registration including proper
procedures in the handling of all dead human bodies being transported, the
application process for registration, and the establishment of registration
fees. These regulations shall not require the use of a casket for
transportation. No licensed funeral service establishment shall be required to
receive such registration in addition to its funeral service establishment
license. However, such establishment shall be subject to the regulations
pertaining to transportation and removal services.
		Every applicant for registration as a surface transportation and removal
service shall include the name of a manager of record on any application for
registration and shall notify the Board within 30 days of any change in the
manager of record. Such notice shall include the name of the new manager of
record of the surface transportation and removal service.
		All registrations as a surface transportation and removal service shall be
renewed annually and no person or private business shall engage in the business
as a surface transportation and removal service without holding a valid
registration.
		Any surface transportation or removal service that is not registered or
persons who knowingly engage in transportation or removal services without
registration shall be subject to the disciplinary actions provided in this
chapter.
		This section shall not be construed to prohibit private individuals from
transporting or removing the remains of deceased family members and relatives
either by preference or in observation of religious beliefs and customs.

HISTORY: 1984, c. 761, § 54-260.74:1; 1986, c. 198; 1988, c. 765; 2006, c. 555;
2015, cc. 110, 534.