Steel Soldiers::Military Vehicles Supersite - View Single Post

ida34 · 10-15-2008, 01:17

The problem was having the farm plates. Farm plates pretty much says you use the truck for the farm and that means making money with it. This means you would be considered a commercial operator. The Farm plates fall into an exception to having to have the CDL and commercial plates. As long as you are not operating commercially you would be just fine in most states but the Farm plates negate that an chance of you saying you were not operating to make money. I am not saying you will not run into an officer that may not know the correct interpretation of the CDL laws but you would be able to win in court. I would have to look it up but I think the distance restriction in Michigan only works as long as you do not try to cross state lines. Once you do then you must comply with all commercial operator requirements. I know I am perfectly legal because I only use my truck to move my stuff (not stuff I am selling). I see the guy selling mules at shows an such and he had a regular tractor trailer with the mules on it but has a declaration on the side of the truck saying the truck is not for hire and for private use only. I can't remember the exact wording but if I saw it while I was working I would write them for not having a CDL and not having all of his commercial paperwork in order. He may have a CDL and such but he did not have any DOT numbers on the truck and he did not have his company name and location. Commercial trucks must have the company name and location (city and state) on the both sides of the truck. They guy is moving the mules to sell at shows and hits a lot of shows. He is obviously doing this to make money and that makes him a commercial operator. The people running the ragged edge like this are the ones that will make it harder on those of us using our trucks for our own uses. It is a fine line between taking some stuff to the show to sell and operating commercially. If I am just taking a few extra parts I have to a show to try to make some fuel money then I may not be considered a commercial operator. This is clearly not the same as a guy hauling 10K lbs of scrap metal every month to the scrap man. At any rate I am now off my soapbox.

Reb,
If I were you I might try to go to court pleading you case with your local CDL exceptions showing you were fully compliant. If it looks like you were not compliant then just pay it and go on. You may at least get some of the charges on the ticket dropped. I have not seen it for sure to tell you but I think that farm exceptions do not work when going across state lines. If I knew the exact statute I would post if for you but I don't know exactly where to look. At any rate, good luck. My comments above were not directed toward you. I think you were really confused not trying to dodge the requirements.

Chuck