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 nation’s farm workers, estimated at over 800,000, by requiring them to have commercial drivers licenses.
(Excerpt) Read more at gazettevirginian.com ...
Someone in the DOT is STUCK ON STUPID!!!
Age 9 for me.
They had to come intercept me and get me off for lunch and dinner because I could’t work the clutch.
Around here it is a given that farm equipment is on the road. You know what to expect, depending on the time of year. It is stupid to come flying around a blind curve and meeting a combine or cotton picker that is 2 stories tall and taking up 3/4 of the road.
Ping to 72. This man knows of what he speaks. You might have to investigate the article and replies to figure out just what this is about, but here, brothers and sisters is:
Truth.
Thank you brother.
Ihttp://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=242384,00.htmlRS Gives Truckers Three-Month Extension; Highway Use Tax Return Due Nov. 30
IR-2011-77, July 15, 2011
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today advised truckers and other owners of heavy highway vehicles that their next federal highway use tax return, usually due Aug. 31, will instead be due on Nov. 30, 2011.
Because the highway use tax is currently scheduled to expire on Sept. 30, 2011, this extension is designed to alleviate any confusion and possible multiple filings that could result if Congress reinstates or modifies the tax after that date. Under temporary and proposed regulations filed today in the Federal Register, the Nov. 30 filing deadline for Form 2290, Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax Return, for the tax period that begins on July 1, 2011, applies to vehicles used during July, as well as those first used during August or September. Returns should not be filed and payments should not be made prior to Nov. 1
Incrementalism ......tick tick tick...
Good info folks.... Thanks !
Still interesting. Under DOT/FAA regs, I can not qualify (though my ONLY restriction listed on my regular DL is "must have exterior mirrors) for either a CDL or pilots license due to a disqualifying non-correctable vision defect, BUT:
under state law, I can use my DL to legally drive ANY vehicle of ANY class, IF it is being used in ANY capacity related to my ag operations, anywhere within 75 miles of my property, provided I do not cross state lines.
Means I can haul or go fetch: livestock or feed or hay or grain or tractor fuel or fetilizer or farm equipment...or to push it, building supplies to build a new barn or silo.
It also means I have the "privilege" of freezing my tail off in the winter using my tractor & blade to clear the last mile & half of county road (plus our ranch road) past the "end of county maintenance" turn-around point, without having to have a CDL and 'snow plow operators certification; winter survival training endorsement; 500 pounds of 'emergency equipment/supplies' with me at all times; CPR/First Aid certification; snow-zone parking permit; iceskate inspection sticker; EPA Hazardous Matterial (Dihydrogen Monoxide & Dioxycarbide) Handlers Permit and any & all other nonsense regulators can come up with.
Well; some of them DO drive big rigs and a few tons of grain down the road in a BIG trailer.
But; you’d think the STATES would have noticed some kind of problem with FARMERs running over the rest of us poor fools by now; but since they HAVEN’t...
Don’t worry folks; for yet another ruling or regulation or control structure will NOT increase your food prices...
Thanks to advanced technology, one farmer can currently feed 129 people. In 1960, one farmer fed 25 people.
Thanks to advanced technology, one farmer can currently vote one time, while 129 people can vote...
A law breaker if I’ve EVER seen one!
I think all Federal employees should have the same pre-employment and random drug tests others have to have--right up to the POTUS.
The worst thing most employees in the business world will wreck is a ship, a plane, an oil rig...those jackasses in D.C. can wreck a whole country.
You are WAY wrong!
For safety of the children, we must forego transporting ourselves ANYWHERE and use only light rail (preferably HIGH-SPEED).
An exception may be granted to those wishing to actually WALK anywhere, but only after passing Federal, State, County, any other Municipal tests that show one has been properly instructed on foot placement.
Oh yes, any HOA rules must be enforced as well.
Fixed
--Rhodesian RoadRunner
Sigh...
Yet another complaining about 'his fair share'?
You'll get yur silly money BACK when you are forced uh, permitted to drive one of the new (yes... yer old one will be crushed) HIGH-MILEAGE big rigs the Fed's have miraculously commanded to be created.
Coffee is being served. Looks like an elsiethon has begun.
“For safety of the children”
Screw the safety of the children, they are the ones out to kill me. I live near a college town and the students are returning, it won’t be safe to go to town for a couple of months. A bunch of no turn signal yellow light speeding text monkeys.
I want to see them try and enforce this. Some may be fairly simple, like around fuel. Tax it all, simple for the gubmint, but enforcing time constraints on operators? How will they deal with pending weather?
Cotton pickers ran 24 hours a day for three days prior to landfall of our last storm. Granted, we received no rain, but it could have easily been 12”.
They have no clue to what goes on in farming, ranching, hell, what working for a living involves. This is why they create more problems with their “fixes” than they will ever solve.
“Congress should be required to pass tests on the Constitution and the voters should be required to pass test on knowledge of Government and political leaders.”
I say test them for drugs too!
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