Farmers may need CDLs

FEDZILLA just dropped this proposal.

It was a bad idea from the gitgo.

 

Lahood wakes up every morning, drinks coffee and thinks what new law he can implement each day. Had he been born in Germany, he would of been Adolf Lahood.

There's another thread on this article somewhere.

 

I tried to find it last night and did not locate it.

Illinois has problems with some of the farmers who run interstate with the farm exemption. Some are hauling general freight and no insurance like the commercial carriers are forced to carry.

Lahood, might remember seeing some of these articles. Been some again this year and the local farm board is upset.

 

I'm all for not putting more regulations on our farmers, but like some have stated we have people with no experience getting behind the wheel of these rigs and causing accidents.

Around here they grow a lot of sugar cane. During harvest there are thousands of rigs on the roads with no CDL, componding the problem they overload them.

This in turn causes many trucks to turn over on our roads, and also causes many other accidents.

I don't think they should need anything to drive a regular farm tractor or the like, but I think to drive any rig down the road you should have some form of certification showing you have some idea of what your doing.

 

No what they are saying is you should be qualified to operate a vehicle and licensed just like anyone else on a public road.

If you want your kids driving in your field(I agree good background and base for life) feel free. I don't want some 15 year old thinking about getting into Mary Sue's knickers driving next to Mary Sue running down the highway without a license, proper insurance..............

I would also say they should carry the same insurance as required of anyone else hauling that weight up and down the public highways.

I don't know about Combines needing a License. Most of you truck drivers couldn't get one to start let alone move But I have seen supposed exempt haulers operating as a Family farm hauling the exact same products out of the exact same warehouses as those required to follow FMCSA, and Sate DOT regs.

I remember PCS (Philmans Custom Service) getting whacked very hard trying to run off road diesel claiming they were just a farming operation. They harvested from Texas to Florida and got really whacked when they were found to be conducting interstate commerce

 

I think the logbook is a bit out of reality. But, I do believe they should be limited on the hours they run the big farm trucks.

Alot of farm accidents happen because of cutting corners, and long tired hours of work.

 

There's a farmer around here that uses a con gear to drag his 40' grain wagon down to the elevator behind his farm tractor. No lights, no brakes, just a triangle on the back.

 

I can just see them having to fill out log books too.

 

Making them subject to HOS would most likley not mean log books unless they are a traveling harvester. Time cards are all that would be required inside 150 miles right?

 

I'm also a farmer in North Dakota. To me if you own the farm or are a working family member on the farm you should not need the CDL. But if a farmer has "hired" a person from the general public, then those people should have a CDL. Most farmers, at least in my generation started out in the single axle grain truck, then the tandem and then the semi so it's not like we were fresh into a semi. Could this change in the future? I think so, but am really against a farmer needing a CDL. We have enough regulations that get jammed down our throats every year.