Most of us are aware that operators of trucks, other large vehicles and school buses are required to have a commercial driver’s license or CDL.
Acquiring a CDL includes a written examination and a skills test. The skills test can be waived for people who have sufficient experience operating vehicles that would otherwise require having a CDL. These people include certain former or current active duty or reserve military personnel and people who otherwise gained experience driving vehicles for which a CDL is required but was not required when the experience was acquired.
There are exceptions from the requirement to have a CDL, which exceptions automatically (without paperwork) include people who operate farm trucks. A farm truck is a truck operated by a farmer within 150 miles of the farm that is hauling or returning from hauling farm products or farm supplies for that farmer.
Most attorneys believe that the farm truck exception likely includes employees of entities that are active farmers, even though that technical interpretation of the law has not been confirmed by the courts.
Excepting farm trucks from the CDL requirements make public policy sense, because farm transportation is usually seasonal or at least infrequent compared to day-to-day, professional truck operation. Additionally, the 150-mile radius limitation means that it is usually short trips for which farm trucks will be used in contrast to commercial truck drivers who may travel hundreds of miles in a single trip on a single day.
However, the farm truck exception is understood to not apply to farmers who operate trucks for other farmers or for non-farmers who provide services or materials to farmers.
For instance, non-farmers who deliver fuel, supplies (like seed, fertilizer and chemicals), grain crops and livestock are not covered by the “farm truck exception” in CDL law.
Nonetheless, the public policy reasons for excepting farm trucks typically also apply to people who operate trucks in support of farming but who do not satisfy the specific requirements of operating a farm truck, especially if the operator is not a farmer.
Therefore, there is another exception to the CDL law for certain people who work in “farm-related service industries.” Unlike the “automatic” farm truck exception from CDL law, the farm-related service industries exception to the CDL law does require an application to and approval from the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and the approval/authority is only applicable for 30-210 days each calendar-year, which recently increased from 180 days per year.
Thus, this specific license is sometimes called a “seasonal CDL.” Seasonal CDLs are only available to drivers with clean driving records.
Also, seasonal CDLs are only available to people who are or work for custom harvesters, farm retail outlets and suppliers, agri-chemical businesses or livestock feeders.
Seasonal CDL drivers may not operate under the seasonal CDL more than 150 miles from the farm or the service provider’s place of business and can only haul up to 1,000 or fewer gallons of diesel fuel or 3,000 or fewer gallons of liquid fertilizer.
Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney at Schroeder Law LLC in Putnam County. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 419-659-2058. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
