Posted on 08/03/2011 9:16:10 AM PDT by bkopto
Tractors lumbering down country roads are as common as deer in rural Montana, but the federal government wants to place new driving regulations on farmers and ranchers.
“It’s a huge deal for us,” said John Youngberg of the Montana Farm Bureau. After years of allowing state governments to waive commercial driver’s license requirements for farmers hauling crops or driving farm equipment on public roads, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is poised to do away with the exceptions.
Regulators are suggesting that all wheat shipments be considered interstate, even when farmers making short hauls to local grain elevators aren’t crossing state lines. The change would make commercial driver’s licenses — and all the log books and medical requirements that go with them — a necessity for farmers. Some might not qualify.
(snip)
FMCSA argues that because grain will ultimately be shipped out of state, it should be regulated as an interstate product at every transportation step. Treated as a product destined to cross state lines, grain becomes federally regulated under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
Well they better be hitting all of the mexician drivers crossing the border down south first.
And the EPA... I agree.
We could easily lop off half the federal employees, never notice, and then get down to the real decision making.
These animal control people are going rabid too.
I’m sick of what government employees think they have a right to do.
The one thing that permeates government is lack of experience in anything other than academic or government enterprises.
They don’t even know anyone who has had a job outside of academics or government.
I learned to drive on a tractor in a very big hay field...speaking of which, will this apply to garden tractors as well? Will the government decide that only people over 21 can drive mowers? (Of course, illegals would be exempt, because they get special privileges)
Something the government is never able to answer...
How did farmers get by without these for hundreds of years?
How did our nation get by without these news laws?
How did consumers get by without them?
Could we all survive just fine without them?
Of course...
This relates to the Federal Food Safety Bill passed last fall. They want control of all our food stocks one way or another.
Actually this might get interesting.
How is big brother going to treat the illegals caught driving farm equipment without all the proper federal licenses?
just like they do now.
nothing.
I see this as 1 step closer to being forced to join a Union. The will be considered truck driversand not farm workers, subject to interstate laws and their unions. I am almost sure that is the main objective.
They are going after any source of revenue they can generate on the American people....if they can’t take it by tazes they will indeed do so by regualtions.
When I moved from Ohio to Pa. I couldn’t believe the costs associated with transfering an auto driver’s license to this state! Amazing! and you pay a $30 fee for re-newal every year....
Well then change your route! No different then one we get behind school buses. Know their route and adapt yours if it troubles you so much.
32 Attorneys in all including the Dir. Litigators all— all adding cost to business. It is one thing to regulate interstate trucking. Quite another to try to say that grain taken from a field to a silo by a farmer is “eventually going to be shipped interstate” is somehow interstate when it comes off the farm. Idiocy and not defendable.
They are abusing the Commerce Clause again, as justification.
They are just doing what ALL agencies do: they write regulations because they think that THEY are so much smarter than the rest of us. And the politicians love them because the agencies can do what they want to but can’t.
Montana needs to tell the Federal Government to take a hike. Theses Roads technically belong to the State of Montana, and Montana alone gets to decide who can travel on them.
Of course I suspect this unconditional agency will try to retaliate by withholding the Federal highway funds from Montana, funds taxed from the people of Montana.
Still it should be easy for Montana to lie to the Feds and tell its police to completely ignore this requirement.
Nullification is evasion of unconstitutional acts. The Feds can’t enforce this edict, so why not.
Thanks for that utterly worthless and mildly obnoxious advice. How far out of my way should I go do you think? 25 miles? 50 miles? with no guarantee that some other retard with barely enough functioning brain cells to climb on a tractor without falling off is going to run his tractor hauling a string of cotton trailers down the middle of the road at 10 mph. Or maybe you think that in rural GA there are a number of alternate roads. Fortunately I no longer have to run the gaunlet of south GA farm machinery since I no longer work in a job that requires me to go through south GA and south AL on a weekly basis, but the memories linger.
The FMCSA, oh my. If you only knew the half of it. That place used have a handful of employees in the 1980’s. Now their budget is half a billion dollars. Under Obama’s 2012 budget, they asked for so much money that they would double the size of their agency to $1 billion by 2018. Everything they do is in the name of “safety”. In reality, very little they do has anything to do with safety. Requiring farmers who drive a handful of miles on largely deserted roads to have CDLs, for example. Requiring all long-haul trucks in America to have black box recorders in them, at $2000 - 3000 a pop. None of this makes the motorist safer. Yet no one stops them. Certainly not Congress.
There are hundreds of FMCSA’s all throughout government. All out of control, all subject to no oversight or supervision. The Congressmen don’t run the country. The bureaucrats do.
Having driven farm machinery on public roads for over 50 yrs (I’m 57, and started on just the gravel/township roads at the age of 6 yrs old, graduating to the state and US highways @ 16), I can tell you that, as much as any other reason, INSURANCE and the danger of LAWSUIT keeps farm machinery in the lane.
To pull over enough to clear the lane ENTIRELY usually requires an intersection large enough to do just that. I’ve had people try to pass just because I’m only using half of the lane (to keep the right steering tire from running on the edge of the pavement, for safety and to keep from breaking the edge on asphalt roads). These people think that because I’m over SOME, they can squeeze by, straddling the centerline and squeezing oncoming traffic off the road.
I’ve seen absolute imbeciles, who have the acceleration ability to pass a farm tractor very quickly, just follow and follow when they’ve been given a half mile of clear oncoming lane.
People are supposed to know the the SMV sign indicates a slow moving vehicle, and that it does not have the ability to speed up and make passing it difficult like trying to pass a teenager with a muscle car (I know this because I was a teenager w/musclecar. heh heh).
Thanks for posting this; I’ve passed it on.
Or adjust the time that you begin your morning commute as necessary so that you are less likely to be stuck behind a school bus.
How did they know tractors were being driven on the roads from DC. They should have at least the same rights that they give bicyclist.
**..with no guarantee that some other retard with barely enough functioning brain cells to climb on a tractor without falling off is going to run his tractor..**
WOW! Are you having a ‘lib moment’? Some of us retarded farmers are quite accomplished at things other than farming.
I’ve driven over a million miles as an OTR trucker, have a FAA private pilot license (M/E land), am a trained machinist/welder, and managed a business for several years. Nevertheless, I have neighboring farmers that are far more accomplished than I.
Get a grip, man. I wish we could go back to the 50’s when people weren’t in such a dadblamed hurry, but that’s not going to happen (truth is we’re probably headed back to the horse when the marxists get complete control).
Well, I was going to suggest you move then but I see you did just that. Good move for the neighborhood I suspect.
My brother does go thru Alabama and Georgia for his company and sees no problems with the farm machinery. He, as with myself, is more than happy to give way and understands it goes with the territory of their business..and grateful these... "retards with barely enough functioning brain cells"... do more than a fabulous job of keeping our nations stomach's full....including the ungrateful.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.