For purposes of this article:
- (a) A "coal resource transportation road" means a road designated by the Department of Transportation as safe and sufficient to allow vehicles hauling coal to carry a greater gross and axle weight of up to one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, with a five percent variance.
- (b) "Coal" or "coal by-products" means the mineral in raw or clean state and includes synthetic fuel manufactured or produced for which credit is allowable under 26 U.S.C. §29 of the Internal Revenue Code (1996).
- (c) "Commission" means the Public Service Commission of West Virginia.
- (d) "Division" means the Division of Highways within the Department of Transportation.
- (e) "Mining operation" means any activity related to extraction of coal regulated under the provisions of this code.
- (f) "Operator" means the person driving a commercial motor vehicle transporting coal on any public highway of this state.
- (g) "Person" means any individual, partnership, firm, society, association, trust, corporation, other business entity or any agency, unit or instrumentality of federal, state or local government.
- (h) "Shipper" means the person who loads coal or causes coal to be loaded into any commercial motor vehicle that will operate on any public highway in this state.
- (i) "Receiver" means the person who accepts for unloading coal from any vehicle that has operated on any public highway in this state.
- (j) "Vehicle owner" means the person who as owner of a commercial motor vehicle employs, contracts or otherwise directs a driver to operate that vehicle on a public highway of this state for the purpose of transporting coal.