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DOT To Mandate All Farm Vehicles Require CDL Licenses, Could Bring Demise To Farmers



Jul 31, 2011 87 Comments ›› Toro520

The Blaze:

In Late May, the DOT proposed a rule change for farm equipment, and if it this allowed to take effect, it will place significant regulatory pressure on small farms and family farms all across America – costing them thousands of dollars and possibly forcing many of them out of business. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the Department of Transportation (DOT), wants new standards that would require all farmers and everyone on the farm to obtain a CDL (Commercial Drivers License) in order to operate any farming equipment. The agency is going to accomplish this by reclassifying all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs).

(It is also important to note here that DOT Secretary Ray LaHood holds a seat on the newly created White House Rural Council. A powerful group whose members have ties to George Soros and The Center For American Progress.)

The move by the DOT appears to be “legislation through regulation.” By reclassifying all farm vehicles and implements as Commercial Vehicles, the federal government will now be able to claim regulatory control over the estimated 800,000 farm workers in America, at the same time, overriding the rights of the states.

The proposed change also means ANYONE driving a tractor or operating any piece of motorized farming equipment would be forced to pass the same rigorous tests and fill out the same detailed forms and diaries required of semi-tractor trailer drivers. This reclassification would bury small farms and family farms in regulation and paperwork.

Some of the additional paperwork and regulation required:

•Detailed logs would need to be kept by all drivers – hours worked, miles traveled, etc.
•Vehicles would have to display DOT numbers
•Drivers would need to pass a physical as well as a drug test – every two years.

The Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation (WFBF) is one of many farm organizations not happy about the idea and has sent the DOT a letter expressing this opinion:

“WFBF opposes any change in statue or regulatory authority that would reclassify implements of husbandry or other farm equipment as Commercial Motor Vehicles (CMVs)”

WFBF Director of Governmental Relations Karen Gefvert continues, explaining the excessive cost to farmers if this allowed to move forward:

“The proposed guidance by the FMCSA would result in an initial increased cost to each Wisconsin farmer and employee of $124 just for the CDL license, permit and test; not to mention the time and cost for the behind-the-wheel training that is several thousand dollars.”

Additionally, Illinois farmers believe this regulation will also force new restrictions on trucks used in crop-share hauling. (One estimate claims more than 30% of Illinois farmers utilize shared land.) These crop-share trucks are typically limited-use vehicles that often travel fewer than 3000 miles each year, mainly hauling crops from the fields to nearby grain elevators. To require them to follow the same rules as semis would also mean a farmer would be forced to purchase substantial insurance.

The Hancock Journal-Pilot covered the story:

Earlier this year, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) began to define crop-share tenant farmers as “for-hire“ carriers and implements of husbandry as ”commercial motor vehicles.“ The ”for-hire” designation for crop-share tenant farmers would have a dramatic effect on farmers because it voids exemptions from the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) program and would require a minimum of $750,000 in insurance coverage for the farmer.

The DOT is holding hearings for public comment on the topic, but only through Monday, August 1st and farmers all across the country are rightfully concerned. No matter what the feedback is from the people who actually grow the food, it appears that the DOT’s mind is made up. Just last week, DOT Administrator Anna Ferro posted an Op-Ed addressing the controversial regulation. The opinion piece closes with this statement:

Everyone in this Administration – from President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary LaHood on down – is committed to the long-term success of America’s agricultural industry. In many ways, agriculture is the backbone of our economy – feeding hundreds of millions of Americans and billions more around the world. As the largest user of freight transportation in the nation, the agricultural industry is also one of USDOT’s most important constituents. We hope that this comment period is the start of a new and productive relationship. We may not ultimately agree on every issue, but we will always listen — and do our best to help America’s farmers succeed.

The FMCSA has said their intent is to create uniformity in way federal safety regulations are carried out across America. The farming community and many of the states that would be affected by this change feel differently. Almost to a man, the farming community believes this to be a local issue, best handled by state governments, and not some Washington DC agency.


  • Dacama

    Maybe we should think about the 10th in this case…

  • Dacama

    Maybe we should think about the 10th in this case…

  • Dacama

    Maybe we should think about the 10th in this case…

  • Dacama

    Maybe we should think about the 10th in this case…

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1553468735 Anna Calder

    Pass the pitchforks.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1553468735 Anna Calder

    Pass the pitchforks.

    • Bgdmswede

      hahaha luv it… but you’re right, it’s time to stop the nonsense! Reducing Americans to peons …gggrrrrr.

    • Bgdmswede

      hahaha luv it… but you’re right, it’s time to stop the nonsense! Reducing Americans to peons …gggrrrrr.

  • Thomaslaumann

    Again the FED’s try and screw small town America!!

  • Thomaslaumann

    Again the FED’s try and screw small town America!!

  • Thomaslaumann

    Again the FED’s try and screw small town America!!

  • Thomaslaumann

    Again the FED’s try and screw small town America!!

  • Black Flag

    Obama’s people fanning out across the country, destroying everything in their path. Meanwhile, the Republicans sit on their hands. Why aren’t we marching yet? Off with their heads!

  • Black Flag

    Obama’s people fanning out across the country, destroying everything in their path. Meanwhile, the Republicans sit on their hands. Why aren’t we marching yet? Off with their heads!

    • SBrash

      The farmers are the real ones tearing up everything in their paths, not the government bodies that need to go behind them and make the repairs, do you driving your car want to be taxed extra each year that you plate your car for the huge farming equipment tearing up our roadways, byways and interstates? I don’t, I think I pay enough taxes, I’m lucky to be making it myself how about you? I have heard a farmer making up expendatures to get around taxes and responsibility he owes. I don’t know what kind of income you make each year, but he makes in pocket over 40,000 being a small farmer that doesn’t think he should abide by any regulations either, he’s making that much money after his expenses and this is seasonal, nowadays people are lucky to get that annually, he’s busting up your roads and not paying for them, have you ever bottomed out your car on huge chuckholes, and how about going through small farming communities that these combines and tractors travel every season the deep impressions in the roads from them that don’t go away, who pays for that? WE DO. I never received welfare or food stamps raising my kids, but I got a break down every year on how much of my property taxes paid for others around me that I was supporting that did. Nowadays, I don’t know if I will need help or not, but I’m tired of hearing people that have money to pay their portion refuse to and  they OWE. I’m not carrying farmers on my back either, it’s time for them to pay their portion, when I pay for their portion in roadways in additional taxes I don’t owe, it gives me less to eat with. I can’t eat the roadways I’m paying for they are tearing up, I pay my portion already. Can I go to this farmer and invite myself in his home and eat his chickens, cows, pigs and grain when I’m hungry?

    • Chfvm23

      Do you not realize that road you drive on use to be a farmers field not to mention I am pretty sure you eat something a farmer grows everyday so think before you talk are build your own roads and plant your own food

  • Black Flag

    Obama’s people fanning out across the country, destroying everything in their path. Meanwhile, the Republicans sit on their hands. Why aren’t we marching yet? Off with their heads!

  • Black Flag

    Obama’s people fanning out across the country, destroying everything in their path. Meanwhile, the Republicans sit on their hands. Why aren’t we marching yet? Off with their heads!

  • http://bluecollarphilosophy.com BlueCollarTodd

    I grew up in Montana and I got my drivers license at 15. I know that kids who lived on farms could help out and drive farm equipment. This regulation would cause serious harm to farmers across the country. Slavery through regulation.

  • http://bluecollarphilosophy.com BlueCollarTodd

    I grew up in Montana and I got my drivers license at 15. I know that kids who lived on farms could help out and drive farm equipment. This regulation would cause serious harm to farmers across the country. Slavery through regulation.

  • http://bluecollarphilosophy.com BlueCollarTodd

    I grew up in Montana and I got my drivers license at 15. I know that kids who lived on farms could help out and drive farm equipment. This regulation would cause serious harm to farmers across the country. Slavery through regulation.

  • http://bluecollarphilosophy.com BlueCollarTodd

    I grew up in Montana and I got my drivers license at 15. I know that kids who lived on farms could help out and drive farm equipment. This regulation would cause serious harm to farmers across the country. Slavery through regulation.

    • SBrash

      I am college educated as well, and I can share with you that in today’s ecomony it is tight everywhere. I am a woman in business and if I have equipment that weighs a certain amount in weight, I have to register and pay the taxes on it according to it’s size as we all are mandated to follow the rules, I don’t get a special pass to get around these issues, because I’m a female or business or a combination of both. If I or anyone else opens up a business, doesn’t matter what kind of business it is, if someone opens a business that involves motorized equipment within these guidelines to have it to even open the business these are the requirements reguations and guidelines. Imagine how many of the farmers out there don’t keep their equipment up to standards to be safe and operational, Guess what the age of some of them are? I know a few of them. I was born and raised in Indiana right in the heartland of farming America. And for the farmers that think that their kids are exempt from employment and taxes and this theroy of free farm labor, the kids are in slavery and bondage by being born on a farm that they didn’t have choice in. I have seen many kids being forced to work the family farm, running farming equipment on eyeballing and being lectured by their parents on how to do it, and really don’t know what they are doing especially when something goes wrong with the equipment. I know a 13 year old boy in Indiana that was adopted to a faming couple that had him out farming on a tractor and left him alone and to have the tractor turn over on him and kill him at the age of 13 years old, He didn’t get paid anything for his time, and he didn’t get anything for his early death, his parents weren’t paying him nor was there employment for a wrongful death benefit. If the 13 year old boy had better mandated and regulations in place he wouldn’t have even been on the tractor at 13 years old to die. He died like a man at 13 years old, he died with a tractor on him, and by the time the father found him, the tractor was so large the father couldn’t get the tractor off of him and he died. Blue Collar or not, if the 13 boy had rights he wouldn’t have even been old enough to have a driver’s license to be on the tractor at 13 years old to die. He never made it to be old enough for a driver’s license.

    • Kthoman2

      That is the price you pay to eat three times a day. It is
      very unfortunate that that happens to us on the farm; however, trying to
      regulate an industry that already faces the compounding problem of feeding a
      hungry world with less and less leeway will only hinder us more.  You want to slap us with regulation all over,
      then complain when your food prices go up. Do you understand where your food
      comes from? Or are you the 90% who thinks it just comes from the store. You may
      feel its unjust, but like I said, that’s the price you pay to eat a fair square
      meal every day. I know, I grew up operating one of 6 harvesting machines
      weighing 10 times the weight of your typical car at the age of 11. Both of my
      grandpa’s, an aunt and uncle were all taken by farm accidents. I never once
      felt enslaved, in fact, I grew up fast, learning I work in a cliché world, that
      I must feed an arrogant and hungry world, who want to both want to run you out
      of business, or regulate you to death. We are the domestic soldiers fighting to
      feed this arrogant world.  People will
      die, that is inevitable, but does that mean you despise the army for sacrificing
      a soldier at your cost?

    • SBrash

      I am college educated as well, and I can share with you that in today’s ecomony it is tight everywhere. I am a woman in business and if I have equipment that weighs a certain amount in weight, I have to register and pay the taxes on it according to it’s size as we all are mandated to follow the rules, I don’t get a special pass to get around these issues, because I’m a female or business or a combination of both. If I or anyone else opens up a business, doesn’t matter what kind of business it is, if someone opens a business that involves motorized equipment within these guidelines to have it to even open the business these are the requirements reguations and guidelines. Imagine how many of the farmers out there don’t keep their equipment up to standards to be safe and operational, Guess what the age of some of them are? I know a few of them. I was born and raised in Indiana right in the heartland of farming America. And for the farmers that think that their kids are exempt from employment and taxes and this theroy of free farm labor, the kids are in slavery and bondage by being born on a farm that they didn’t have choice in. I have seen many kids being forced to work the family farm, running farming equipment on eyeballing and being lectured by their parents on how to do it, and really don’t know what they are doing especially when something goes wrong with the equipment. I know a 13 year old boy in Indiana that was adopted to a faming couple that had him out farming on a tractor and left him alone and to have the tractor turn over on him and kill him at the age of 13 years old, He didn’t get paid anything for his time, and he didn’t get anything for his early death, his parents weren’t paying him nor was there employment for a wrongful death benefit. If the 13 year old boy had better mandated and regulations in place he wouldn’t have even been on the tractor at 13 years old to die. He died like a man at 13 years old, he died with a tractor on him, and by the time the father found him, the tractor was so large the father couldn’t get the tractor off of him and he died. Blue Collar or not, if the 13 boy had rights he wouldn’t have even been old enough to have a driver’s license to be on the tractor at 13 years old to die. He never made it to be old enough for a driver’s license.

  • Jim up north

     ”Ties to George Soros and center for progress is all you need to know” that disgusting old toad is trying to destroy this country from all angles. Top ( oboma) to bottom  department of transportation for christs sake.

  • Jim up north

     ”Ties to George Soros and center for progress is all you need to know” that disgusting old toad is trying to destroy this country from all angles. Top ( oboma) to bottom  department of transportation for christs sake.

  • 1sht1kill

    Fuck the DOT …. they a can kiss my ass.

  • Bzpalecat

    They are trying to get rid of the small farmers and get more taxes…which won’t reaaly work well when a farmer loses his farm!!

    • SBrash

      If they were paying their taxes all along they wouldn’t be used to complaining about it, come on we all pay our taxes, want to pay twice as much for your license plates? I don’t, they need to contribute to fixing the roads, byways and highways they are tearing up! They make more in one season than I make all year, maybe that’s why I’m considered at poverty level. They can pay their taxes on their vehicles like all the rest of us do. We have the rigfht to know that they are trained and not getting their kids killed on these farms, that the farming equipment isn’t blowing up because it is unsafe, we have the right to know that a huge combine coming at us on the roads that we have to wait for that takes up one and a half lanes on a two lane road that almost wipes us out coming at us is trained huge equipment coming at us, and it is paying for the same roads we drive on for it’s weight and busting up our roads and tearing up our vehicles. I don’t appreciate paying out of my pocket this big huge combine coming at me, in fact, the more I think about it the more I’m getting pissed off about it. Maybe these farmers should get to getther and get into the same pools to pay the taxes on these huge machines that they get into to run crop trucks and split their out of pocket expenses.

    • SBrash

      If they were paying their taxes all along they wouldn’t be used to complaining about it, come on we all pay our taxes, want to pay twice as much for your license plates? I don’t, they need to contribute to fixing the roads, byways and highways they are tearing up! They make more in one season than I make all year, maybe that’s why I’m considered at poverty level. They can pay their taxes on their vehicles like all the rest of us do. We have the rigfht to know that they are trained and not getting their kids killed on these farms, that the farming equipment isn’t blowing up because it is unsafe, we have the right to know that a huge combine coming at us on the roads that we have to wait for that takes up one and a half lanes on a two lane road that almost wipes us out coming at us is trained huge equipment coming at us, and it is paying for the same roads we drive on for it’s weight and busting up our roads and tearing up our vehicles. I don’t appreciate paying out of my pocket this big huge combine coming at me, in fact, the more I think about it the more I’m getting pissed off about it. Maybe these farmers should get to getther and get into the same pools to pay the taxes on these huge machines that they get into to run crop trucks and split their out of pocket expenses.

  • Dr. Jerry

    I learned to drive on the farm at 12 years old!  By 15 I drove everything on that farm…and I drove it everywhere…most farms can not survive if family members, some of them pretty young, can not haul hay, drive a tractor to the barn, or use the old truck to spread feed in the field…this is just more governmental over reaching and Obama cronies pressing their ologarchy!

    Don’t just get the pitchforks…get ‘em and start the march toward Washington DC!

  • remmy

    These government agencies have to justify their existence.  The only way they can do that is to think up more and more regulations.  Once implemented they next step is enforcement.  The enforcement part requires additional employees.

  • bacongreasenapalm

    Mexicans can drive their hazardous drug-laden trucks un-abated thru our country without any inspections or CDLs but our farmers are required to have CDLs to drive a fucking tractor on their own fucking property. Unbelievable attack on rural America. WAR.

    …Interesting coincidence how that part of NAFTA was finally ratified after fifteen years (RIGHT AFTER THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT THREATENED TO PROSECUTE “GUNWALKERS” IN MEXICO)

    • bacongreasenapalm

      Farmers need to figure out a way to strike against this. THIS IS WAR! The feds are also trying to regulate farm goods as “INTERSTATE COMMERCE” beacause the food MAY be sold EVENTUALLY across some state line.

  • Richardanthonyfarmer

    communist bastards. what’s next “o hail the grate oboma”. are you gonna start slaughtering the catholics and christians next. Its comming ,american holocaust. thanks to the obama regime .the gmo seed making motherfuckers with your gmo seeds.when are we going to take back are nation and put it back to under god, and for the people by the people. Lets just not march lest storm the capital. was gonna be enough before after they start tattooing your kids .

    • SBrash

      I am a female in business and I am Republican, I haven’t ever voted democrat, most of these farmers that won’t admit it now voted for him. The point is DOT was there before Obama, and the farmers have been getting away with their portion to pay and the rest of us have been paying it all along. I’m sick of hearing them belly ache, they make more in one season farming that I do all year and that’s after their expenses. They don’t keep their equipment up and they don’t pay for the damages their combines, tractors and huge equipment does to our roads, byways, highways. I don’t want to pay more for my license plates and bottoming out my car running over their permanent ruts they put in our roads. They chose to declair themselves self employed and that’s what they are. They all act like they are the pissed poorest out there. Can I come and eat out of their kitchens, can I come and eat their chickens, cows, pigs and grain when I’m being busted up paying their portion of their unpaid taxes for the very huge equipment coming at me on the roads I pay for, and they don’t, they don’t even have the right to passage on them. These combines are very heavy and huge, not only am I being delayed, almost wiped out off of roads because of them, I am paying for them and you are too, DOT will regulate me when I start a business and I have a vehicle or combination vehicle weighing 10,500 in weight or more, other small businesses that is 40% of this employment in this country that supports 40% of our American population pays it, and the farmer should too. I don’t get any bonuses, acceptions or allowances to get out of this, this is business. I don’t pay it, I’m shut down my employees lose their jobs, and I don’t get to cry being a female to get out of it. We blame Obama for everything, but DOT has always been there, maybe because the economy is so bad this is being looked at to help the economy, we all are suffering this in one way or another. The farmer isn’t exempt from his taxes on his equipment he wants to get his grain from his farm to grain elevators, he wants to use our roads that he doesn’t pay for that is heavier than most semi tractor trailers. He can get over it. I was born and raised in Indiana farm country. I also know of a 13 year old boy that died on a farm helping his adoptive father, the tractor turned over on him and killed him. He never made it to high school or old enough to have a driver’s license to drive a car.

    • SBrash

      I am a female in business and I am Republican, I haven’t ever voted democrat, most of these farmers that won’t admit it now voted for him. The point is DOT was there before Obama, and the farmers have been getting away with their portion to pay and the rest of us have been paying it all along. I’m sick of hearing them belly ache, they make more in one season farming that I do all year and that’s after their expenses. They don’t keep their equipment up and they don’t pay for the damages their combines, tractors and huge equipment does to our roads, byways, highways. I don’t want to pay more for my license plates and bottoming out my car running over their permanent ruts they put in our roads. They chose to declair themselves self employed and that’s what they are. They all act like they are the pissed poorest out there. Can I come and eat out of their kitchens, can I come and eat their chickens, cows, pigs and grain when I’m being busted up paying their portion of their unpaid taxes for the very huge equipment coming at me on the roads I pay for, and they don’t, they don’t even have the right to passage on them. These combines are very heavy and huge, not only am I being delayed, almost wiped out off of roads because of them, I am paying for them and you are too, DOT will regulate me when I start a business and I have a vehicle or combination vehicle weighing 10,500 in weight or more, other small businesses that is 40% of this employment in this country that supports 40% of our American population pays it, and the farmer should too. I don’t get any bonuses, acceptions or allowances to get out of this, this is business. I don’t pay it, I’m shut down my employees lose their jobs, and I don’t get to cry being a female to get out of it. We blame Obama for everything, but DOT has always been there, maybe because the economy is so bad this is being looked at to help the economy, we all are suffering this in one way or another. The farmer isn’t exempt from his taxes on his equipment he wants to get his grain from his farm to grain elevators, he wants to use our roads that he doesn’t pay for that is heavier than most semi tractor trailers. He can get over it. I was born and raised in Indiana farm country. I also know of a 13 year old boy that died on a farm helping his adoptive father, the tractor turned over on him and killed him. He never made it to high school or old enough to have a driver’s license to drive a car.

  • MoreInformedThanYou

    Jesus, didn’t any of you people read the damn  legislation … IT STATES THE FOLLOWING:

    “Under the Agency’s CDL regulations, persons who operate a CMV, as defined in 49 CFR 383.5,
    in interstate or intrastate commerce are required to have a CDL.
    However, a limited exception is provided for drivers of farm vehicles (49 CFR 383.3(d)(1)). A State may, at its discretion, exempt drivers of farm vehicles that are:Show citation box

    (1) Controlled and operated by a farmer, including operation by employees or family members;Show citation box

    (2) Used to transport agricultural products, farm machinery or farm supplies to or from a farm;Show citation box

    (3) Not used in the operations of a common or contract motor carrier; andShow citation box

    (4) Used within 241 kilometers (150 miles) of the farmer’s farm.Show citation box

    The exception is limited to the driver’s home State unless there is a reciprocity agreement with adjoining States.Show citation box

    It has come to
    FMCSA’s attention that States may be taking varied approaches in
    interpreting the meaning of “common or contract motor carrier” as it
    relates to farm vehicle drivers operating under a crop share agreement
    and, as a result, may be applying the CDL exception inconsistently.”

    For the love of science, don’t be idiots and actually become informed on a subject before responding. 

    Contact your local state reps and have them impose exemptions. 

    • Traceman43

      Inform YOURSELF!!! You are citing from CLASSIFICATION rules, only! The U.S. DOT most certainly IS proposing such new regulation….public comment period ended on the proposal on 08-01-11. There IS no current legislation…it will be mandated by the U.S. DOT…superceding the state’s rights, altogether. Leran before you speak!

    • Tim

      Hey, LessInformedThanYouThink…..if you had actually researched what is being proposed you would have found that the FMCSA is attempting to unilaterally reclassify ALL farm equipment at CMV’s, which would give the Feds immediate regulatory control over them and all operations involving them. 

      The basis for thier actions is the assertion that all food producers are involved in interstate commerce…..which is of course absurd to anyone with common sense.

      While you are correct in your citing of the details in your post….those are the very things that the FMCSA is trying to changeby taking the determination of who is/is not engaged in exempt forms of commerce out of the hands of the states.

    • Tim

      Hey, LessInformedThanYouThink…..if you had actually researched what is being proposed you would have found that the FMCSA is attempting to unilaterally reclassify ALL farm equipment at CMV’s, which would give the Feds immediate regulatory control over them and all operations involving them. 

      The basis for thier actions is the assertion that all food producers are involved in interstate commerce…..which is of course absurd to anyone with common sense.

      While you are correct in your citing of the details in your post….those are the very things that the FMCSA is trying to changeby taking the determination of who is/is not engaged in exempt forms of commerce out of the hands of the states.

    • SBrash

      Right On!

    • SBrash

      Right On!

  • deboss

    oh,,no they wont,,mess with farmers?its civil war,,washington will burn!!!

  • Netizen_james

    This is simply false.  There IS NO such proposed rule.  Beck and the Blaze have LIED to you.  Stop being Sheeple.  Learn to think for yourselves!

    • farmer john

      beck dont lie there is a preposle for this

    • Randy20

      netizen  you are an idiot!  I just went through my first audit with dot coming to my house and explainig the new rules.we do have to have a cdl to haul our landlords share of grain to the elevator.

  • Traceman43

    I say the Farmers and People start telling the DOT and U.S. Govt to go screw themselves…”WE AIN’T Doing IT”

  • Jakemp

    what about lawn mowers?

  • Jakemp

    what about lawn mowers?

  • Jakemp

    what about lawn mowers?

  • Rob

    I guess they want to make every family farm the next Waco!

  • Anonymous

    Absolutely INSANE! Vote the Bastards out before they totall destroy this country.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000303738640 Brian Birmingham

    hey you pudding heads http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/08/fmcsa-and-ag-operators.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=738051943 John Stratton

    This is just all kinds of wrong ,, Not that farmers can’t pass the test but this is mostly off road equipment & don’t need CDL or government involvement . Just another greedy way of taking control of peoples lives . There’s way more harm to this than can be put here in a few lines .

  • Amy

    Wow! I’m a farm wife. I make the lunches. I flag my husband and the hired hands when they need me to. Does that mean I have to get  CDL to drive the service truck now. I suggest that farmers FINALLY unite – all across the country. Let them pass their “legislation by regulation.” Let them ticket all of us, but DON’T pay the fine. If NO ONE follows the law it will make news and eventually be repealed. The reason laws are passed successfully is because they know we are NOT the farmers. We are the sheep that they farm! 

  • Anonymous

    It’s time
    to stop arguing over the culture war. It’s time to stop hunkering down for the
    apocalypse. It’s time to stop waiting to get beamed up. It’s time to start
    thinking Normandy.

     

    If you
    sit home waiting your turn you deserve to have your gun taken from your cold
    dead hands.

     

    The
    Founders didn’t wait for the Brits to knock down their doors. They gathered at
    the green and stood up like men and they killed government employees all the
    way back to Boston.

     

    What will
    you do when it’s time to hunt NWO hacks, republicrats and commies(“Liberals”
    and ‘progressives’)?

     

    Don’t
    understand? Start here: http://willowtown.com/promo/quotes.htm
    Then read my column ‘Prepping for Slavery’

  • Anonymous

    It’s time
    to stop arguing over the culture war. It’s time to stop hunkering down for the
    apocalypse. It’s time to stop waiting to get beamed up. It’s time to start
    thinking Normandy.

     

    If you
    sit home waiting your turn you deserve to have your gun taken from your cold
    dead hands.

     

    The
    Founders didn’t wait for the Brits to knock down their doors. They gathered at
    the green and stood up like men and they killed government employees all the
    way back to Boston.

     

    What will
    you do when it’s time to hunt NWO hacks, republicrats and commies(“Liberals”
    and ‘progressives’)?

     

    Don’t
    understand? Start here: http://willowtown.com/promo/quotes.htm
    Then read my column ‘Prepping for Slavery’

  • Sam

    The more I research this issue the more I’m convinced it’s a power grab against rural America. Ever heard of a slippery slope in the law? This is one of those instances. Once this is done the government and corporate interests will continue to boil the frog.

  • Sam

    The more I research this issue the more I’m convinced it’s a power grab against rural America. Ever heard of a slippery slope in the law? This is one of those instances. Once this is done the government and corporate interests will continue to boil the frog.

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  • Scotblkhwk71

    this is just another scheme by the government to take another step toward socialism, not that we arent a socialist country already, our economy is built on how our small business prosper and so far it seems the government is determined to cut off the hand that feeds america. i feel that this is tyrantical act for the government to continue to try and gain control of every aspect of our lives. i am sick and tired of seeing my freedoms and liberties stripped from myself and my fellow countrymen. this is the same treatment  our forefathers endured before our independance was won from england 250 yrs ago and if we all give in to this tyranny, our forefathers, our sons, our sisters, brothers,  our fathers and mothers that made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom have died in vain. i served my country and have bared witness some of my fellow brothers give the ultimate sacrifice as did many others in the past to retain our freedoms and liberties we share and love dearly. anyone who reads this story of how the government plans to mandate this; write your government, senators, representitives, even your local and state government officials and tell them we will not adhere to this tyranny. we must meet this now and not after it is done.

  • 1/507th P.I.R.

    GODDAMN THEM!  Damn them to the darkest corner of Hell that exists!

    This directly affects me… I’m a small farmer.. HOW am I supposed to come up with the money to undergo all this training?  I don’t sell out of state, I’m local..

    I also served my Republic for most of my adult life before being medically retired.. and THIS is the thanks I get for wanting to live my own life by my leave, beholden to none, trying to contribute to my community?

    Fuck me… might be time to pick up a rifle again and go back to work.. ’cause that’s what these communist motherfuckers are pushing us into…

    • SBrash

      You are the one that I would directly address, when you decided to go self employed this is self employment. I am, I’m regulated, I pay my taxes and if I don’t I’m screwed. I don’t get kick backs because of this or that. You say your local, how may of your own buddy farmers aren’t? How many take advantage of the system, even if you don’t. I know a 13 year old boy that died because he was helping run a tractor on a family farm, his adopted father left him alone and he at 13 years old died alone too, he died like a man, and wasn’t old enough to even get his driver’s license. He never made it to high school, free farm help! The kid didn’t have a life anyway, he was pulling the responsibility of the famly farm, he never chose. Pay or go, that’s what we small business owners get that open businesses every day and we support 40% of the American economy, carry your employment taxes for your kids, and workers compensation if they get hurt, and paid time off, pay your taxes for busting up our roads, byways and highways we do if we have equipment that is over 10,500 in combined weight. We have to register our vehicles up front to be in business, we have to carry insurance on them, we have to pay or be fined. We support 40% of this country that is going to hell. We don’t have a choice why do you think you are a special exception? Because farmers have always believed that they could be and are exempt, they aren’t exempt. He man, I think I’m getting out of my regulated business and going self employed farming tomorrow, I want to see how much I can get out of and tell the Federal Gov., fuck you! I don’t get bonuses, I don’t get kickbacks, I don’t get special acceptions or rules being a woman in business, if I have huge machinery and huge motorized machinery and the weights and measures meet their requirements I have to pay my portion to pay for the roads, byways and highways my motorized heavy equipment travels and tears up and so should you.

    • SBrash

      You are the one that I would directly address, when you decided to go self employed this is self employment. I am, I’m regulated, I pay my taxes and if I don’t I’m screwed. I don’t get kick backs because of this or that. You say your local, how may of your own buddy farmers aren’t? How many take advantage of the system, even if you don’t. I know a 13 year old boy that died because he was helping run a tractor on a family farm, his adopted father left him alone and he at 13 years old died alone too, he died like a man, and wasn’t old enough to even get his driver’s license. He never made it to high school, free farm help! The kid didn’t have a life anyway, he was pulling the responsibility of the famly farm, he never chose. Pay or go, that’s what we small business owners get that open businesses every day and we support 40% of the American economy, carry your employment taxes for your kids, and workers compensation if they get hurt, and paid time off, pay your taxes for busting up our roads, byways and highways we do if we have equipment that is over 10,500 in combined weight. We have to register our vehicles up front to be in business, we have to carry insurance on them, we have to pay or be fined. We support 40% of this country that is going to hell. We don’t have a choice why do you think you are a special exception? Because farmers have always believed that they could be and are exempt, they aren’t exempt. He man, I think I’m getting out of my regulated business and going self employed farming tomorrow, I want to see how much I can get out of and tell the Federal Gov., fuck you! I don’t get bonuses, I don’t get kickbacks, I don’t get special acceptions or rules being a woman in business, if I have huge machinery and huge motorized machinery and the weights and measures meet their requirements I have to pay my portion to pay for the roads, byways and highways my motorized heavy equipment travels and tears up and so should you.

  • Newhuber

    When does it end????  Gov. says they want better time and then regulate us to death….This is an unnessasery mandate and will cause unnessasery harm to the AG community….

  • Person75us

    Time to end this people Enough regulation ! I say we do what Americans do organize and stamp out oppression ! Revolution now !! I say to all farmers if they don’t stop this now hold all grain in your bins this year ! Even a rumor of this will drive prices through the roof ! High food prices will get everyone on board!

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  • RetiredVet

    The federal government on Wednesday, 10 Aug, 2011 announced it is scrapping plans to require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses to operate their tractors.click image to enlarge
    Steve Christianson dismounts a tractor after harrowing a summer squash patch Tuesday in Mount Vernon. The manager of Belle Vue Farm, in Readfield, was relieved to learn that the federal government Wednesday scrapped plans to require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses to operate their tractors.
    Staff photo by Andy Molloy
    Select images available for purchase in theMaine Today Photo StoreThe decision came after thousands of angry farmers and farm organizations blasted the measure as unnecessary meddling.”I think the Department of Transportation was trying to elicit feedback from the farmers,” said Clark Granger, a board member of the Augusta-based Maine Farm Bureau. “They got an earful.

  • RetiredVet

    The federal government on Wednesday, 10 Aug, 2011 announced it is scrapping plans to require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses to operate their tractors.click image to enlarge
    Steve Christianson dismounts a tractor after harrowing a summer squash patch Tuesday in Mount Vernon. The manager of Belle Vue Farm, in Readfield, was relieved to learn that the federal government Wednesday scrapped plans to require farmers to get commercial drivers licenses to operate their tractors.
    Staff photo by Andy Molloy
    Select images available for purchase in theMaine Today Photo StoreThe decision came after thousands of angry farmers and farm organizations blasted the measure as unnecessary meddling.”I think the Department of Transportation was trying to elicit feedback from the farmers,” said Clark Granger, a board member of the Augusta-based Maine Farm Bureau. “They got an earful.

  • Howardkromis

    I believe that this will be shown to be overblown hype, misleading the uninformed public to garner earlier dislike and disdain of an action before the real intent of the regulation is known.  Interstate commerce is regulated by the federal government and is in regard to commerce between the states and traveling across state lines. Intrastate commerce is business conducted within any one state and is controlled and regulated by the state government where the business is conducted.

  • Howardkromis

    PLEASE, PDEOPLE… Use the intelligence that God gave you to research what you are told before you go out and lynch someone for something that isn’t true. Read for yourself to see another lie that has been told to promote discontent and sway your mind and gain control of your vote. Read this   http://fastlane.dot.gov/2011/08/fmcsa-and-ag-operators.html    and stop allowing the liars from controlling your brains!
    I have been a farmer for over 50 years.  Stop and think how many “5 acre farmers” use their ag exemption to license their dump trucks and trailers while hauling sand and gravel and hauling their backhoes and paving machines to do excavating, installing septic systems, driveways, digging basements and all kinds of things not related to farming!  Calm down and think it through. Most of the stories that I see from certain sources can be found on “snopes.com”  repeatedly lying about something. LOOK IT UP FIRST! before making a fool of yourself by passing or commenting on a lie. Know the truth!.

  • Billlyjo

    Why do farmers not have to have a cdl liscense for driving thier Semi Trucks? Are they something special, comon man they get all the breaks the way it is I think that making them have cdl licsense for at least thier semi trucks is as fair as it gets. Safety training for them is just as important as it is for the rest of us.

    • Writer Amywarwick

      Billyjo, it is my understanding that this plan was scrapped. Not sure if that is still true or not. My response to your comment is that I am a farm wife. I run for parts, flag my husband’s equipment, run lunches out, etc. My limited – possibly feared – understanding of how far this could go would be that it would “require everyone who worked for the farm” to have a CDL. I should not need a CDL to deliver lunches and pick up parts. Nor can we afford as small farmers to hire people who have CDLs for all of our hired help jobs. I believe the difference between why farmers shouldn’t have to have one vs. why truckers should is that when we move down the highway we are always, always traveling very short distances, we have flaggers, and we only go 10-15 mph. That is way different than someone who drives a long haul truck for a living. Even our truck drivers only drive a short distance to the elevator. Again, I understand this is scrapped anyway, but that was my original fear. Hope I don’t get completely blasted for giving an opinion. :)

    • dale edwards

      do you have a cdl billyjobob i got mine and it didnt teach me shit about how to drive safer on the farm the saftey was learned from driving on the farm there is a big difference from driving long hual trucks to driving back streets in farm country driving accross feilds not even on the roads much still paying fule taxes and licences for driving 1]100 of what an over the road truck runs get your facts straight bob

    • dale edwards

      do you have a cdl billyjobob i got mine and it didnt teach me shit about how to drive safer on the farm the saftey was learned from driving on the farm there is a big difference from driving long hual trucks to driving back streets in farm country driving accross feilds not even on the roads much still paying fule taxes and licences for driving 1]100 of what an over the road truck runs get your facts straight bob

    • dale edwards

      do you have a cdl billyjobob i got mine and it didnt teach me shit about how to drive safer on the farm the saftey was learned from driving on the farm there is a big difference from driving long hual trucks to driving back streets in farm country driving accross feilds not even on the roads much still paying fule taxes and licences for driving 1]100 of what an over the road truck runs get your facts straight bob

  • Charlesmorris609

    Well as far as the CDL for pulling grain wagons, and driving equipment , I live in Illinois on a State Highway. We have had 4 mailbox and poles hit this year. Being disabled makes this get expensive,,,,fast. The neighbors and I are sick of this and want it to stop. I grew up helping my girlfriends dad on the farm, I know how inportant farmers are. BUT, the day of the poor farmer is over, they can afford to replace what they damage, don’t even try to cry poor guys. The equipment is getting way to big to be on the rural highways, and should be used on back roads only.  The farmers around here just expect people to deal with it…. wrong. All wagons, and farm equipment needs to be licensed for the road, require an operators permit, liability insurance, and be fined for leaving the scene of an accident for damaging property and not reporting it.

    • Dalerayedwards

      sounds like the drivers need to be a little more farm freindly.  I farm to sir and I drive a peterbuilt with a 53′ – solid mounted tripple axel trailor I went in and took my cdl test through “Sage Technical Training” A truck driving school that places a lot of truck drivers on the roads every year.  I drove a lot of 10-wheelers around the farm and this trailor and truck combo is nothing like what i drove  through down town Caldwell Idaho with the wide streetes extra turn lanes ect… out in the rurral streets of Roswell.Idaho and Parma Idaho popupation 43 and 699 there was a whole new driving experience that had to be learned and it was on hands training that pulled me through it not the”BULL CDL testes I went through in the class room and obsticals tests of parralell parking between cones the dots instructers had me doing.  If anything the cdl test set me up for failure in a way for I thought I could take the corners just like I did in town and there were a few stop sighns I had to come back to and push back to the straight upright position`.If a guy learnes from someone that already knows thats half the battle. They never told me in school that if you turned to sharp with the tripple solid 3 tires on each side of the trailor (fatter 1-tire takes the place of duel tires)  that the trailor would roll over the fifth wheele plate causing the trailor to dump alot of the contents on the ground either or how to back back under it to fix the trailor back into the upright position,,  Jeeres to the farmers for not buying and replacing the mail boxes and post they damaged but farmers are learning the hard way alot of the time by damaged equipment etc that we dont need the extra costs of cdl’s etc.. That never tought me what thr farm forman and old school truck drivers tought me. #1 be courtiouse if a car is comming either direction pull over and stop letting them pass so there is no chance of damaging there vehichle from flying gravel or a sudden rut in the road causing an accident. We are only moving 10-20-mph anyways its not like we are going to be put that far out anyway. And if I were a betting man and I am I would bet it was the same farm hand that run your boxes down every time. In lue of that farmers bad judgement,carelessness jeeres to him and his farm ethics.  Its all how you are brought up in the trade and then again some of us will never have any kind of consiouse or respect for others or there property. But that doesnt make us all bad because we are all farmers.

  • Dale Edwards

    No farms No food its black and white no grey area hear. We farm pay taxes and gamble every year, what we can grow to best make a profit , some years borrowing more money than we make just to break even if we are lucky.  And those of us that are not “as LUCKY”  end up at the estate auctions the fewer the farms  the more prices go up on food and the more the demand for the common farmer to make ends meat . No need for more restrictions on farmers for one day you to will need to eat.  Have you thanked your local farmers today. Thanks for your time just a Parma Idaho farm boy’s opinion on exemptions
    for farmers and the unnessesary “USDOT”S and “FMCSA’s, taxes that will kill us all off in the long run or should i say the short run if they pass these laws. Just think about the future of your kids and there kids….. Dale Edwards Parma Idaho. Winter Wheat , Onions, corn and bean growers. Living the dream of
    making ends meet trying to farm.

    • SBrash

      Why don’t farmers really lay it out there, they aren’t so pathetic and poor as they play, if the weather is bad, if there is droubt, or disaster they put insurance on their yeilds. I’m just a little Indiana Hoosier with farms all around me, you guys scream but don’t pay for the damages and costs that come with it. I don’t want your hands in my pocket paying higher taxes for my plates and other regulatory commissions to compensate for it. I would rather pay a higher price for my can of corn, knowing that you guys are paying your taxes and for fixing out damaged roads and that kids don’t die on farms because they are born into it and make to farm before they are old enough to be in adolesence. We will have farms, the Federal Gov. will make sure of that, we won’t have the small farmer that is a dinasour out there anymore complaining, but we will have potatos, wheat, corn and all the same things, The United States feeds the United States and half the World, the U.S. can do it and it. Hey I’m going to sell my idea and get a trademark and patent on a remote control tractor and combine. Lol. The federal gov. can replace us, do you have any idea how much of our money the federal gov. spends every year for space, machines, robots, computers and research. We can all keep complaining and piss a politician or one of these guys off and all they have to do is create one of these earmarks for funds or the Federal Gov., call it research and create remote control combines and tractors, then what you going to pay taxes they know you owe with, not the taxes on regulating your equipment with. I pay it, I’m and every other business is regulated and you should be too. No more free farm hands with kids either.

  • SBrash

    This is a very interesting issue and topic, when I read this article I did see the approach in that, big figures are thrown out there as the farmer’s costs in insurance, training and licenses, that is ininsurance coverage and not paid out fully from the farmer. I do believe that this is a long awaiting issue that needs to be addressed for ALL Americans. The also compiled figures that Small Business is almost 40% of the American economy that employees our American households in this country. Small Businesses are required to carry and pay these expendatures every day and every year to be able to hire and function to support 40% of the work force in this country, and we don’t question this in our minds, we want our employers to carry all these expenses and requirements just to hire us. What we are not looking at in this argument and debate is the relative questions we must all ask ourselves. It is immaterial rather it should be regulated by Federal Government or State Government. The issues are that they are long waiting and need to be implemented. The questions that must be asked is: How many injuries and farm realated deaths happen each year on the farms, and some of it contributing to improper training of ever changing farming equipment, how many fatalities happen each year on roads, highways and byways with this extremely large farming equipment each year, and is the proper upkeep, maintanence and repairs to keep the large machinery being done and kept in proper working order and properly trained persons driving them. I don’t think that it is too much to require people that claim to be self employed making several thousands being reported and thousands not being reported to keep a log or track records of their business, everyone else has too. I also believe that it is the responsibility of the farmer to keep and maintain current and accurate repairs and complience of these farm vehicles. The size of a combine on the roads is not only an inconvienence to people on our road ways that can’t get around them, and the interuption of them. It is also the weight of them and the damages they do to our roadways, highways and byways. The farmers should be just as responsible for the damages, repairs and costs assessed to them as the rest of us. We and the Federal Gov., get our figures on other functioning businesses that HAVE to report the numbers of their trucks, weights, register them and pay the taxes provided for that truck to be on the roads. This is the way for the Federal Gov., to mandate and figure in Federal tax money to the States to pave, repair and clean our roadways. We have never really considered the total costs, damages and full amounts of money that should be going to the States from the Federal Government to DOT in road, highway and interstate repairs or to make proper and complete repairs, because there isn’t a real assessement of the weights and total trucks traveling and tearing up the roads. Also ask how many domestic/family vehicles get damaged every year from going into torn up roads that are very worn from these farming vehicles that don’t get repaired. The farmers want to use larger, faster and more modern equipment that weighs in excess of 10,500 and some weigh more than an entire semi truck, the farmer wants to bust up our roads and say we don’t want to pay our portion to make the repairs and maintanence to the very roads we are tearing up. The States have their hands out every year from the very Federal Gov., funds to each state for the repairs to their interstates and highways but don’t have an accurate regulated figure to give to the Federal Gov., to effectively keep the States roads, highways and byways in complete opperating condition. 

  • lilsambo

    your crazy woman. when you starve to death don’t cry about it. The government needs to get out of peoples lives. they have no business trying to regulate safety or what we do. The founding fathers would turn over in their graves if they knew how invasive the government has gotten. You should not have so many regulations on your business either.

  • Elevator Worker

    Some of you are killing me with your comments.  As I sit here at my desk at a river grain elevator.  Farmers pay property taxes in each county, which if you look goes towards our township’s road work.  The DOT numbers go to the state, where that is for state road work.  Which is more then ever for overpasses, bridge work, and interstates.  The pot holes and chucks out of the road, are more from the cold weather climate that rural central america is in.  Not from a tractor/combine/ or grain truck.  No I’m not saying that the farmer does no wrong.  Trust me, I know some that do.  But the majority of my farmer customers, are the nicest, helpful, caring people you will ever meet.  What this is… giving each farmer/tenant/landlord a required DOT number is just a way for the state to get more money, (which really, more then likely won’t go towards the debt it has made for it’s self) 

    When a farmer comes into the elevator, he splits his load with a landlord, a old lady who has lived out in her house for 60 years, with her husband passing away 2 years ago, and that is her income.  To not let that farmer haul for that land owner under that land owner’s name caused huge problems.  Then you say why don’t the farmer and land owner get thier own DOT numbers and changed them out when in a different field…. well I’m sure that’s a whole other can of worms I could open.

    It comes down to this…. we can take america’s heartland that supplies america and many other countries give them a set of rules, that makes it harder on not only the farmer but the old lady landlord, the grain elevator and thier paper work…. and on and on…. and maybe just MAYBE with that money the state will fix your pothole you drive over every year fixed…. or we can take away all farm vechiles and go back to horse plows. 

    this makes me think of OSHA coming in and saying do this do that, they parent making the kid put on helmets and pads to ride the bike, for the government to say what you can and can not do.  When does it stop, when is there freedom…. to be a good hardworking american, that can go home with some pay off?  Am I right or am I wrong?