(1) A common carrier subject to regulation by the commission as to rates and service shall not charge, demand, collect, or receive a greater or less or different compensation for transportation of persons or property, or for any service in connection therewith, than the rates, fares, and charges applicable to such transportation as specified in its schedules filed and in effect at the time and shall not refund or remit in any manner or by any device any portion of the rates, fares, or charges so specified excepting upon order of the commission as hereinafter provided, or extend to any shipper or person any privileges or facilities in the transportation of passengers or property except such as are regularly and uniformly extended to all persons and corporations under like circumstances. Any common carrier subject to regulation by the commission as to rates and service shall not, directly or indirectly, issue or give any free ticket, free pass, or free or reduced transportation for passengers between points within this state, except to the carrier's employees and their families, surgeons and physicians and their families, the carrier's officers, agents, and attorneys-at-law; to ministers of religion, traveling secretaries of young men's christian associations, inmates of hospitals, charitable and eleemosynary institutions, and persons exclusively engaged in charitable and eleemosynary work; to indigent, destitute, and homeless persons; to inmates of the national homes or state homes for volunteer soldiers with disabilities and of soldiers' and sailors' homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge; to necessary caretakers of livestock, poultry, milk, and fruit; to lineworkers of telegraph and telephone companies; to post office inspectors, customs inspectors, and immigration inspectors; to baggage agents and witnesses attending any legal investigation in which the common carrier is interested; to persons injured in accidents or wrecks and physicians and nurses attending such persons; to the national guard of Washington when on official duty; and students going to and returning from state institutions of learning. This section does not prohibit the interchange of passes for the officers, attorneys, agents and employees and their families, of commercial ferries or prohibit any common carrier from carrying passengers free with the object of providing relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, or other calamitous visitation.

(2) "Employee," as used in this section, includes furloughed, pensioned, and superannuated employees, persons who have become disabled or infirm in the service of any such common carrier, the remains of a person killed or dying in the employment of a carrier, those entering or leaving its service, and former employees traveling for the purpose of entering the service of any such common carrier.

(3) "Families," as used in this section, includes the families of those persons named in subsection (2) of this section, the families of persons killed and their surviving spouses prior to remarriage and minor children during minority, and the families of persons who died while in the service of any such common carrier.

(4) Nothing in this section prevents the issuance of mileage, commutation tickets, or excursion passenger tickets or prevents the issuance of free or reduced transportation by any street railroad company for mail carriers, or police officers or members of fire departments, city officers, and employees when engaged in the performance of their duties as city employees.

(5) Common carriers may carry, store, or handle, free or at reduced rates, property for the United States, state, county, or municipal governments, for charitable purposes, or to or from fairs and exhibitions for exhibition, and may carry, store, or handle, free or at reduced rates, the household goods and personal effects of its employees, those entering or leaving its service, and those killed or dying while in its service.

Reviser's note: This section was amended by 2007 c 218 s 74 and by 2007 c 234 s 27, each without reference to the other. Both amendments are incorporated in the publication of this section under RCW 1.12.025(2). For rule of construction, see RCW 1.12.025(1).

Intent—Finding—2007 c 218: See note following RCW 41.08.020.

Severability—1973 1st ex.s. c 154: See note following RCW 2.12.030.