Farmers may need CDLs

if you feel that way then lets' go after every vehicle on the highway that's operating for business, the DOT would have a field day if they sat at a Home Depot or Lowes and stopped every truck with a tool box or a ladder rack or utility trailer behind it. Let's not also forget every real estate agent with their name on the side of their car, and don't forget the Herbalife and Mary Kay ladies, after all, these are COMMERCIAL business' too. Also, guess you'd better get a CDL to operate a U-Haul truck, no matter what size. If we are going to go after one group, let's go after everybody.

 

I've hauled cattle and hay with semi since before I was old enough to get a drivers license. Not frequently, but I did it. I hauled our own stuff(25 to 30 thousand miles per year) until a while back when dot started beating me over the head with the interstate commerce clause. No problem, I prorated, got commercial insurance, got a license and started hauling commercial as well as private. I pull a cattle pot, flatbed, and tomorrow I'll be hooking a dry van for a bit. I'll be pulling that van dirt cheap too, it's a guy I know who called me because he knew that I was all licensed up anyway and my truck was just sitting because I like ranching better than trucking. I wasn't trying to be a trucker, but regulations to haul my own stuff got so close to commercial haulers that I made the jump. Now I'm out there taking loads that maybe someone else could use. I just want to haul my own commodities across state lines if need be and be left alone. I ran insurance and paid road taxes but didn't have a cdl or dot number. Getting my cdl didn't make me a better driver, it just made it legal to compete with you guys. Be careful what you wish for. People complain about trucking not paying then why would you want a bunch more people in the game with nothing to do half the year but drive rates for commercial truckers down?

 

Its the same old story, we don't need new laws, if they'd enforce the ones we already have, properly and fairly, there wouldn't be any issues. Did you guys know that any farm truck that hauls grain to an elevator must have a USDOT # now? Doesn't matter if its a single axle, 26,000# truck that never ventures more than a few miles from farm to town, because the grain will possibly be shipped out of state, it is considered the first leg of an interstate transport, and they must have a number. If that isn't a government solution searching for a problem, I don't know what is.

The Midwest Truckers newsletter just had an article about all this. It might be online, but I doubt it without looking. The tractor/combine CDL idea got dumped, but the family farm truck/semi rules are still a cobbled together confusing mess.

Good ol' Ray LaHood, we finally get him out of IL, only to have him go on to screw with things on a national scale. Couldn't we just give him an honorary title and make him Ambassador to Timbuctoo or something?

 

Well since labels seem to be your specialty I leave that inanity to your wisened experience.

The government (us by the way lest you forget your civics classes if they taught them away back then) has few responsibilities where as a society it is simply implausible for individuals to operate. Like standing armies, fire departments(though in rural settings volunteer makes more sense), electric companies, waste water removal(especially around large populations), roads(come now are we all supposed to build our own so we do not have to follow the laws of use?), police, first responder ambulance and the like, power grids......




All of those are impractical for an individual's to maintain. Now I know this is a hard concept to grasp but when you ask someone's permission(like you do requesting your drivers license) you enter into that collective deal. Your alternative is to build your own roadways. Good luck., but perhaps you could enlighten me as to whom should be responsible for regulating the roads and highways we all pay for. Well some far less than others as evidenced by the screams of anguish when equality is suggested.




Do yourself a favor though. Quit looking for a pigeon hole label to fix on people. Looking through such a narrow view leaves one well narrow minded and incapable of seeing rational thought. For instance turning a blind eye to farm subsidies for those you claim paying their fair share. Not paying their share I wouldn't mind as much(OK that was a lie it still bothers me) but stealing my money for it is the same as stealing my money for a ALS sufferer. That is the difference between a governments proper role and the one you dislike.

 

Glad they dropped the Combine/Tractor rule. Can you imagine the testers try to develope a backing test?

 

UHm they do. And yes if you break the 10,001 lb rule you fall under intrastate guidelines In most states.

Home Depot, Lowes, Builders Supply, First Source. ....... all of those already fall under regulation, along with home medical suppliers that haul hazmat.

The silliness of Mary Kay and Realtors well ok I'll play along outside the reg's a bit being far under the definition huh? But hey nice melodrama. You forgot the girl scout mom driving her snot box around, the baby sitter taking kids to the park for pay. Ohh I am sure with a little brain activity you could come up with a myriad of silliness.


None of wich would be comparable to discussing farm trucks weighing in excess of 10,001 being exempt from following the same laws as everyone else running similar equipment now would it?

 

By the way get ask Diesel Bear or Scalemaster what happens when you use a Uhaul for a trade show across a state line? Or the people that put "Not for hire" on their traveling trade shows?

That should read "easy tickets because I'm clueless what FMCSA regs are"!

 

Someone who still blindly believes the guv'mint is crafted by the masses. Quaint. Misguided, but quaint nonetheless.

Let's follow simple Economics, for those who skipped it in order to double up on Civics. If you raise the price of production at any point in the chain, the price of the end product also rises. The simple solution to this has been to raise minimum wage so the lowest paid workers can afford to buy those products. Which raises the price of production again. Add to that any increase in regulation (read: guv'mint meddling) and production costs go up yet again. As does the end price to the consumer.

As to why farmers get subsidies (which I do not support)... well, the same guv'mint handing out subsidies also tells the farmers what and how much of what they are allowed to grow. If the farmer overproduces, he is penalized. Food production and distribution is one of the most highly regulated segments of our economy. And, it is one of the most corrupt from the field all the way to the supermarket.

But, believe whatever you want, Tazz. I think I have finally come to the conclusion you have nothing to offer me. You are not worth my time since you can't seem to get your point across without thinly veiled insults and insinuations that anyone disagreeing with you is less intelligent or less educated than the great Tazz.

Ciao.