Farm Special plates hauling commercial!!

this is a bit of a touchy subject for me too, if they are running a dot/mc number and carrying proper commercial insurance with commercially qualified drivers they are not very smart to be using a farm tag, its not saving them much money.

almost as irritating to me is the farmers properly using there farm exemptions only hauling there own product, but have a absolute disregard to the condition of there equipment, bungee cords on slack adjusters breaks totally worn out tires with steel belts showing. trucks in a total state of disrepair trailers loaded up over the bow straps, i always look forward to seeing one of them on the side of the road with a dot bear behind them. its like come on if your going to try to save on hiring out your hauling at least keep your truck in safe operating condition if your going to drive it off the farm on public roads.

if a farmer is hauling commercial on there farm plates under there farm umbrella insurance with non cdl drivers and using every exemption in the book i hope they get caught and get the book thrown at them, but for the most part the commercial/vrs farm insurance is the biggest cost savings to the farmers, and i would think with non commercial insurance you would have a hard time getting loaded everyone i have hauled for requires insurance certificates.

unfortunately making a big stink about it will likely do you much more harm than good, your reputation is important, just hope they get stopped somewhere and the dot bear catches onto what they are doing.

a couple years ago i was hauling and there was a truck with farm plates on the same haul as me a hired driver in the seat, was taking to him and make a comment about his farm plates, he didn't know there was a difference i just said id hate to be the one driving that truck if he gets caught and left it at that knowing it might make him a little nervous.

most of these guys if they do it long enough i have faith they will be caught, if they only do it once in a while its probably not hurting me much. at the end of the day tires breaks fuel ect all cost the same if you have farm plates or comercial

 

I would just have an off the record chat with the next Iowa carrier enforcement officer I see ...I spend lots of time in Iowa and I think there's like 5 carrier enforcement cops born every day there lol

 

Probably running dyed fuel too!!!

 

Iowa carrier enforcement has always been polite and professional towards me but they are definitely out there to write tickets and cut very little slack.
I always make sure my ducks are in a row in the Hawkeye state cause ya never know when or where you will meet up with them .

 

No, they don't get a break from inspections, but... Farmers don't need annual inspections, and the drivers of farm plated trucks don't need a health card. I think that's kind of silly. I could see, and agree with the argument for letting farmers get away with a lot of different stuff... weights, licensing, and non-safety related things along those lines. But when it comes to regulations that are supposed to help to guarantee the safety of the motoring public, I think its kind of funny. It kind of points out how little some of this stuff is actually about safety, and more about revenue.

For the record, my brother works for a sod farm that runs farm plates on all of their trucks. They do however, still give their trucks annuals, and require their drivers to have health cards, even though they don't need to...

 

And... correct me if I'm wrong, but you don't need a class a license to run a farm plated semi in minnesota. A valid class d license (that's what it is now, right? Lowest used to be a c, but it's a d now? ) is all you need...

I know i sound like I'm hating on farmers, but I'm really not. Just don't understand the thinking on some things.

 

In Illinois, you don't need a CDL to drive a farm truck, but you DO need the proper class for the vehicle being driven. In other words, a class A drivers license (non-commercial) would suffice, but anything less would get you shut down 'round here...even in a farm truck.

 

Here in Tn, its unreal how many nice or new Peterbilt's. Are running every week of the year. And on Farm Tag's. Seen one of these trucks in IL last Friday. And know for sure he was not allowed to be out of Tn on his tag's.
But he was pulling a flatbed, loaded down with items from a big company in Tn.