The one thing to rememeber is none of this applies to private vehicles., that are not owned by a business and used solely to transport personal items, and are not hired to carry others items.

Excluding farm use, the definition of a Commercial vehicle is one in "Commerce".

The Federal DOT says this. The Olympia office was real quick to say not in Commerce, NOT commercial. It even states this quite clearly on the DOT number application web site.

The Washington State WSP belatedly says this. while individual scale operators need a tune up on this, WSP patrol main Olympia Commercial Support office agrees that not in Commerce, means NOT commercial.

The Washington State DMV is clear on this, and they even have a "private" classification for such vehicles to bypass the DOT number requirements when licensing vehicles over 16k. They realize that if the vehicle is not in Commerce, it is NOT commercial.

There is definatly some confusion out there on what is Commercial use. Just because something weighs over 16k DOES NOT mean Commercial use, Commercial use is again, excluding the Farm use classification, defined as in "Commerce".

Now, certain vehicles require a CDL, but that also does not mean that the vehicles are Commercial, just that they require a higher drivers license requirement to be driven. Again, if such vehicles are not in Commerce, they are NOT Commercial.

Definatly a lot of miss information out there!

David