Posted on 08/12/2011 6:27:45 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
A new rule being proposed by the federal Department of Transportation would require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which is a part of DOT, wants to adopt standards that would reclassify all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Motor Vehicles, officials said. Likewise, the proposal, if adopted, would require all farmers and everyone on the farm who operates any of the equipment to obtain a CDL, they added.
The proposed rule change would mean that anyone who drives a tractor or operates any piece of motorized farming equipment would be required to pass the same tests and complete the same detailed forms and logs required of semi-tractor trailer drivers.
Drivers would keep logs of information including hours worked and miles traveled. Vehicles would be required to display DOT numbers. A CDL in Virginia costs $64 for eight years, or $8 per year, not including the cost of an instructional class and the written test.
If the DOT reclassifies farm vehicles and implements as commercial vehicles, the federal government will have regulatory control over the nations farm workers, estimated at over 800,000, by requiring them to have commercial drivers licenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazettevirginian.com ...
I have not been too fond of the CDL program. One main reason not to hold one is the federal intrusion and micromanagement. Here in Colorado, if you hold an ordinary license, violations that don’t accrue points are not posted to your driving record and out of state violations that are minor are no points, therefore don’t show. Only out of state violations that count are major ones like DUI.
For a CDL holder, the rules are different. Every infraction just about down to a parking ticket are posted to your driving record and this includes infractions in a non-commercial vehicle like your car. Also with a CDL, you have to follow more stringent rules like on vehicle equipment. For example tinted windows, I can have them on my vehicles but if I had a CDL, I have to follow the federal rule on tint which is th 70% visible light transmission rule which is basically clear glass.
One of my coworker’s husband is a truck driver and also rides motorcycles. They were in California and his bike got a parking ticket. Normally it would be something to be blown off but because he had a CDL he had to pay it or it would affect his CDL.
The visible effect of creeping communism.
Their authority derives from law that regulates transportation. The is a gross over step. Somebody needs to slap them down.
Have they done a cost/benefit analysis?
Have they done an environmental impact study?
Or did they just pull this out of the wazoo aperture?
Apparently so many farmers raised hell that they have now backed off, at least for now.
Better yet, since they are privy to classified information, make them get security clearences.
We'd get rid of most of them - and nearly all the lefties - overnight.
They’re just maneuvering to slap the highway tax onto farm diesel fuel. This is a first step where they back off the CDL requirement and “compromise” on the diesel tax.
Riding lawn mowers are next on the list.
The Feds can, and routinely do, compel states to change their laws. The cudgel they use is witholding Federal highway money.
They did it to impose the 55 mph speed limit, raise the drinking age to 21 in all states and to lower the presumptive limit for DUI to .08 percent BAC.
So long as the states are dependent on Federal money, the Feds call the tune.
It’s always about more “revenue”.
I have to ask.... do Kansas kids who get their license at 14 drive just on their parent’s farm or are they allowed to drive on the main roads? Are they allowed to drive out of state as well?
True, but there is no way the state legislatures will touch this one. Farmers have a bad habit of voting.
Gasp! Where’s your helmet?
The heavy-handed absurdities coming from U.S. government remind me of how Britain got to be the stinking mess that it is.
Imagine 10,000 tractors parked in downtown DC. Most of them with freshly emptied manure spreaders.
Apparently farmers are an independent bunch and don’t like being controlled by the government. Glad they listened.
That T-Bird has super powers!
They got orders from their Obama commissar.....It’s an election year so the useless eaters at DOT backed down.
Ukraine, 1930s. 'Liquidate the kulaks as a class'. Coming to an American family farm near you.
As an aside, I heard a promo on XM radio this morning for this year's 'Farm Aid' concert. Some of the acts: Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp - all outspoken leftist CommieRats. I wonder if they have an opinion on this latest power grab from the Zero regime ... yeah, right.
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