Let’s talk today a little bit about exactly what a commercial vehicle is. This is an important topic because it’s the federal regulations that apply to all the commercial vehicles on the road. A commercial vehicle is defined as a motor vehicle traveling on the highways or the interstates which has a total weight of 10,001 pounds or more. Now, this can be a combination of both the vehicle itself as well as any attachments such as a trailer to the vehicle.
What this means is that straight trucks, flatbeds, vans, trailers, any trucks which have attachments to them which you might not ordinarily think of as being subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety regulations can indeed be subject to those regulations. It is important if you have a trucking case, no matter what type of trucking case, not just a big rig truck case, that your attorney knows enough to go ahead and check out what the total weight of that vehicle and its attachments are.
To give you a few examples, we could be talking about HVAC trucks, plumbing trucks, landscaping trucks, utility vehicles, the list goes on and on, but the important point is that your lawyer checks out the total weight of the vehicle. The bottom line here folks is this: if you have a question about whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety regulations apply to your case, call my office at 770-792-1000.