In Ohio, the motor carrier enforcement falls under the PUCO, they do all the things you mention, plus roadside enforcement and they man the scales. When you see the cars (now Tahoes) that say "motor carrier enforcement" on the side instead "highway patrol", those guys work for the PUCO. In the old days ODOT did roadside vehicle inspections for cars (remember the inspection checkpoints way back in the day?), but now automotive inspections fall to the highway patrol, trucks fall under PUCO, and ODOT just builds and maintains the roads, etc. The Highway Patrol also has authority to do roadside stops on trucks and write "tickets", but you won't see them on a creeper, and the "ticket" gets referred to the PUCO to ultimately decide which violations you are actually charged with, and sets the fines. A trooper is who stopped me, which is why I probably got off relatively light with only half an armful of tickets instead of a whole armful. lol. And by their definition, since I do have a business, and I do occasionally use my personal vehicle (over 10,000 gvw combined) for business use, I am a motor carrier just like any trucking company out there. A "private carrier" since I only carry my own stuff, but a motor carrier nonetheless. And 95% of the paperwork is the same as a "common carrier" which hauls for-hire. Trust me, you ought to see the pile of paperwork on my desk right now. The fact that the "motor carrier" only consists of me and my wife (and she does not drive it) and a pickup and a couple of trailers does not make a bit of difference, I might as well be UPS as far as the paperwork is concerned. Today's project of the day was getting the paperwork done to get set up with a company that administers my new drug testing program and will tell me when I am selected for a "random" drug test. Fun, Fun, Fun!
My whole idea of wanting to build a toterhome to pull my trailers was to avoid this whole mess, but now I am "legal" anyway, and have a shiny new USDOT number on the side, so the motivation to build the whole thing has kind of fizzled. Still have the topkick and want to tow with it, but looking like I am scaling down to a small box that is either an overgrown sleeper to keep the wife and dog comfy, or maybe still have a larger box, but half storage, and half room for the wife and dog. My current thinking is a small box truck type box like you used, maybe with an attic, cut it down to 10-12' with a solid rear wall and rv door on the back, and a toter style bed and rv fifth wheel for my trailer. Since I don't need any RV amenities to be "legal", I can just put in carpet and paneling and roll for now, and work on it later as time allows. The whole ordeal sort of disappoints me and pisses me off all at the same time. Gotta love the government.
|