Agriculture has more DOT exemptions than anyone. That’s the trap.
For farms, co-ops and agricultural haulers running grain trucks, livestock trailers and farm supply trucks. Know exactly which exemptions you have, and get a DOT department for the rest.
Your farm trucks may be commercial motor vehicles
Any vehicle or combination rated or weighing 10,001 pounds or more in interstate commerce is a CMV. Some farm trucks are exempt from parts of the rules. Which parts depends on who owns the truck, who drives it, what it hauls, and whether anyone is paid to haul it.
- Grain trucks
- Livestock trailers
- Farm supply and fertilizer trucks
- Hay haulers
- Equipment trailers
- Pickups towing trailers
Three things most farm operations don’t know until it’s too late
The covered farm vehicle exemption: what it covers, and what it takes
A covered farm vehicle is exempt from more of the rules than any other kind of truck. It only counts when every condition is true, every trip.
- CDL requirements
- Drug and alcohol testing
- Driver medical requirements
- Hours of service
- Inspection, repair and maintenance rules
- A farm plate or similar designation
- Driven by the owner, an employee or a family member
- Hauling farm goods, livestock, machinery or supplies to or from a farm
- Not hauling for hire
- No load that needs hazmat placards
- Over 26,001 pounds: anywhere in your home state, and up to 150 air miles from the farm across state lines
If any one of those isn’t true, the truck is under the full rules: driver files, testing for CDL drivers, hours of service and maintenance. Your free assessment sorts your trucks into which is which.
Source: 49 CFR 390.5, 390.39 and 395.1(k); Georgia DPS Transportation Rules, Chapter 1, Rule 1-395.1(k)(3).What DOT expects from an agricultural hauler, every month
For an agricultural hauler with 20 trucks under the full rules:
What that work actually is
Not a checklist. Every item below takes judgment, a conversation with a driver or a supervisor, and a record that proves it was done.
- Every truck, sorted by its exemptions. Covered farm vehicle, harvest exemption or full rules, checked against the trip it actually made.
- Every driving event, reviewed. Speeding, hard braking and following too close. A habit gets a message, then a call, then you are told, worked for 90 days until it changes.
- Every reported defect, followed. From the driver’s inspection report to the repair, signed off, before the truck goes back out.
- Every new hire, built to complete. Application, 3 years of safety history from every past DOT employer, driving record, medical card, road test, and for CDL drivers the pre-employment drug test and Clearinghouse query, all before the first trip.
- Open items, chased. With drivers, supervisors and shops, until each one is closed.
- Expirations in the next 60 days, renewed. Licenses, medical cards and permits, before anyone is out of status.
- New drivers, moved toward complete. Past employers called back, documents collected, nothing left hanging.
- Random drug and alcohol selections. Run, sent and followed to a result for every CDL driver.
- Your FMCSA record, read. Every new roadside inspection reviewed, safety scores watched, and a DataQs challenge filed when a violation looks wrong.
- Maintenance records, checked. For every truck and every trailer, because the records are what an investigator asks for.
- A report for leadership. What was done, what was found, and what’s next.
- Annual inspections. Every truck and every trailer, each one on its own date.
- Annual driver reviews and records checks. Every driver, every year, plus the yearly Clearinghouse queries.
- Registrations and filings. Plates, registrations, UCR, heavy vehicle use tax and your USDOT update, each on its own deadline.
- The insurance renewal package. Three years of inspections, drivers and trucks, pulled together 60 days before renewal.
- A mock DOT audit. Run the way an investigator would, so the real one isn’t the first.
You keep the farm. We take DOT.
- The crops, the livestock and the season
- Your crews and equipment
- Farm safety and incident response
- The relationship with your drivers
- Which trucks are exempt, and from what
- Every driving event reviewed, and drivers coached
- Every driver file, complete before the first trip
- Drug and alcohol testing for CDL drivers
- Renewals, filings and permits (Core + Operations)
And a monthly report you can hand to leadership: what was done, what was found, and what’s next. PFM is that department, for less than hiring the same team.
Everything we can take off your plate
Take the whole department, or start with the part that hurts most. Here’s what each person on your team actually does, and what each add-on covers.
Core Compliance: three specialists, every working day
Starts with a baseline review of where you really stand, run like a mock audit, and a written action plan. After that: your monthly compliance report with your safety score priorities, a quarterly review of what changed and what is at risk, and a yearly mock DOT audit done the way an investigator would.
Makes the judgment calls: confirms every new driver’s file is complete before you put them on the road, decides what happens after an accident, and tells you when something hard needs your attention. Runs every driver’s annual review and driving record check, and gives every filing a final look before it goes out under your name.
Reads every driver’s hours from your ELD every business day: driving limits, the 30-minute break, the 60/70-hour cycle, short-haul limits, unassigned driving and form errors. Decides each finding, a real violation, an allowed exemption or a log that needs a correction, and works the correction through with the driver.
Coaches by behavior: a message the first time, a call the second, and you are told the third time in 90 days. Keeps the supporting documents an auditor asks for, and checks the miles behind your fuel tax and registration filings.
Builds and keeps every driver qualification file: the application, 3 years of safety history from every past DOT employer, license, medical card, driving record and road test. Runs your drug and alcohol program for CDL drivers: Clearinghouse queries, random selections, post-accident testing decisions and follow-up when a result needs action.
Reviews every speeding and harsh-driving event and coaches the driver behind it, follows every reported defect until it is repaired, reviews every roadside inspection and challenges inaccurate violations through DataQs, and prepares the safety side of your insurance renewal.
A training lesson with every coaching step, at three levels, starting with the first message to a driver. Unfinished training gets reminders, then you’re told. A refresher for every driver twice a year, a quarterly safety webinar, and your clean drivers named in your monthly report, so the habits you want are taught and noticed, not just corrected.
Core + Operations: everything in Core, plus a Compliance Admin
Files everything on time and checks it before it is filed: quarterly fuel tax from every fuel purchase matched to its truck, weight-distance taxes in the states that charge them, apportioned registration, UCR, heavy vehicle use tax, plates and your USDOT update. Gets trip, temporary, oversize and overweight permits before the load leaves.
Keeps maintenance records and coordinates with your shops, so we know the health of every truck and trailer. Runs your insurance renewal as a 90-day project: records gathered, one package to your agent 60 days out, and the new papers checked against your trucks and drivers. Handles new driver paperwork and adding or removing a truck.
Add-ons: more of what your fleet needs
A 15-minute safety check-in call with every driver, every quarter. A 30-day plan that starts the second time a behavior shows up, not the third, whether it’s safety driving or hours of service, with a weekly call with the driver, a lesson each week and a final test. A monthly lesson for every driver, picked from their own driving, and their own safety scorecard on their phone. A new-driver safety course in each new driver’s first 30 days. The full rewards program, from driver of the month to clean-driving milestones at 90, 180 and 365 days. A private quarterly safety meeting for your own drivers, tips and training for your managers, supervisors and dispatchers, and a driver-by-driver safety report you can hand an insurer.
The same defect showing up on the same truck, and brakes, tires and lights trending the wrong way, caught early. Each truck’s lifetime cost to keep running, its repairs, downtime and cost per mile, tracked so you know when it’s time to consider replacing it. A quarterly vehicle health and replacement planning review, so you can plan the next truck instead of being surprised by it.
Your team on call Saturdays and Sundays, and outside business hours, for the questions and problems that can’t wait until Monday.
Your drivers paid on schedule, by the same team that already knows their hours.
Find out which of your trucks are really exempt
About 15 minutes on the phone, and you get a 12-page report on your gaps.
Book your free DOT Compliance Assessment
