Soundguy said:
My guess is the difference is repitition and frequency. A noncom ( home user) may go buy 5 gas cans worth f gas to get thru a hurricane or to fuel up all his lawn equipment 1-2x per year. A comercial driver may be hauling / storing that fuel on the truck 24/7.. drives it to every job, etc.. like int he case of a contractor.. etc. The homeowner is an incedental use. Look at a year of time and look at the exposure. the homeowner might have that fuel in the truck 1-2x.. the com driver, perhaps 240 times. That's a whole lot more risk exposure to the other drivers
In fact.. look at gas cans... Non com can use plastic.. com has to use the safety metal can with special bung. I don't see that changing for a loooooong time.
As far as DOT pulling over an 'unsafe' load. I'm pretty sure they can and do handle that from time to time already. I've seen forestry officers a Game and fish officers pull over people dragging limbs out the back of trailers. We don't need to add any more laws to handle incedental situations.. there are plenty of laws on the books to cover this.. and the authority for a DOT to stop a noncom vehicle is already in place.
Amount of cargo hauled can also be another point. Certaintly, when you look at vehicle sizes, the vast majority of 'large' vehicles are com, with a pretty even mix of non com and com smaller vehicles. It stands to reason that a large com vehicle can haul more cargo than a small noncom.
35g's of diesel in a single or multiple containers in a homeowners truck for his tractor just seems like much less of a danger than a truck that may have 4x that fuel just in his saddle tanks.
We need less federal govt.. not more, except in very limited situations.. like military.. etc.
"the inherent RISK in hauling hasardous cargo is no less in a noncommercial vehicle. In light of the lack
"of required driver testing, or lack of required fire extinguiser, it COULD easily be HIGHER risk
"in a noncommercial vehicle
If you look at it over time.. that equation flops way back on the other side. My service trucks at work run the roads 6 days a week.. full of as much off and on road diesel, gasolene, and grease and oils as they can legally carry. My personal truck grabs a can of diesel for my tractor about 3x per year. It's very easy to see that when you look at time as a factor, which you need to when making a risk evaluation, that comercial vehicles probably hauls quite a bit more 'dangerous cargo', or -any- cargo, .. probably by a factor...
Soundguy
The likelyhood of a commercial vehicle being involved in a wreck is no higher PER MILE than a NON commercial vehicle. Granted, the number of miles MAY be higher, but that's not a given.
As a whole, commercial vehicles are better PREPARED for a "situation" because of mandated saftey equipment they must carry. Also, that commercial truck will have a driver who SHOULD be better tested than a typical noncommercial driver.
The example of ONE commercial truck vs. ONE private owned and operated NON commercial truck doesn't really tell the whole story. You just need to follow a few threads on TBN to hear how so many people try to "get away with" hauling loads that aren't in the least bit safe. (Here we need to look at ALL cargo's, not just a fuel can or 2)
Let's compare apples to apples. Say a COMMERCIAL landscaper is hauling his tractor behind his truck. He has a days worth of fuel in the back, along with assorted tools. It is involved in a roll-over accident.
At the same time, "Joe Homeowner" is hauling his tractor behind HIS truck, with a days worth of fuel, on his way to his new piece of property. He is involved in a roll-over accident.
Why/how is the COMMERCIAL vehicle any different? Will the wreck be any more or less catastrophic because it's got a DOT number on the door?
That is the point I'm being given by my friend. If ALL that was ever hauled in NONcommercial vehicles was an occasional 5-gallon can of fuel, things might stay the way they are. The thing is, in todays world, you're seeing more and more noncommercial vehicles carrying same or simular loads as the commercial boys.
Aunt Judy on her way to the hairdresser could care less if it's a commercial or noncommercial truck that runs over her.
DOT can already enforce traffic laws. That's a given. What they CANNOT do is require that noncommercial hauler to abide by the same COMMON SENSE laws and requirements that truckers have to abide by. Some of those requirements may well be over-kill in MOST cases. But mark my words, it's coming. Already we're seeing (in Kentucky) DOT laws being enforced on "hobby" tractor pullers and show tractor haulers, and "sportsman" racecar haulers.
I'm an advocate of government "butting out" of our everyday life. But reality says they probably won't. In fact, it's a safe bet they'll only get farther in our lives and wallets.
The point I'm trying to convey is, the DOT sees it as their mission to protect us from ourselves. We already know they are the lord and master of highway commerce. In order to make those highways safer, look to see them given more control, and us get less freedoms, in order to eliminate their percieved threat.
Again, I'm not promoting my own agenda here, only passing along the thoughts of someone on "the other side". But I'm able to see their side of the arguement as well as my own.
