Alabama members - USDOT number notification

Did any of the Alabama members receive a notice form the AL Dept of Transportation about the requirements for a USDOT number?

If I understand correctly, the farmers are exempt. I tried to call but the number was busy.

Mallen23":685ca8o6 said:

Did any of the Alabama members receive a notice form the AL Dept of Transportation about the requirements for a USDOT number?

If I understand correctly, the farmers are exempt. I tried to call but the number was busy.

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DOT number for what?

USDOT number for INTRASTATE Commerce. Vehicles that have a groos vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 lbs are effected. This is a copy of the letter I received:

http://www.dps.state.al.us/public/highwaypatrol/mc/pdf/DOTNumbers-Director.pdf

I ain't heard nothing about it yet. I do know that if you pull a trailer over 3000 pounds your supposed to have a x weighted tag on the truck. The tag must be good for the amount the truck can pull or trailer will haul, reguardless of the actual weight on it. I've heard they will be cracking down on this in the future. I personally know of a guy running farm tags pulling a trailer outside of the 150 mile redious of his farm. He got a ticket but beat it in court.

Bama":27qzl64j said:

I ain't heard nothing about it yet. I do know that if you pull a trailer over 3000 pounds your supposed to have a x weighted tag on the truck. The tag must be good for the amount the truck can pull or trailer will haul, reguardless of the actual weight on it. I've heard they will be cracking down on this in the future. I personally know of a guy running farm tags pulling a trailer outside of the 150 mile redious of his farm. He got a ticket but beat it in court.

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I have an F1 tag. The girl at the courthouse told me it covers the truck and 30,000 lbs of freight for farm use. She said I didn't need a tag on any of my trailers with this tag unless it was for hire.

The F2 tag is for up to 42,000 lbs.

I think this DOT number is Ag exempt.

Mallen23":zbukn2vp said:

If I understand correctly, the farmers are exempt.

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Having read the letter, I think you're going to find that if you're delivering hay, cattle, grain, or any other property - within the state - that you have sold to someone (or that someone has hired you to haul), and your truck or the combination of truck and trailer exceeds 10,000 pounds empty, you're going to be required to have a DOT number for the state of Alabama.

msscamp":lsu71rul said:

msscamp":lsu71rul said:

Mallen23":lsu71rul said:

If I understand correctly, the farmers are exempt.

Click to expand...

Having read the letter, I think you're going to find that if you're delivering hay, cattle, grain, or any other property - within the state - that you have sold to someone (or that someone has hired you to haul), and your truck or the combination of truck and trailer exceeds 10,000 pounds empty, you're going to be required to have a DOT number for the state of Alabama. The only exception being if you have a federal DOT number.

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Farm Exemptions:
http://www.dps.state.al.us/public/highw ... PTIONS.pdf

MikeC":b7isys12 said:

msscamp":b7isys12 said:

msscamp":b7isys12 said:

Mallen23":b7isys12 said:

If I understand correctly, the farmers are exempt.

Click to expand...

Having read the letter, I think you're going to find that if you're delivering hay, cattle, grain, or any other property - within the state - that you have sold to someone (or that someone has hired you to haul), and your truck or the combination of truck and trailer exceeds 10,000 pounds empty, you're going to be required to have a DOT number for the state of Alabama. The only exception being if you have a federal DOT number.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Farm Exemptions:
http://www.dps.state.al.us/public/highw ... PTIONS.pdf

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The difference between the link you posted and the letter is that the letter specifically states 'in intrastate commerce'.

Two completely different things.

Mike thats how the guy got it thrown out in court. There are conflicting reports on what you have to have. The state trooper that stopped him said one thing and the state said another. The trooper was reading from one set of laws and the farmer from another. The judge said since it can't be clarified he would throw it out. They are supposed to be working on getting both laws to read the same.

I'm thinking that's the purpose of the letter that Mallen23 got. I know that we exceed the state and federal limits for a truck/trailer combination and we had to get a state and federal DOT# to deliver any cattle or hay that we sold and agreed to deliver to another person in order to be legal. If that person is in another state, we also have to get trip permits to go through that state as well as any states between us and them. Additionally, since that truck has a DOT # no one can drive it unless they have a CDL, trip logs have to be kept, IFTA stickers had to be obtained, and fuel reports have to be filed. Each state varies and I realize that, but they are governed by the Federal DOT to a large degree, and I wouldn't think the variances would be that big, but I could be wrong.

Why would you want them to read the same.
One law is for commerical/contract hauling. The other deals with the ag exemptions/restrictions.

dj":ephb5qth said:

Why would you want them to read the same.
One law is for commerical/contract hauling. The other deals with the ag exemptions/restrictions.

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It doesn't necessarily have to be commercial/contract hauling though. Commerce is defined as the buying or selling of goods, especially on a large scale. If you sell a truck load of corn or any other grain or product that you've raised and agree to deliver it to the buyer, you're engaging in commerce and are, therefore, subject to the new regulations of the Alabama DOT regarding trucks or trucks/trailers exceeding 10,000 pounds and used for the purpose of engaging in commerce.

Mallen23 this is a stab in the dark. I betting one of your trucks has a commerical tag on it. You need to check into a farm tag.
If it registered with a commerical tag you required to have USDOT # and then you get to answer questions about IFTA stickers, log books, etc. and anything else some monkey if a jumpsuit wants to know. I think, maybe? It's been awhile since I chased white lines. ;-)

I have farm a farm tag on my dodge 2500. I figure this is what resulted in receiving this notice to start with.

This is what I submitted to the person at the AL DOT:
I am unclear about the requirements for my farming operation.
Simply put I have a 1999 Dodge Ram 2500 and pull a gooseneck stock trailer (2 -axles) to haul my cattle. Do I need to get a USDOT number or not?
What are the laws associated with USDOT numbers and where do I find the requirements of these laws?
Do I have to have a log book or certain safety equipment?

Their reply:
You would be required to meet the all the regulations for commercial. The combination you describe is over 10,001# G.V.W.R. You will find the laws under our link, Federal Code: Regulatory Guidance.
Sherry
Sherry Holton
[email protected]
http://www.dps.state.al.us/mc
Motor Carrier Safety Unit
334-242-4395

Any one else with any comments about this.

§372.115 Commodities that are not exempt under 49 U.S.C. 13506(a)(6).

49 U.S.C.13506(a)(6) provides an exemption from regulation for motor vehicles used in carrying ordinary livestock, fish, and unmanufactured agricultural commodities. Certain specific commodities have been statutorily determined to be non–exempt. Administrative Ruling No. 133, which is reproduced below, is a list of those commodities that are non–exempt by statute.

Administrative Ruling No. 133

List of Commodities That Are Not Exempt by Statute Under 49 U.S.C. 13506(a)(6)

Animal fats
Butter
Canned fruits and vegetables
Carnauba wax was imported in slabs or chunks
Cattle, slaughtered
Charcoal
Cheese
Coal
Cocoa beans
Coffee, beans, roasted, or instant
Copra meal
Cotton yarn
Cottonseed cake or meal
Diatomaceous earth
Dinners, frozen

Feeds:
Alfalfa meal
Alfalfa pellets
Beet pulp
Bran shorts
Copra meal
Corn gluten
Distilled corn grain residues, with or without solubles added
Fish meal
Hominy feed
Middlings
Pelletized ground refuse screenings
Wheat bran
Wheat shorts
Fertilizer, commercial

Fish

Canned or salted as a treatment for preserving
Cooked or partially cooked fish or shrimp, frozen or unfrozen
Hermetically sealed in containers as a treatment for preserving
Oil from fishes
Preserved, or treated for preserving, such as smoked, salted, pickled, spiced, corned or kippered

Flagstone

Flaxseed meal

Flour

Forest products:
Resin products, such as turpentine

Fruits and Berries:
Bananas, fresh, dried, dehydrated, or frozen
Canned
Frozen
Hulls of oranges after juice extractions
Juice, fruit, plain or concentrated
Pies, frozen
Preserved, such a jam
Purees, strawberry and other, frozen

Grains:

Oils extracted from grain
Popcorn, popped
Rice, precooked
Wheat germ

Gravel

Hair, hog or other animal, product of slaughter of animal

Hay, sweetened with 3 percent molasses by weight

Hemp fiber

Hides, green and salted

Insecticides

Limestone, agricultural

Livestock:
Monkeys
Race horses
Show horses
Zoo animals

Lumber, rough sawed or planed

Maple syrup

Meal:
Alfalfa
Copra
Cottonseed
Fish
Flaxseed
Linseed
Peanut
Soybean

Meat and meat products, fresh, frozen or canned

Milk and Cream:
Chocolate
Condensed
Sterilized in hermetically sealed cans

Molasses

Nuts (including peanuts):
Peanut meal
Roasted or boiled

Oil, mint

Oil, extracted from vegetables, grain, seed, fish or other commodity

Pelts

Pies, frozen

Pigeons, racing

Pulp, beet

Pulp, sugar cane

Rock (except natural crushed vesicular rock to be used for decorative purposes)

Rubber, crude, in bales

Rubber, latex, natural, liquid, from which water has been extracted and to which ammonia has been added

Sand

Seeds:
Oil extracted from seeds

Skins, animal

Soil, potting

Soil, top

Soup, frozen

Sugar

Sugar cane pulp

Sugar raw

Syrup, cane

Syrup, maple

Tea

Tobacco:
Cigars and cigarettes
Homogenized
Smoking

Top Soil

Trees:
Sawed into lumber

Vegetables:
Candied sweet potatoes, frozen
Canned
Cooked
French fried potatoes
Oil, extracted from vegetables
Soup, frozen
Soybean meal

Wool imported from a foreign country

Wool tops and noils

Wool waste (carded, spun, woven, or knitted)

Wool yarn

NOTE 1: Under 49 U.S.C. 13506(a)(6), any listed fish or shellfish product that is not intended for human consumption is exempt.

NOTE 2: Under 49 U.S.C. 13506(a)(6), any listed livestock feed, poultry feed, agricultural seeds, or plants that are transported to a site of agricultural production or to a business enterprise engaged in the sale to agricultural producers of goods used in agricultural production is exempt.

[53 FR 17707, May 18, 1988, as amended at 62 FR 15421, Apr. 1, 1997]

i posted my question on this in another section cause i didnt see this one.
Mike i hope your right, but it dont sound good. a few guys i know has gotten these letters and checking them out their finding out some bad stuff. for one this law came into effect in 1987 but just now alabama wants to inforce it. the next thing is it covers any pickup grossing over 10000lbs what what ever reason or combintion there of. and that their targeting the "little farmers" we'll have to have our trucks inspected every year etc etc. oh and the insurnce upgrade is going to kick our butts. ALFA and AFF are both on this. no one knew it was coming. they where just talking about trying to get 50000 more head here in alabama then turn around and pull this. this is surely not the way to pull that off.
the cattleman association is suppose to be looking into it. they did'nt even know. did yall notice the dead line july 1? a real good friend of mine has been talking none stop with montg. and tell him even though he only hauld 10 calves a years to the local sale and that he never hits the road haul hay or anything else he has to get Dot numbers.

Thats sums it up the way I'm understanding it also. If your truck is rated at over 10,000 pounds you have to get dot stickers. Some of the weight restrictions don't apply to a farmer on state roads. The interstate is a differant matter, farmers don't get exemptions on federal highways and must conform to all laws.