Map-21 useage and radius miles?

I just completed working for a farmer in Indiana for the "harvest season"
There are no CDL or HOS of service requirements if all of the following conditions are met:

1. The vehicle driven must be registered as a farm vehicle (not apportioned) by the farm in question.
The combination can gross up to 88,000 lbs, 80,000 lbs on the interstate.
2. The driver must be hauling agricultural product from the farming operation to market, or supplies/empty back to the farm.
3. All of it must be within 150 mile radius, and intrastate, unless a border state has a reciprocal agreement.
4. Nothing can be hauled "for hire"

 

As a follow up, accoding to the officers at the Plymouth, WA POE, the double 150 mile livestock exemption is NOT subject to the planting and harvest season and therefore valid year round.

 

Well here in Iowa what the OP posted about its the same way Do I think it’s right ? absolutely not but that’s the way the law is for farmers Not that my opinion matters But why is it ok for a non CDL holder to be allowed to operate a 90000lb truck just because it’s a farmer ? As far as the livestock exemption goes the 150 mile radius on both ends goes it is year round.I know a few guys that have tried running farm plates hauling livestock, they get away with it till they get caught, then they wished they never tired it In fact I have a very good friend that tired it because he wasn’t old enough to run out of state but he owned his own truck he got caught in Kansas when they got done crucifying him he had to sell te truck and lost his DL for almost 7 years and to this day he is stil paying the price he is 33 years old now

 

I don’t know 2 people who record it the same and know of 0 that’s been hassled. Fact is every time I been stopped and log book is discussed they ask if I’m still in the radius of my load or unload luckily I have been. They don’t even want see it then

 

I understand your reasoning on the idea. I too at one time wondered the same.
But since working in that end of the industry and observing exactly how it is practiced, I will make the following observations:

1. the vast majority of drivers who are seasonal are former CDL holders with huge amounts of experience.
I forgot to mention the drivers have to either be related to the farmer, or directly employed by him.
2. the farmer takes the entire risk if the individual he puts in the truck is not qualified. Open to increased insurance costs and untold lawsuits.
3. Almost all of the commodities hauled stay well within the 150 mile radius. Indeed, a 25 mile or 30 mile run is ruinous to someone hauling corn at $5.25 bushel.
4. These exemptions have been practiced here in Indiana for decades. There is plenty of data to show that these operations are far safer by the numbers than the typical new DOT number with 3 brand new CDL holders from distant lands where English is a 3rd or 4th language.

A CDL is absolutely no guarantee of a safe or qualified operator. We see that proven everyday.
I will take my chances with a 19 year old kid who just successfully operated a $600,000 combine over a few thousand acres to have enough sense to drive a hopper loaded with 86K into town.

 

Farms don’t have to insure the individual driver. All employees and vehicles and equipment are under their blanket farm policy.

 

I have been around it a lot myself I agree with everything you posted
I just feel it’s a double set of standards is all
I’am sure it probably has happened somewhere but a good lawyer would overhaul a farmer if one of his employees was to be involved in a fatal accident I would think

 

That goes for ANY driver that causes a fatality today, doesn’t it?

I was just yakking with my son this morning about this. When he was 16, I would toss him the keys to the semi and tell him to take the load to the processing plant, 120 miles away. He’d been driving farm vehicles since before he was 10. Never really an issue, barely ground a gear or two.

When I first bought the semi we got a customer in Canada, so I needed to get a class A. Took the written test, scheduled the driving test, and took it. Had never taken a lesson, never seen the test course, just pulled up in my semi and took the test. Had to pull up twice to get it “in the dock” (hangs head in shame), and missed the “how high was the overpass” question. In my defense, I was in a mid roof with a flat bed, and “plenty high” was still not a good enough answer. As a farm kid and farmer, I had more miles in reverse than 99% of the “professionally trained” CDL applicants have going forward.

 

I will say this with biased, opinion a farm kid can just about drive anything by the time their 16 or 18 yrs old and drive it well