SSB 1109 (LSB 2067XC (5) 91)

SENATE FILE _____ 

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION BILL BY CHAIRPERSON ZUMBACH)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to raw farm products for purposes of increased gross weight for motor vehicles transporting such products on this state’s public highways.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 321.460, Code 2025, is amended to read as follows:
   321.460  Spilling loads on highways.
   A vehicle shall not be driven or moved on any highway by any person unless such vehicle is so constructed or loaded or the load securely covered as to prevent any of its load from dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise escaping or its load covering from dropping from the vehicle, except that sand may be dropped for the purpose of securing traction, or water or other substance may be sprinkled on a roadway in cleaning or maintaining such roadway. The provisions of this section shall not apply to vehicles loaded with hay or stover or the products listed in section 321.466, subsections subsection 4 and 5.
    Sec. 2.  Section 321.466, subsections 4, 5, and 6, Code 2025, are amended to read as follows:
   4.  a.  A Except as otherwise provided in paragraph “b”, a person shall not operate a motor truck, trailer, truck tractor, road tractor, semitrailer, or combination thereof, or any such vehicle equipped with a transferable auxiliary axle or axles, on the public highways with a gross weight exceeding the gross weight for which it is registered by more than five percent; provided, however, that any.
   b.  A person may operate a vehicle or vehicle combination referred to in this subsection, paragraph “a” while carrying a load of raw farm products, or soil fertilizers including ground limestone, raw dairy products, livestock, live poultry, or eggs, or a special truck, while carrying a load of distillers grains, may be operated with a gross weight of up to twenty-five percent in excess of the gross weight for which it is registered. However, this subsection paragraph shall not be construed to allow the operation of a special truck on the public highways with a gross weight exceeding the maximum gross weight allowed under section 321.463, subsection 6.
   c.  As used in paragraph “b”, “raw farm product” includes but is not limited to any of the following:
   (1)  Animals that are dead.
   (2)  Blood.
   (3)  Corn, including ear corn and hybrids, shelled corn, and corn cobs.
   (4)  Cream that is separated.
   (5)  Distillers grain, either dried or wet.
   (6)  Eggs, including fresh or frozen in the shell.
   (7)  Flax or flax seed.
   (8)  Fodder.
   (9)  Fruits or berries, that are fresh.
   (10)  Grains, either threshed or unthreshed.
   (11)  Hair.
   (12)  Hay, either baled or loose.
   (13)  Hides.
   (14)  Honey, either in a comb or extracted.
   (15)  Livestock.
   (16)  Manure.
   (17)  Melons.
   (18)  Nursery stock.
   (19)  Peat.
   (20)  Potatoes.
   (21)  Poultry that are alive.
   (22)  Raw milk or raw dairy products.
   (23)  Saw logs.
   (24)  Sod.
   (25)  Soybean meal, either dried or wet.
   (26)  Soybeans.
   (27)  Straw, either baled or loose.
   (28)  Vegetables that are fresh.
   (29)  Wood, either cord or stove.
   (30)  Wool.
   5.  d.  For the purposes of this section As used in paragraph “b”, cracked or ground soybeans, sorgo, corn, wheat, rye, oats, or other grain shall be deemed to be a raw farm products product, provided that such products are product is being directly and immediately delivered to a farm, from the place where the whole grain had been delivered from a farm for the purpose of cracking or grinding and immediate delivery to the farm to which such cracked or ground products are being delivered.
   6.  5.  The A truck operator shall have in the truck operator’s possession a receipt showing place of processing on the return trip.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   BACKGROUND. Current law prohibits a person from operating a motor truck, trailer, truck tractor, road tractor, or semitrailer having a gross weight that exceeds the vehicle’s registered gross weight by 5 percent. An exception allows such a vehicle transporting certain loads associated with farming to operate on the public highways so long as the gross weight does not exceed the vehicle’s registered gross weight by 25 percent. Loads subject to this exemption include raw farm products, fertilizers, raw dairy products, livestock, live poultry, and eggs. “Raw farm product” is defined by department of transportation (DOT) rule to include a list of commodities, including live poultry and eggs (761 IAC 400.47). Another statutory exemption provides that cracked or ground grain may be considered a raw farm product if it is being directly delivered between farms for purposes of cracking or grinding.
   BILL’S PROVISIONS. This bill codifies the list of raw farm products adopted by DOT rule entitled to be transported subject to the additional 25 percent registered gross weight exception. The bill strikes the statutory terms raw dairy products, livestock, live poultry, and eggs from the statutory exemptions and adds them into the codified list of raw farm products. The bill also adds manure, soybean meal, and wet or dry distillers grains to that list.