US DOT requirement

This message is a reply to an archived post by centerplate on October 18, 2020 at 12:37:38.
The original subject was US DOT requirement.

If you are NOT hauling For Hire you do not need one. Haul only for yourself. Put Not For Hire on your door.

Well this may or may not be true. If one is hauling for one's self to make money, then commerce is taking place and most DOT rules apply.

Putting Not For Hire on your door means you do not need a ICC number.
Has nothing to do with a DOT number.

(quoted from post at 19:18:44 06/05/21) Putting Not For Hire on your door means you do not need a ICC number.
Has nothing to do with a DOT number.

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John, one time a DOT inspector who I was friendly with through fire service told me that "Not for Hire" on the door was a source of chuckles for the DOT.

All Not for Hire means is the owner of the truck owns the cargo also.

You have a place that makes paper bags.
You haul rolls of paper you own from the paper mill to your business.
You then haul the paper bags from your business to your customers location.
You are considered what we call a private carrier.
You do not haul other peoples stuff for a fee.
Back in the day it meant you did not have to have a bingo card.
Simply not displaying a ICC number on the door was good enough but some added not for hire also.

The problem is the RV crowd took not for hire to mean Not Commercial.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.

These guys today do not know how good they have it.
Back in the day before deregulation the DOT was the least of your worries.
If you hooked to a load you did not have explicate authority to haul you had to worry more about your neighbor calling the law on you because
you were hauling his load than you had to worry about the DOT catching you.
That coupled with bingo stamps; fuel permits for every state you used; making sure you bought the right amount of fuel in every state; having
to pass on loads because you could haul steel threw one state but not lumber; made it real interesting to say the least.

It is all about enforcement. I know a lot of farmers in my area. They sell their farm products and deliver them to market or to customers. I know lots of tractor pullers including myself, that are well over the 26,000# limit for CDL. None have a DOT number and none have a CDL. Our state has a CDL exemption for farmers up to 80,000#. But the real zinger is I have NEVER seen a DOT officer in my county or ever heard of anyone being pulled over. The deputy sheriffs are not DOT certified and they will tell you it's not their job. We have 2 state troopers in the whole county and they ae too busy on domestics to worry about it either. That may change at some point but for now, nobody pays much attention to DOT laws.

My uncle pulled what was essentially a flatbed with van walls and roof bolted on in the 70s.
Thought nothing of having the next guy's load thrown in on top of his.

Made a lot of money, but it would have been expensive to get caught.

I had a DOT tell me once that putting Not For Hire on your truck was shouting loudly Pull Me Over and Write Me Expensive Tickets.
If all youre doing is taking YOUR tractors to a show, or hauling YOUR crops to market, you dont need DOT numbers of any kind and are exempt from COMMERCIAL regulation.

(quoted from post at 14:16:31 09/18/21) I had a DOT tell me once that putting Not For Hire on your truck was shouting loudly Pull Me Over and Write Me Expensive Tickets.
If all youre doing is taking YOUR tractors to a show, or hauling YOUR crops to market, you dont need DOT numbers of any kind and are exempt from COMMERCIAL regulation.

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Kind of like the people that are driving around with no plates and a hand written cardboard sign in the back window saying "in transit"

(quoted from post at 19:34:41 12/18/21)

(quoted from post at 14:16:31 09/18/21) I had a DOT tell me once that putting Not For Hire on your truck was shouting loudly Pull Me Over and Write Me Expensive Tickets.
If all youre doing is taking YOUR tractors to a show, or hauling YOUR crops to market, you dont need DOT numbers of any kind and are exempt from COMMERCIAL regulation.

Click to expand...

Kind of like the people that are driving around with no plates and a hand written cardboard sign in the back window saying "in transit"

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Well Jim, when I picked up a used road tractor in Omaha and drove it to NH for a friend, I was a little skeptical about no plates and just a photocopied "In Transit" paper on the dash, but no cop gave me a second look.