Hello All! I thought I would weigh-in here, no pun intended, as I am the person Michael (Slamdunkpro) and Tony (tonyb) are referring to in their posts. Yes, this did happen in 2016, while I was driving back from an event at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. While going thru Pennsylvania, a bolt in a tire and an hour out of the way drive to get one, happen to put me at a toll station at the same time as a Federal DOT officer. While our meeting that day may have been a coincidence, the occurrence was always a possibility, we have learned. He chose to pull me over right after I went thru the toll booth. His reason, the logos on the trailer and the fact I did not have a Federal DOT number displayed on the truck. He was very thorough, cited me for ‘missing equipment,” actually somewhat lenient there, and did put me ‘out of service’ and parked me right there on the side of the highway where he stopped me. We have been told by others with the DOT, he didn’t need to be as harsh as he was, however, he was in the right and we have certainly learned a lot about this since then. In this instance, we were forced to track down a transporter, who turn out to be from Ohio, and have him drive the truck and trailer home. He also subsequently drove it to and from Washington DC for us for that event.
If you have seen our trailer, it is obviously promoting our brand and screams engaging in commerce. This is despite it being a travel trailer and having Ohio personal tags. How the Ohio DMV classifies it for tags and how the Federal DOT classifies it for use are two different things. We relied on information from the DMV and a discussion with Ohio Highway Patrol officers, as a basis for thinking we were ok. However, it was not their fault, as we failed to do the full and proper research, and relied on the thought that we fell into a gray area, due to how Ohio DMV classified it. We were wrong and we don’t want others to be uninformed.
What you are engaging in and the GVWR of your vehicle, combined GVWR if you are towing anything, are what matter. If you are going to anything where there is the opportunity to earn money, either directly at that destination or in the future from promotion received at it, you are engaging in commerce. That makes you commercial. If your total GVWR is 10,001 lbs or more, then you are subject to a number of commercial registration requirements. If your total GVWR is 26,001 lbs or more, then you are also required to have a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), which includes drug testing, medical card, and the keeping of a driving log book. It is a bit of work and does have some expense, but it is not that difficult to complete. It just takes some time to get it all done. We are/have now gone thru it. You need to look at where you are driving, as there are Intrastate vs. Interstate regulations, but if you are going to contests around the country, you are Interstate and you are engaging in commerce as far as the law and the Federal DOT are concerned.
For the record, some states do have a non-commercial CDL. Ohio does not. Also, it is important to note, the Federal DOT office that stopped me said Pennsylvania is one of the toughest states and their laws are a bit different. He said 2 things that I thought were very worrisome for anyone traveling with a large vehicle and trailer. First, he said, since my truck was over 10,000 lb GVWR, I need a CDL just to drive my truck, so I couldn’t even unhook the trailer and leave. As it turns out, my operator’s license in Ohio gives me full legal permission to drive a vehicle the size of mine, a Ford F-350 with 11,500 GVWR, so I was fine, but if I were from Pennsylvania, I would be subject to that law. The other thing he said, he could stop anyone driving any RV or pulling a travel trailer that looked to be over the limit and park them if they were and didn’t have the proper license and items. A subsequent search online found travelers discussing this exact issue and to be wary of it when traveling in that state.
I hope this helps someone, anyone, avoid what we mistakenly ignored and found out the very hard way. Best wishes to you all! Be careful out there and be prepared!
