This lecture clarifies specific vehicle regulations in California that apply to agricultural equipment, known as "implements of husbandry," which often differ from standard vehicle laws to accommodate the unique needs and operational characteristics of farming.
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welcome to the lecture on vehicle rules
let me start by sharing the screen
and as soon as i get this lecture done
it will be
video links here
underneath the powerpoint that you can
so like so many things in agriculture
agriculture
there are rules and then there are the
rules for egg so
so
i would say all or most of you have a
driver's license that's
pretty common and
and
so you know about speed limits and how
to turn and
uh all kinds of different rules to share
the road
but there are exceptions for
agriculture because the rules
don't work
with tractors and other types of
equipment used in agriculture
now some things if you have your pickup
truck and you're on the main road
regular vehicle rules apply
if you have a transportation vehicle
vehicle
that travels at normal freeway speeds
etc there's
most of the rules are the same
their speed limits etc but
some of the rules are different so
california law and federal law actually
but california law treats farm vehicles
differently in many ways
and california law recognizes that there
are special needs and conditions
and equipment that apply when we're
talking about agriculture so it's
important to know
some of these special rules
and ways that you can help protect
yourself by not only knowing the rules
but how to appropriately comply with them
them
so the first terminology i would like to
introduce here is
implements of husbandry
and husbandry is a special category
under california law talking about
farming equipment
in an old-fashioned terminology
husbandry is the
care for and
and
management of
your plants and animals on a farm and
and [Music]
[Music]
so these implements of husbandry
tractors and other equipment
equipment needs
needs
special consideration
and we've all
been there we've all been behind a tractor
tractor
but one of the things if you're behind a
tractor obviously they can't be doing 45
miles an hour they don't go that fast down
down
down the street and
so they have to have a special triangular
triangular sign
sign that
that
is the universal sign for a slow moving vehicle
vehicle
so if you're approaching a vehicle and
you see a triangle
and it seems to be getting closer start
slowing down now it's probably going
less than 25 miles an hour maybe a lot
less so we're going to look at a real
world example of how things went wrong
right here in monterey county
many years ago
and so there's a tractor driver he's
towing a disc unit which is a rather large
large
implement of husbandry behind the
tractor which is another implement of
husbandry a disc is just a device that
stirs up
and breaks up the soil
so the highway
patrol officer pulls him over
obviously a highway patrol officer that was
was
uh new to the area not familiar with
the implements of husbandry rules yet
so he cites the tractor driver gives him
a ticket and on that ticket he cites him for
for
not having a driver's license
he cites him for
not having a vehicle registration
he cites him for driving too slowly
on the highway or
road he was on he was on highway one so
he was considered too slow to be safe
and also over width there is a width of
a vehicle that you're allowed to drive
on a freeway if you're wider than that
width you either need what's called a
pilot vehicle
a car to travel behind you with a light
and flags and other things to protect
you might have to put flags on the
corners of the vehicle etc
or if you're an implement of husbandry
you just need flags on the corners that
are easy to spot red flags hanging off
the corners as well as the triangle that
i had indicated earlier
so the highway patrol officer was wrong
on every single one of these things now
maybe there was more going on to the
story and um
um
you know maybe the
highway patrol officer was
making an example of somebody who had
pissed him off i have no idea but the
bottom line is all of these things he
was wrong um
um
so does
let me start over
um we'll go back to implement of
husbandry under california law which is
the law we're under when we're talking
about vehicle rules
an implement of husbandry is a vehicle
which is used exclusively in the conduct
of agricultural operations so just
because you only use your f-150
pickup truck for going to ag work
doesn't make that pickup truck an
implement of husbandry we're really
talking about tractors and
transportation vehicles
forklifts and things that are
exclusively used in agriculture so
so
uh implements of husbandry includes any
farm tractors otherwise an implement of
husbandry used upon a try a highway to
draw a farm trailer carrying farm produce
produce
or to draw any trailer or semi-trailer
carrying other implements of husbandry
between farms or from a farm to a
processing or handling point and
returning with or without the trailer
so again if you're
working on the farm you're
you're
moving between farms you're towing a trailer
trailer
between farms onto a highway
or other public roadway
whether or not you dump off that trailer
and then you have to return without the
trailer you're still considered an
implement of husbandry now this is just
an excerpt
a piece of it so there's a lot more
detail if you get into the
am i an implement of husbandry or not
if you're in charge of transportation
and vehicles you need
to look into this you need to really
understand which vehicles
fall under the category of an implement
of husbandry and which ones don't
it's usually pretty obvious but there
are some cases where it might be a
little bit blurry
so what about the no drivers license
part of that ticket in our story
in california code under section 12500
no person shall drive a motor vehicle
upon a highway
unless the person then holds a valid
driver's license
issued under this code
except those persons who are expressly exempted
exempted
under this code
all right you have to have a driver's license
license
but in 12501
the following persons are not required
to obtain a driver's license
now i skipped a but here we have b
which is relevant to this class
any person while driving or operating
implements of husbandry
incidentally operated or moved over a
highway except as provided blah blah blah
blah
so what is that
except is provided 36-300 any person
while driving or operating an implement
of husbandry incidentally operated or
moved over a highway is not required to
obtain a driver's license
now incidentally
is really important here
i can't take my tractor
from my farm
in salinas and just incidentally
drive it down 101 to my other farm in
king city if you're going to move it
longer distances
you need to put it on a trailer and move
it properly
but if you're going from farm to farm
i'm sure you've all driven behind a
tractor that's moving from
ranch block farm block to farm block and
they have to go on the on the main
now there are some exceptions you're not
going to go on to a major freeway
driving a tractor
that's just stupid and illegal um
um
it must be incidentally
driven meaning shorter distances how do
you define that
if you're in doubt
talk to the highway patrol talk to the city
city
police or the county whatever is in
charge of the area where you are
expecting to drive how far is too far
also which roads are safe and which ones
are not just because you can maybe
legally do something doesn't mean it's
smart or a good idea there's always
an overarching rule in vehicle
laws and regulations
that say
you have to do things in a safe manner period
period
if because of weather conditions or
unusual road conditions whatever it is
not safe to do something
don't do it no matter what exceptions
there are
so for example maybe you have to go on a
road with a very narrow bridge and
people that are flying by
um at freeway speeds all day long and
your implement of husbandry is going to
take up both lanes of that bridge
blocking off the bridge
you might want to rethink
doing something like that
you might need to get a
what's called a lowboy trailer and load
it up and move it using a vehicle that
can travel at
faster speeds you might need to get a
anyway
bottom line
no drivers license needed
when you're driving an implement of husbandry
i thought it was on this slide it's not
let me add one other thing in order to
be driving an implement of husbandry
without a driver's license
you must be traveling at
under 25 miles an hour
as soon as you hit 25 and above
you are considered a regular vehicle on
the road even if you are in an implement
of husbandry and you do need a driver's license
license so
so
it's only because this person's driving
a tractor at slow speeds under 25 miles
an hour they don't need a license
but before i move on i want to talk
about that driver's license for a minute
does that mean you shouldn't have a
driver's license no of course not you
might need to drive other vehicles and
need to go on the road with
maybe you ask your
employee do you have a driver's license
no i don't
does that matter
it might
and here is why
it is quite possible
that the
uh person
who is driving the tractor on the road
has a driving record do you need a
license to have a driving record
no not at all if i don't have a license
and i never had a license and i go out
partying on a friday night everybody's
too drunk to drive so i get in the front
seat and i start driving and i get a ticket
ticket
i don't have a license so i get a ticket
for no license
maybe i was also drinking now my license
was revoked or i have a dui and no
license i never had a license doesn't
matter i've got a black mark on my
driving record whether i have
or i had a license or never had a
license doesn't matter i got a bad
driving rate
fast forward to
an incident
you're a company a farming operation
you don't need a driver's license to
drive a tractor from
you know this ranch
ranch
to that ranch even though you're going
to be on
a public roadway for a couple of miles
before you get from one ranch to the other
if somebody has
a bad driving record
they shouldn't be driving on that public
roadway even if they have a license
doesn't matter
you still can be liable as a as the
owner of the ranch if anything happens
has a license you always want to
periodically make sure it's valid and
current if they don't have a license you
still want to check their driving record
and make sure their driving records are clean
clean
because whenever one of your employees
goes out on the road your whole company
is potentially liable
regardless of whether they need a license
license but
but
assuming everything's fine there's
nothing bad on the
on the farm tractor driver's record
record
and he's going from one farm and had to
go up highway one for a couple of miles
to the next
the next uh farming block
he didn't need a license
he's okay
what about no vehicle registration
this one's pretty straightforward
implements of husbandry which are only
incidentally operated or moved over a
highway and implements of husbandry
listed in section
36005 or 36015
are exempt from registration so again
their details you could look at the lists
lists
in the california code
but if you're in charge of vehicles you
need to know
some vehicles need to be registered
some vehicles do not again it's that key
word incidentally operated or moved over
you can't take your tractor and go
visit grandma in eugene oregon and say
well i was only incidentally going over
the highway a couple hundred miles
doesn't work that way
but again incidental short distances
that's exactly what it is for
driving too slow the driver of any
implement of husbandry shall possess
a valid class c driver's license
when operating a combination of vehicles
at a speed in excess of 25 miles per
hour or towing
any implement of husbandry as specified
blah blah blah
again that's where i mentioned earlier
that 25 mile an hour
magic number so
so
if you're
driving at 26 miles an hour you need a
driver's license even if it is
technically an implement of husbandry
that you're driving
uh now very few tractors go 26 miles an
hour or more they don't they're not
designed to drive that fast and that's
pretty slow but still
if you're driving slowly
slowly
again no driver's license needed and
it's legal to drive slowly as long as
you do it in a safe manner you go off to
the side as best as you can you're not
being stupid and driving a slow-moving
vehicle and heavy fog
again you got to use your brain just
because something is usually
legal if it's rainy uh dark foggy uh
uh
the road you need to travel on is
especially busy or narrow or whatever
don't do it
you still could be held liable
the over width the total outside width
of any vehicle or its load shall not
exceed 102 inches except as otherwise
specified in this chapter the
limitations as to width as set forth in
chapter 2
commencing with section blah blah blah
division 15 do not apply to implements
of husbandry
with implements of husbandry
incidentally driven over a public
roadway or highway
are exempted from the over with again
incidentally operated transported towed
or otherwise moved over a highway
they're exempted but you still have to
use your brain
if you've got four feet of vehicle or
or
uh implement
like a disc or something sticking out
into the oncoming traffic lane you
you better transport it a different way but
but
in general
over with is not
a citable offense so a highway patrol
officer was wrong because he didn't know
about the special treatment provided to
implements of husbandry under the
vehicle code
both the tractor and the disc were
implements of husbandry there was no
requirement for the operator to have a
driver's license and in the real story that
that
sparked this
slideshow segment
there was nothing on the driver's record
he didn't have some dui or something
the equipment was incidentally operated
on a public highway the operator
traveled up less than 25 miles an hour
and width
of the implements of husbandry was not
limited by law
case over
but you still don't want to piss off the officer
officer
uh they can
make life
miserable for you um
um
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