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 ...
time to bring back mules and oxen
oh wait, then there’s PETA
Another department that needs to be defunded. This is beyond stupid.
Obama can just sign an executive order. “Stroke of the pen, law of the land”.
Like most Federal bureaucrats, they need to create work for themselves.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
This is another action that intends to extend federal control over food supplies.
This is ridiculous, most people drive tractors on private land.
Daddy had me on tractor when I was 12 or 13. Heck I used to ride to the store to to get a coke on one.
Agency backs away from commercial license requirement for farmers
If farmers can be required to pass CDL tests then candidates for 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.
All those guys who acquiesce to the notion that driving is a “privilege” since see do it on publicly financed roads. We are just about to be told by our government that driving is a privilege ON OUR OWN LAND.
The reason that kids can get driver’s licenses at 14 in Kansas is so that they can drive the wheat from the field to the elevators. And in my experience, the trucks that they use don’t have any type of tags, maybe for Missouri too.
Here's a budget cut. Also any money going to the UN, Federal Education agencies (keep it local), NPR, EPA, and any other worse than useless (destructive) departments.
Republicans should demand a moratorium on new regulations and use this outrage to support their position.
Looking at three things here:
1- absolute control
2- in the Marxist eyes, small farmers are independent minded small business people, which they hate
3- Marxists need to control the food supply . . . it gives them more power to strong-arm non-compliant citizens; they have been known to create a punishing famine before
This proposal is evil to the core!
Thanks. I guess they decided to listen to farmers. It’s just scary, though, what they try to sneak by us. I’m beginning to hate my government.
During planting and harvest seasons, farmers will work 24, maybe 36 hours without sleep. Is the DOT gonna require that we observe some sort of hours of service law in our own fields? Could they at least order God to hold off on weather changes while we rest?
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