Is A Vehicle Registered As Special Purpose Commercial Considered Driveaway - Towaway Operation

Function 390

Department § 390.5: Definitions.

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Guidance Q&A

Question 1: Do the definitions of "farm", "farmer" and "agricultural crops" apply to greenhouse operations?

Guidance: Yep.

Question ii: Is a vehicle used to transport or tow an hydrous ammonia nurse tanks considered a CMV and subject to FMCSRs?

Guidance: Yes, provided the vehicle'due south GVWR or GCWR meets or exceeds that of a CMV every bit defined in §390.5 and/or the vehicle transports HM in a quantity that requires placarding.

Question 3: If a vehicle's GVWR plate and/or VIN number are missing merely its actual gross weight is 10,001 pounds or more, may an enforcement officer use the latter instead of GVWR to determine the applicability of the FMCSRs?

Guidance:

Yes. The only apparent reason to remove the manufacturer'due south GVWR plate or VIN number is to arrive impossible for roadside enforcement officers to make up one's mind the applicability of the FMCSRs, which have a GVWR threshold of 10,001 pounds. In guild to frustrate willful evasion of safety regulations, an officer may therefore presume that a vehicle which does not have a manufacturer'due south GVWR plate and/or does not have a VIN number has a GVWR of 10,001 pounds or more if: (one) It has a size and configuration usually associated with vehicles that take a GVWR of 10,001 pounds or more; and (2) Information technology has an actual gross weight of 10,001 pounds or more.

A motor carrier or commuter may rebut the presumption by providing the enforcement officer the GVWR plate, the VIN number or other information of comparable reliability which demonstrates, or allows the officer to determine, that the GVWR of the vehicle is below the jurisdictional weight threshold.

Question four: If a vehicle with a manufacturer'southward GVWR of less than 10,001 pounds has been structurally modified to behave a heavier load, may an enforcement officeholder employ the higher bodily gross weight of the vehicle, instead of the GVWR, to determine the applicability of the FMCSRs?

Guidance: Yes. The motor carrier'southward intent to increase the weight rating is shown by the structural modifications. When the vehicle is used to perform functions usually performed by a vehicle with a higher GVWR, §390.33 allows an enforcement officer to treat the actual gross weight as the GVWR of the modified vehicle.

Question 5: A driver used by a motor carrier operates a CMV to and from his/her residence out of State. Is this considered interstate commerce?

Guidance: If the driver is operating a CMV at the management of the motor carrier, it is considered interstate commerce and is subject field to the FMCSRs. If the motor carrier is allowing the commuter to use the vehicle for private personal transportation, such transportation is not subject to the FMCSRs.

Question 6: Is transporting an empty CMV across State lines for purposes of repair and maintenance considered interstate commerce?

Guidance: Yes. The FMCSRs are applicable to drivers and CMVs in interstate commerce which transport holding. The property in this situation is the empty CMV.

Question 7: Does off-road motorized construction equipment meet the definitions of "motor vehicle" and "commercial motor vehicle" equally used in §§383.5 and 390.5?

Guidance: No. Off-road motorized construction equipment is outside the telescopic of these definitions: (one) When operated at structure sites: and (2) when operated on a public road open to unrestricted public travel, provided the equipment is not used in furtherance of a transportation purpose. Occasionally driving such equipment on a public road to accomplish or exit a structure site does not corporeality to furtherance of a transportation purpose. Since construction equipment is not designed to operate in traffic, information technology should be accompanied by escort vehicles or in some other way separated from the public traffic. This equipment may too be subject to State or local permit requirements with regard to escort vehicles, special markings, time of 24-hour interval, day of the week, and/or the specific route.

Question viii: What types of equipment are included in the category of off-road motorized construction equipment?

Guidance: The definition of off-road motorized structure equipment is to be narrowly construed and limited to equipment which, by its design and function is apparently non intended for use, nor is information technology used on a public route in furtherance of a transportation purpose. Examples of such equipment include motor scrapers, backhoes, motor graders, compactors, tractors, trenchers, bulldozers and railroad track maintenance cranes.

Question 9: Are mobile cranes operating in interstate commerce considered CMVs, and are they subject to the FMCSRs?

Guidance:

The definition of CMV encompasses mobile cranes. Unlike the off-road motorized construction equipment discussed in Guidance Questions vii and eight in a higher place, mobile cranes are readily capable of traveling at highway speeds, over extended distances, and in the mixed traffic of public highways. Although the functions a crane performs are distinct from the transportation provided by a truck, the set mobility of the crane depends on its permanent integration with a truck chassis. The truck chassis is equipped with wheels, tires, brakes, a break arrangement, and other components. The mobile crane itself, like an empty CMV (encounter Guidance Question 6), is considered property.

[74 FR 43641, Aug. 27, 2009]

Question ten: Does the FHWA define for-hire transportation of passengers the aforementioned as the sometime ICC did?

Guidance:

To the extent FHWA'south authority stems from 49 U.s.a.C. 31502 or other sections of Title 49 which are rooted in the Interstate Commerce Deed, the FHWA is bound by judicial precedent and legislative history in interpreting that Act, much of which relates to the operations of the old ICC. Yet, since the MCSA of 1984 re-established the FHWA's jurisdictional authority and resulted in a re-promulgation of the FMCSRs, the FHWA has been establishing its own precedents based on "safety" rather than "economics" as the overriding consideration. This has resulted in some deviation in the definition of terms by the two agencies, e.m., commercial zones, for-hire transportation, etc.

The term "for-hire motor carrier" as defined in part 390 means a person engaged in the transportation of goods or passengers for compensation. The FHWA has adamant that any business concern entity that assesses a fee, budgetary or otherwise, directly or indirectly for the transportation of passengers is operating as a for-hire carrier. Thus, the transportation for bounty in interstate commerce of passengers past motor vehicles (except in six-passenger taxicabs operating on stock-still routes) in the following operations would typically be subject to all parts of the FMCSRs, including part 387: whitewater river rafters, hotel/motel shuttle transporters, rental car shuttle services, etc. These are examples of for-hire railroad vehicle considering some fee is charged, ordinarily indirectly in a total bundle charge or other assessment for transportation performed.

Question 11: A company has a truck with a GVWR under x,001 pounds towing a trailer with a GVWR nether ten,001 pounds. All the same, the GVWR of the truck added to the GVWR of the trailer is greater than 10,001 pounds. Would the visitor operating this vehicle in interstate commerce have to comply with the FMCSRs?

Guidance: §390.5 of the FMCSRs includes in the definition of CMV a vehicle with a GVWR or GCWR of ten,001 or more than pounds. The section farther defines GCWR as the value specified by the manufacturer as the loaded weight of a combination (articulated) vehicle. Therefore, if the GVWR of the truck added to the GVWR of the trailer exceeds 10,001 pounds, the driver and vehicle are bailiwick to the FMCSRs.

Question 12: A CMV becomes stuck in a median or on a shoulder, and has had no contact with another vehicle, a pedestrian, or a fixed object prior to condign stuck. If a tow truck is used to pull the CMV back onto the traveled portion of the road, would this be considered an blow?

Guidance: No.

Question 13: To what extent would the wind shield and/or mirrors of a vehicle have to be damaged in order for it to be considered "disabling damage" as used in the definition of an accident in §390.five?

Guidance: The conclusion equally to whether damage to a windshield and/or mirrors is disabling is left to the discretion of the investigating officer.

Question xiv: Would a tillerman, a person exercising control over the steerable rear beam(s) on a commercial motor vehicle (CMV), be considered a driver every bit defined in § 390.5, and thus subject to 49 CFR Parts 390 to 399?

Guidance: A person physically located on the rear of the CMV who controls a steerable rear axle while the CMV is moving at highway speeds would be considered a driver as defined in § 390.five and therefore would exist subject field to the regulations in 49 CFR parts 390–399. A person walking beside a CMV or riding in an escort car while controlling a steerable rear axle at tedious speeds would not be considered a driver as divers in § 390.5 and would therefore not be bailiwick to 49 CFR Parts 390 to 399.

Question fifteen: Does the definition of a "commercial motor vehicle" in §390.5 of the FMCSRs include parking lot and/or street sweeping vehicles?

Guidance: If the GVWR of a parking lot or street sweeping vehicle is 10,001 or more pounds, and information technology operates in interstate commerce, information technology is a CMV.

Question 16: Does a driver leasing company that hires, assigns, trains, and/or supervises drivers for a individual or for-hire motor carrier become a motor carrier every bit defined past 49 CFR 390.v?

Guidance: No.

Question 17: May a motor carrier that employs possessor-operators who take their own operating dominance issued past the ICC or the Surface Transportation Board transfer the responsibility for compliance with the FMCSRs to the owner-operators?

Guidance: No. The term "employee," as defined in §390.v, specifically includes an independent contractor employed by a motor carrier. The beingness of operating authority has no bearing upon the issue. The motor carrier is, therefore, responsible for compliance with the FMCSRs past its driver employees, including those who are owner-operators.

Question 18: Must a person who is injured in an accident and immediately receives handling away from the scene of the accident exist transported in an ambulance?

Guidance:

No. Any type of vehicle may be used to transport an injured person from the blow scene to the handling site.

The term "immediate" ways without an unreasonable filibuster. A person immediately receives medical treatment if he or she is transported directly from the scene of an blow to a hospital or other medical facility as presently as it is considered safe and feasible to move the injured person away from the scene of the accident.

Question 19: What is the pregnant of ''firsthand'' as used in the definition of ''accident?''

Guidance: The term ''immediate'' means without an unreasonable filibuster. A person immediately receives medical treatment if he or she is transported directly from the scene of an accident to a hospital or other medical facility as soon as information technology is considered safe and feasible to movement the injured person away from the scene of the accident.

Question 20: A person involved in an incident discovers that he or she is injured after leaving the scene of the incident and receives medical attending at that time. Does the incident meet the definition of accident in 49 CFR 390.5?

Guidance: No. The incident does non run across the definition of accident in 49 CFR 390.v because the person did not receive treatment immediately after the incident.

Question 21: Do electronic devices which are advertised as radar jammers see the definition of a radar detector in 49 CFR 390.5?

Guidance: Devices that are said to reflect incoming energy passively or to transmit steadily on the same frequency as police radar units are not radar detectors because they exercise not detect radio microwaves. Devices that are said to detect and isolate the incoming signal and so to transmit on the same frequency to interfere with the police unit of measurement would qualify as radar detectors.

Question 22: Is a motor vehicle drawing a not-self-propelled mobile home that has one or more than set of wheels on the roadway, a driveaway-towaway operation?

Guidance: Yeah, if the mobile dwelling house is a commodity. For instance, the mobile dwelling house is transported from the manufacturer to the dealer or from the dealer or other seller to the buyer.

Question 23: Can a truck tractor drawing a trailer be a driveaway-towaway performance?

Guidance: Aye, if the trailer is a commodity. For example, the trailer is transported from the manufacturer to the dealer or from the dealer or other seller to the buyer.

Question 24: Are trailers which are stacked upon each other and drawn by a motor vehicle by zipper to the bottom trailer, a driveaway-towaway operation.

Guidance: No. Merely the bottom trailer has one or more sets of wheels on the roadway. The other trailers are cargo.

Question 25: The definition of a passenger CMV is a vehicle "designed to send" more than than fifteen passengers, including the driver. Does that include standing passengers if the vehicle was specifically designed to conform standees?

Guidance: No. "Designed to transport" refers merely to the number of designated seats; it does not include areas suitable, or fifty-fifty designed, for continuing passengers.

Question 26: What is considered a "public road"?

Guidance: A public road is any road under the jurisdiction of a public agency and open to public travel or any route on private holding that is open to public travel.

Question 27:

A person is transported to a hospital from the scene of a commercial motor vehicle traffic accident.

In one state of affairs, the person undergoes observation or a "checkup. Is this considered "medical treatment," making the CMV occurrence an "accident" for purposes of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations?

In another situation, the person undergoes 10-ray test or is given a prescription, but is released from the facility without being admitted as an inpatient. Is the x-ray or prescription considered "medical handling," making the CMV occurrence and "accident" for purposes of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations?

Guidance:

north the first situation, no. A person who does not receive treatment for diagnosed injuries or other medical intervention directly related to the blow, has non received "medical treatment" every bit that term is used in §390.5.

In the second situation, yes. A person who undergoes x-ray examination (or other imaging, such as computed tomography or CT), or is given prescription medication (or the prescription itself), has received "medical treatment."

Question 28: A driver of a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) is changing lanes. A passenger car driver near the CMV loses control, leaves the roadway, and is involved in an blow. The passenger car must be towed. Is the CMV considered to be "involved" under the definition of "accident" in §390.v?

Guidance: The CMV would not be considered "involved" unless the police investigation officer determines that the CMV acquired or contributed to the accident.

Question 29: A corporation (the parent corporation) owns subsidiary corporations that are for-hire motor carriers, each having their own separate operating government. The parent corporation does not operate commercial motor vehicles. However, the parent corporation exercises or retains management supervision, including supervision for rubber compliance, and provides policy/procedural manuals and driver safe manuals for the subsidiary corporations (forhire motor carriers). Is the parent corporation considered a motor carrier as defined past 49 CFR 390.five?

Guidance: No. A motor carrier is defined in 49 CFR 390.v as a for-hire motor carrier or a individual motor carrier. The term includes a motor carrier'due south agents, officers and representatives besides as employees responsible for hiring, supervising, training, assigning, or dispatching of drivers and employees concerned with the installation, inspection, and maintenance of motor vehicle equipment and/or accessories. Every bit long equally the parent corporation does not appoint in the transportation of goods or passengers for bounty (i.east., exercising daily control over drivers and equipment; and, in the case of a for-hire motor carrier, soliciting customers, and billing and collecting freight charges), it would not be considered a motor carrier. The practice of managerial control by the parent corporation by establishing operational policies and procedures, or through other forms of general oversight, does not, in and of itself, make information technology a motor carrier under FMCSA regulations.

Question thirty: Does an explosion or burn in a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) that has non collided with other vehicles or stationary objects meet the definition of an "blow" under §390.5?

Guidance:

Fires take been included in the definition of "accidents" since 1962. However, in an effort to simplify the regulatory text, the agency removed the specific references to fires, rollovers, and other noncollision accidents in 1972. Every bit the agency indicated, however, its intent was to include all of these items equally accidents (37 FR 18079, September vii, 1972).

A burn or explosion in a CMV operating on a highway in interstate or intrastate commerce would be considered an "accident" if information technology resulted in a fatality; bodily injuries requiring the victim to exist transported immediately to a medical facility abroad from the scene; or disabling damage requiring the CMV to be towed. A standoff is not a pre-requisite to an "accident" under §390.5.

Whatsoever CMV fires that encounter the blow criteria in 49 CFR 390.5 — that is, fires that occur in a commercial motor vehicle in send on a roadway customarily open up to the public which result in a fatality, bodily injury requiring immediate medical attention away from the scene of the blow, or disabling damage requiring a vehicle to be towed — volition be considered in the safe fitness conclusion. As indicated in Appendix B to 49 CFR Role 385, FMCSA will go on to consider preventability when a motor carrier contests a safety rating by presenting compelling evidence that the recordable rate is not a fair ways of evaluating its accident factor.

With regard to fires, preventability volition be determined co-ordinate to the following: If a motor carrier, that exercises normal judgment and foresight could accept anticipated the possibility of the fire that in fact occurred, and avoided information technology past taking steps within its control — short of suspending operations — which would not have risked causing another kind of mishap, the fire was preventable.

Question 31: What location may a motor carrier designate as its "master place of business"?

Guidance:

In instances where a motor carrier has more than than one terminal or office, the regulations practice not explicitly place a restriction on which location a motor carrier may designate as its primary place of business organization. The definition states that such a location is "normally" the carrier's headquarters; the rule does non crave motor carriers to use the company'south corporate headquarters as its principal place of business organisation. However, motor carriers are limited to using an actual identify of business organisation of the motor carrier. Moreover, a motor carrier may designate as its primary identify of business but locations that comprise offices of the motor carrier'southward senior-about management executives, management officials or employees responsible for the administration, direction and oversight of safety operations and compliance with the FMCSRs and Hazardous Materials Regulations. In determining its principal place of business organisation a motor carrier must consider the following factors: (a) The relative importance of the activities performed at each location, and, if this gene is not determinative, then (b) fourth dimension spent at each location by motor carrier management or corporate officers.

FMCSA authorized representatives will utilize the above two factors in determining whether a motor carrier has designated an advisable location as its principal place of business. In addition, FMCSA may also consider whether the location is operated, controlled or endemic by the motor carrier, whether operations relating to the transportation of persons or property regularly take place at the designated location, whether whatever of the employees of the motor carrier regularly report to the location for duty, whether any leased or owned vehicles of the company are maintained on the premises, and whether whatever of the records required past parts 382, 387, 390, 391, 395, 396 and 397 are maintained on the bounds. In the consequence a carrier does non designate a qualifying location as its chief place of business, FMCSA may initiate advisable enforcement action or take action regarding the carrier's USDOT registration.

A motor carrier with multiple business organisation locations may maintain some records at locations of the motor carrier other than, or in addition to, its primary place of business concern. However, after a request has been made by an FMCSA authorized representative, a motor carrier with multiple business organisation locations must make records required past parts 382, 387, 390, 391, 395, 396 and 397 available for inspection at the principal place of business or other location specified by the special agent or authorized representative within 48 hours. Pursuant to § 390.29, "Saturdays, Sundays, and Federal holidays are excluded from the computation of the 48-hour period of time." A motor carrier with a unmarried business location must make records required by parts 382, 387, 390, 391, 395, 396 and 397 bachelor upon asking.

A motor carrier may not designate as its principal place of business organisation whatever location where the motor carrier is not engaged in business operations related to the transportation of persons or property. For example, postal service office box centers or commercial courier service establishments that receive and hold mail or packages for third political party pickup may non exist designated a "principal place of business" (other than by the courier service provider itself). A motor carrier may not designate the office of a consultant, service agent, or chaser equally the motor carrier'due south principal place of business if the motor carrier is not engaged in operations related to the transportation of persons or holding at that location.

[74 FR 37654, July 29, 2009]

Question 32: May a motor carrier with a single business organisation location, including a private residence, designate a unlike location as its "main place of business"?

Guidance:

No. The definition of "principal place of business" in 49 CFR 390.five allows a carrier with multiple terminals or offices to designate a single terminal or role as its primary business location for identification purposes. Consistent with this definition, a motor carrier with a single identify of concern may designate only its bodily place of business equally the "chief identify of business." Notwithstanding this restriction, a motor carrier and an authorized representative of FMCSA may agree that a compliance review or other investigation of a motor carrier will be conducted at a mutually acceptable location other than the motor carrier's principal place of business concern.

[74 FR 37654, July 29, 2009]