… 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.
h/t Dan
Related: President Barack Obama is ignoring heated concerns from within his own administration that new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on the coal industry will be economically devastating.
Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by malice.
That’s just nuts!
Now now, this rule would save lives. Think of all those pedestrians who get mowed down by tractors every day… Pedestrians DO get mowed down by tractors every day, right?
Ditto Farmer Joe; only a person who has NEVER been to a farm operation would even consider this.
This makes complete sense if you believe that all vehicles are created equal. If you believe that a Mack truck and a John Deere tractor are different, well, you are a racist.
This will go over real well with the farmers. The sooner the nutcase Democrats are removed from ANY power, the better.
This is among 1 of the more insane proposals coming out of the Obama administration.
I appears that they do not recognize that farmers and their helpers (family – many kids)often never even cross let alone drive on a public road.
Logs will be useful during seeding and harvest time as one works long hours to just get the job done.
You think this is insane? Just wait for ‘cultural revolution’ part to be implemented.
Remember, he wants to ‘fundamentally transform’ the United States of America!
About time! The carnage in our fields has to stop. I for one am sick of seeing the youth of our country showing up in the operating room after windrower collisions and combine roll-overs. Why at harvest time, we lie awake at night sweating, fearful of the next mower pile up. I hope seat belt legislation will soon follow.
This is SO typical of the communists who infest most of the bureaucracies,”when in doubt create more regulations”.
Reminds me of one of Regans quotes.
“If it moves tax it. If it still moves regulate it. When it stops moving subsidise it”.
CDL’s for farmers. Now thats a make work project for government.
There’s also the threat of tractors and farm equipment hustling along almost deserted rural roads at 10’s of miles an hour. In DAYTIME, in good weather.
(On the other hand I know a 13yo in Sask who drove a (LARGE) truck filled with grain along public roads. Somehow, farmboy managed not to A. Flip the truck,B. hit the grain elevator C. run over anything else until he turned 16 and got a license to drive ( a car) )
Farmer Joe says it well.
That illegal immigrant that used to pick farmer Browns tomatoes for minimum wage can now get a $30,000 dollar guvment job checking farmer Browns log books..
Never tell me those federal boys don’t know how to create jobs and issue fines..
The US Post Office is saying they need to lay off 220,000 staff.
Two Hundred and Twenty Thousand.
So Obama can do something after all . . . he can devastate an economy.
I imagine the farm vehicles will be subject to commercial vehicle environmental regulations as well – the end game?
Making farmers obtain commercial drivers licences for operating farm equipment (not trucks) is absurd.
HOWEVER. I think it is more than time to bring the ag industry in line with all other industries in terms of OHS and WCB regulations.
No matter who becomes President after Obummer, they will be busy for decades trying to undo the the stupid things that he did. I definitely would not want the job. I am sure the next thing obummer will enact is to require a drivers licence for tricycles.
reclassify all farm vehicles and implements
Implements?
Does that include things like irrigation equiptment?
Regardless, such a regulation would mean only factory farm corporations could afford the cost.
Bye bye family farm, hello facism.
What next?
A horse registry for Cowboys?
Sweet if i have to use a commerical license then that means my vehicle is subject to commercial rules and laws and regulations AND…….all of the privilages as well , i want to see how the manager at seven eleven feel’s when a farmer decides he is thirsty and pull’s into his parking lot with a combine in downtown columbus i think the only people that will be happy will be the ones he was trapping behind him on the interstate lol!!!!
As a cdl holder I think this is absurd. However if all work is done within 150 air miles of home base no logbook is required. A daily recap is required. If farmers are required to adhere to hours of service regulations nothing will be done. Can you imagine a farmer only being able to work 70 hours in 8 days during harvest.
However what does need to be done is farmers need to take better care of their equipment. Up here if you have a farm plate nobody will touch you. That’s equally insane.
One clarification is needed, a cdl would be needed if you drive said equipment on federal highways. I don’t think state highways would count. It certainly wouldn’t apply to equipment driven on the farm.
“…a cdl would be needed if you drive said equipment on federal highways.”
So only guys who live/farm next to a federal highway get screwed? Great plan.
I vote they institute the rule, and then try to figure out what to do when every farmer in the country tells them to shove it up their *$$. Arrest the entire food-producing class, awesome plan.
“HOWEVER. I think it is more than time to bring the ag industry in line with all other industries in terms of OHS and WCB regulations.”
Jeeze. How about its more than time for the OHS and WCB regs to be rolled back to where Ag is? That’s fair too, right?
The only question in my mind is whether this move is targeted revenge against “those f…… Teabaggers” or simply the natural and inevitable cancerous growth of leviathan. Either way, it’s more of Obama’s only successful achievement and soul purpose, the war on prosperity – to reduce America to two classes, Serfs and Rulers.
“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.”
Surely there’s an element of unconstitutionality involved here?
One would have thought the issue of driver’s licences was a state matter.
HOWEVER. I think it is more than time to bring the ag industry in line with all other industries in terms of OHS and WCB regulations.
Posted by: Luke at August 12, 2011 11:06 AM
Luke, as someone born and raised on a farm I find one of the best remaining parts of farming is freedom from gov’t regs. (at least compared to other industries). Growing up on a farm we were raised to use our heads and think, not wait for gov’t desk jockey to do it for us.
I was running field equipment while my age could be stated with only one digit and operating class 3 and 1 vehicles prior to having any lisc.
This is just gov’t types wanting to justify there jobs at the expense of those to do earn their keep.
There goes Iowa for Obama, and Missouri. That is unless he is follwoing the arsonist fireman routine…..he comes in to save the day and try to reap some credit.
This is just plain stupid and is just a money grab, along with a power grab.
How the heck are they going to enforce it anyway, going on to the farmers land while he is driving his tractor….once again on HIS land.
Right on! Riding lawn mowers next!
I guess driver training at the local 4H Club will include parallel parking of combines.
” Bandit, this here is Weedwacker, got your ears on?”
” There’s a Smokey parked behind the third hay bale in my back 40 and I don’t think he’s a waitin’ for the Rubber Duck…”
I see a silver lining because first off, if there were any democrats farmers they just became extinct, and secondly there’s this weird correlation between farmers and gun ownership..
Construction industry is next. Dozers, scrapers etc.
Nuts.
Not to be outdone, the FAA has proposed requiring pilot’s licenses for windmills. They’ve got propellers.
“HOWEVER. I think it is more than time to bring the ag industry in line with all other industries in terms of OHS and WCB regulations.”
HOW ABOUT we wait until the general populace spends 35% to 40% of their disposable income on food to align the industry with WCB and OHS regs.
I had this crazy thought in the shower after reading this article.. wondering if there wasn’t some “farmers union” pressuring the DOT for regulation. I thought naaww, there couldn’t be such an animal as a farmers union in the United States.
Then I read this
“Today, the National Farmers Union represents more than a quarter million family farms and ranches across the United States. There are organized chapters in 32 different states, and proposals are often started at the local level before moving up to the state and national levels. Once in the spring and once in the fall, leaders of the NFU convene in Washington, D.C., to talk with legislators about solutions to problems they are facing….”
“The election of Barack Obama in November 2008 was largely seen as a win for the NFU, who had graded each of the candidates based on their policies. Obama received a perfect 100% rating, based on his support of the 2008 Farm Bill and a renewable fuel standard. On the other hand, the organization gave John McCain a grade of zero percent, in part because he was in favor of reducing subsidies for ethanol and food products.[8]”
“Another project that the NFU is currently working on is a carbon credit program. It allows farmers to earn income by storing carbon in their soil through “no-till crop production, conversion of cropland to grass, sustainable management of native rangelands and tree plantings” [9]. In the program’s first two years of operation, it has earned over $8 million for participating producers.”
The “Current activities” section of the wikipedia page reads like a progressive checklist.
The spam filter here really really really sucks. Every post I make that takes longer than 5 minutes gets eaten.
Great – destroy the US agriculture industry.
Honestly, it’s like the Democrats are on a search-and-destroy mission for every remaining industry that’s not under their control.
Look at marine shipping. Years back, the Democrats brought in rules about US-flagged ships having to have US crews. Result: There is no more US merchant marine.
Look at autos. The Democrats pushed for the lifelong health care and hefty pensions, and Ford is the only one the Big 3 left standing. (Chrysler is being run by those masterminds of industry, the Italians!!)
Now, look at airplanes. Boeing has had many difficulties bringing its latest plane, the 787 (aka “The Dreamliner”) into production. There were a host of technical problems that put the airframe three years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. However, because the plane is much more fuel efficient than existing designs, orders flew in, and at one point, Boeing had 910 orders on the books.
But because of the delays, one of which was caused by a machinists’ strike in Washington, 83 orders have been canceled in the last three years. That represents approximately $16 billion in revenue lost.
Anxious to forestall any more cancellations, and mindful of the militant nature of the Washington union, which strikes like a very slow clock, every three years, Boeing announced plans to build a second production line in South Carolina (where they had purchased an existing facility from Vought aircraft earlier) in order to accelerate production.
Since South Carolina is a right-to-work state, the Washington unions were infuriated. Instead of a huge new expansion in Washington (which would naturally increase the union’s little empire as well, bringing in thousands of new workers and millions of dollars in new union dues), they would only see a BIG expansion, as the old 747 line was converted to the new plane. So, they contacted the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is now considering the complaint.
It’s important to note that not one union worker in Washington is going to lose his job; he is not going to be paid less. In fact, there will be more work and overtime for him, if he wants it. And he will have hundreds of new colleagues. But that’s not enough for the union.
It’s a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. I always thought it was the task of management to make decisions about where to build plants, how to allocate work, etc. Apparently, that’s not true any more. Once you build a plant in a union state, apparently you give up your rights to decide when, and where, you will expand in the future. Now, the union is going to manage the business. I can’t wait to see how that turns out.
Ironically, some 30% of the production will be done in Japan, in part because All Nippon Airways is the first and largest customer for the plane. So, it seems that you can outsource work to foreign workers, and that’s OK with the union, but if you want to provide jobs in the US, the union is in charge.
It’s suicide.
KevinB, the Democrats in the US, the NDP and many of the Liberals here will not be happy until the means of production of any sort is totally destroyed.
Where’s Davenport? She should be defending this new policy, her guys are on the job here.
And there’s something else about environmental issues the media seemed to miss in Obama’s speech yesterday:
“Earthquakes and revolutions are unavoidable.”
The statement reveals a lot about Obama’s philosophy — he equates an unavoidable act of nature such as an earthquake with an organized man-made action such as revolution. It’s very much the thinking of Karl Marx, scientific materialism, etc. — Marx’s idea that revolution against capitalism is based on the very laws of science and nature itself.
It will get worse before it gets better, and the sooner it gets worse, the better.
The Obama type liberals and bureaucrats have never heard the story about how to boil a frog.
More dumb regulations faster please.
The faster these dumb ideas come the sooner Joe public wiil get sick of it and start talking back.
Maybe Ol’ Jughead ‘bama is on to something here. I mean, time to quit pretending that growing corn for ethanol is anything but commercial fuel production.
And everyone involved keeps telling us that it’s an economically viable process…so tax the hell of of them I say. Just another commercial enterprise. 😉
So how much damage does he need to do to the USA to actually be stopped?
It is fascinating to observe how he blows trillions of dollars with the silent approval of entire country. Approval in a sense that they think oh, in a few years he will PROBABLY not get elected…
I bet $20 that he will be re-elected regardless. It’s the institute of electors, stupid!
I can just imagine the FMCSA stopping a 12 year old driving the hay wagon to ask him for his commercial license. Really.
Why are they doing this? Other than forcing farmers to use some type of union trucking, I have no idea. It really makes no sense at all.
*
pre-i.t. life… had a class abm ontario licence with a z (air ticket) endorsement. finally gave
it up after 20 years because every renewal meant writing 3 separate tests AND submitting
a medical.
just what farmers need in their lives… more time-consuming bureacracy and expense.
*
And they will have to keep log books ? Really ? And who will check the log books?. More wannabe cops?.
Everytime I feel we have reached the height of stupidity, government tries for the next level.
Since my long= post got censored, I just wanna say that D.O.T vehicles on farmers’ property just put themselves in the intruder category.
you people dont get it even now.
obamasan is on the side of mega-agricorps. *they* will have all their ducks in place when the regulations are enacted, with full time drivers etc, once again squeezing mom & pop operations out of business. isnt that what you want? ubercapitalism? all hail the corporate bosses….
oldtimeconservatist, so how does regulating businesses out of existence in any way resemble capitalism?
Creating giant state controlled farms sounds a lot more like what the Soviet Union tried (unsuccessfully).