[AT] Pa. Farm Trucks Fall Under New Regulations

[Mike Sloane]

[Something a little different from the current edition of Lancaster 
Farming newspaper. I thought some of you might find it interesting. What 
you see below is all I know about it, so, if you have comments, you 
might as well send them to Harrisburg, not me. :-) MS]

Pa. Farm Trucks Fall Under New Regulations
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 1:00pm.

Chris Torres
Lancaster Farming Staff Writer

New farm vehicle safety regulations have caused quite an uproar in the 
farming community.

Last week, Pennsylvania’s Independent Regulatory Review Commission 
(IRRC) approved making amendments to the state’s motor carrier safety 
regulations, which could result in some big changes for farmers driving 
trucks and hauling equipment.

But it will not impact tractors as stated in a Feb. 24 letter signed 
jointly by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), 
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania State Police.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has ruled that tractors 
are outside of their jurisdiction because they are designed for 
“off-road” driving and don’t reach highway speeds.

The idea of having to get a health certificate to drive a tractor and 
not allowing kids to drive tractors has caused an uproar, with articles 
appearing in various newspapers across the state and on television.

The biggest changes involve health certification requirements for 
farmers driving trucks, additional inspections and record keeping, new 
hours-of-service requirements and new regulations that would essentially 
ban drivers under 18 from operating a truck under certain conditions.

The changes were made to get Pennsylvania in line with federal motor 
carrier safety regulations after an audit in 2007 found the state’s 
motor carrier safety regulations to be “deficient.”

The state is under a March 31 deadline to get the regulations changed or 
risk losing federal funding for vehicle safety enforcement activities 
and other monies that could exceed $22 million.

Congressman Chris Carney (D-Pa.) this week sent a letter to PennDOT, 
urging an extension of the deadline for further review.

As part of the new rules, farmers will have to get a comprehensive 
physical examination and obtain a health certificate every two years if 
they want to be able to legally haul livestock or hay with their truck 
if the actual weight or weight rating of the truck/trailer combination 
exceeds 17,000 pounds.

However, there are exceptions for trucks operating alone (not towing 
another vehicle) and within a 150-mile radius or the farm.

The examination includes a hearing test, vision test, and a blood 
pressure test.

Drivers under 18 will not be allowed to drive truck/trailer 
combinations, but they will still be able to drive farm trucks under 
certain conditions.

Records of vehicle maintenance along with records showing pre- and 
post-trip inspections will have to be kept for trucks weighing more than 
17,000 pounds and truck/trailer combinations. There will also be a new 
hours-of-service requirement along with daily logging and recordkeeping 
to keep track of sleeptime and breaks.

Keep in mind that there are some variations between farm vehicles that 
have exemption stickers and ones that have farm license plates. Along 
with the new regulations are several exemptions.

Farmers will be exempt from keeping logs and adhering to the 
hours-of-service requirement during the planting and harvest season, 
which as defined by Pennsylvania law is from March 1 to Nov. 30. The 
exemption also applies for any hauling done within a 100-mile radius of 
the farm.

Also, custom harvest operators operating within a 150-mile radius of 
their farm would be exempt from the regulations.

So why the initial ruckus over farm tractors? According to Pennsylvania 
Farm Bureau spokesman Mark O’Neill, PennDOT had originally indicated 
that tractors would be included in the new regulations.

This was clarified, however, during a recent joint meeting of the 
transportation committees from both chambers of the Pennsylvania State 
Legislature, where a representative of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety 
Administration stated that farm tractors would be exempt from the 
regulations.

“That’s a big thing right there because most farmers around the state 
utilize tractors to do their jobs,” O’Neill said.

Farm Bureau has been opposed to the new regulations and has been leading 
the charge to get them changed.

“We think it’s a serious concern. Obviously the tractor thing was a 
victory, but many of our farmers utilize farm trucks,” he said. “It’s 
going to bring more costs to the farm and some of them may even have 
trouble with farm labor with these new rules on minors.”

According to O’Neill, no one has said that the regulations are being put 
into place because there are many accidents involving farm vehicles.

O’Neill said the bureau’s next step will be to get some clarification on 
the some of the wording used in the regulations as well as convince the 
Department of Agriculture to extend the definition of the growing and 
harvest season to include December, January, and February, essentially 
doing away with the hours-of-service requirement.

The bureau is also supporting federal legislation currently in the U.S. 
House that would allow states to set exemptions for agricultural vehicles.

Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said Wednesday 
that he believes the biggest impact will be the new proposed age 
restriction for hauling trailers.

“I think the key difference is going to be that provision where you have 
the 16 and 17-year-old not being able to drive trucks over 17,000 
pounds. If you lose that provision, I think this is going to be a real 
impact,” Redding said. “At the end of the day, since tractors are off 
the table, you are left with a limited group that will be impacted.”

Redding said Pennsylvania is the 24th state that he knows of that has 
had to make similar changes to its motor carrier safety regulations.

He said the department is currently considering extending the defined 
growing and harvest season to make it year-round as other states such as 
Maryland, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia have already done.

“We’re looking at that and saying if other states have that, is that 
something we could do in Pennsylvania. We are considering it,” he said.

Harvey Bashore runs several hay auctions a week throughout Lancaster 
County and other areas.

He doesn’t think the rule will have much of an impact at all on most of 
the farmers he knows at the auctions because many already have 
commercial drivers licenses (CDL) (which require health check-ups) even 
though they don’t need them, and most already do pre- and post-trip 
inspections.

But for the farmers who only occasionally bring hay, it could have more 
of an impact.

“It’s these small guys that might have to do things to be legal,” 
Bashore said.
Steve Lehman, who owns Lehman Ag Service in southern Lancaster County, 
owns four trucks which he uses to haul manure and other farm products.

While he has a CDL, he registers everything as a “commercial implement 
of husbandry.” Upon reading the regulations himself, he feels he doesn’t 
have to change a thing.

Lehman feels the real impact will be on those who already operate their 
trucks illegally.

“I see the sky falling on people who currently are not legal,” Lehman 
said. “So it’s going to affect some.”

Sgt. Robert Krol of the Pennsylvania State Police’s Commercial Vehicle 
Safety Section, helped write the new regulations and said that all 
available federal exemptions for agriculture at the federal level were 
put in.

Krol noted that many of the regulations were already on the books for 
articulated vehicles (trucks with trailers) including daily inspection 
records and health certificates.

But pressure from the federal government to get uniform safety standards 
in place to address interstate travel has put Pennsylvania along with 
other states under pressure to get their regulations modified.

Maine and South Dakota have seen their federal funding stripped as a 
result of not making changes.

Krol said about five to six states are being audited each year to make 
sure their regulations are in line with the federal government’s 
regulations.

The issue, he said, centers around improving highway safety and not 
targeting certain industries.

“This affects the people driving trucks on the highway and trucks 
hauling pieces of equipment,” Krol said. “To say there should be no 
safety requirements for these vehicles would probably be extreme.

“These regulations are trucking regulations and affect all businesses 
that use large equipment. It’s geared towards the intent of improving 
public safety on the highways,” he said. “We are having no problems in 
the farming community sector and we are not planning on doing targeted 
enforcement.”

Around 340 state troopers including 60 “civilian officers” are trained 
in commercial vehicle inspection statewide, according to Krol.

Lt. Raymond Cook, commander of the state police Commercial Vehicle 
Safety Section, said the goal of the unit is to focus on areas of the 
state that are known problem areas, such as certain Interstates and 
state highways and to perform checks of the drivers operating on those 
highways.

“In terms of going out and proactively targeting farmers, we don’t have 
the manpower nor the inclination to do that,” Cook said.