Rara Avis
Veteran Member
RayH said:
Hey Ray this is in your neck of the woods...This is not an Urban Legend...you could call them locally, if you don't believe it...
Farmers question commercial vehicle laws
By Christian Giggenbach
THE REGISTER-HERALD (BECKLEY, W.V.)
MUDDY CREEK MOUNTAIN, W.Va. Greenbrier County farmers upset over a rash of tickets given out by state Department of Transportation officers questioned a Public Service Commission official Monday night over laws concerning vehicle weight, commercial driver's licenses and medical cards.
PSC officials said the majority of the federal regulations in question have been in effect since 1963, but could not explain why DOT officers have recently been issuing warning tickets for possible weight and certification infractions.
Gary Truex, a supervisor with the Greenbrier Valley Conservation District, said several farmers with one-ton trucks carrying hay and cattle had recently been pulled over by DOT officers, including himself, and given warning tickets for not having a CDL license and other permits.
Truex was driving a Ford F-450 flatbed with a gross vehicle weight of 15,000 pounds and a goose-neck trailer behind it. The officer cited him for not being medically certified, failure to display a DOT number, no fire extinguisher and not having emergency road triangles.
When I asked around about this we got some different answers, so I called Charleston to send an official here to speak about the regulations, Truex said.
Other farmers, some carrying cattle, have been pulled over for not having a CDL license while operating a one-ton truck with a trailer, which many believed to be legal, he said.
Reggie Bunner, a supervisor for the PSC motor carriers division since 1992, said, for example, that if the combination of a one-ton truck and a trailer exceeds 10,001 pounds, under certain circumstances, the driver will need to have a CDL and a medical card, be drug tested, and have federal DOT numbers on the side of the truck.
It depends if you are doing something for commerce, Truex said. If you're in a one-ton truck with a single rear wheel, you're OK, but if you hook up a little lawn mower trailer and then use it for commerce, then you are required by law to have a CDL.
One farmer didn't question the validity of the federal laws, but wanted to make sure he was in compliance.
If you're supposed to do it, then I understand, he said. I just want to be legal.
Bunner said any person who carries a CDL license must also be enrolled in a drug testing program.
That's the biggie, he said.
Bunner also explained regulations regarding out-of-state trucking, when a farm is required to have its name on the side of a truck, and other laws.
What what if your farm doesn't have a name? one farmer asked.
Bunner did not immediately respond to the farmer's question.
Bunner, who comes from a farming family, held up a thick federal regulation book and said it was only a fraction of the rules that had been passed by Congress.
Everyone has to comply with federal rules, and West Virginia cannot make a federal rule less stringent, he said.
Bunner said the majority of the regulations being asked about had been in effect since 1963. But when asked why many farmers are being pulled over today for laws that were passed over 40 years ago, Bunner had no reply.
I can't give you an answer to that; I really don't know why, he said.
Bunner at one point said he felt uncomfortable talking to the crowd as Reggie the farmer rather than Reggie the PSC official because of media presence at the meeting.
Clintonville farmer Pete Piercy questioned Bunner on why large recreation vehicle drivers were exempt from CDL licenses and other permits, when farmers driving much smaller trucks were not.
It's the federal government, Bunner said in frustration. There's no straight answer to it. We agree with you that they should be (properly licensed). You have to take it up with the federal government.
Christian Giggenbach writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.
