Senior Trooper Monty Dial (Ret.)<\/a>, Texas Highway Patrol, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, Garland, TX: <\/strong> You have asked a good question. Nowhere in the DOT regulations does it define what a laden vehicle is. There are some examples of what a driver can and cannot do if the vehicle is laden, but those examples are limited to a vehicle being loaded with hazardous materials. There are those in the enforcement community that say a vehicle is ladened if it has a trailer, regardless of whether the trailer is loaded or empty, while others say that a trailer is ladened only if it is loaded. Whose definition is right or wrong remains the interpretation of the trooper\/inspector who has you stopped. There is one interpretation, found in Part 395.8 Question #26, which says that a driver is allowed to drop their trailer and bobtail to various locations (food, entertainment or shopping) while en route or once the driver reaches a location and drops their trailer and bobtails home and back to the location of their trailer before starting their next trip. But, another interpretation, found in Part 395.2 Question #1, states that all time spent at the controls of a CMV are to be recorded as driving time from the last stop to home. So, based on not being able to find a definition of what a \u201cladened\u201d vehicle is and with the two examples used, I cannot give you an answer that is going to be fool-proof. What I mean is, I cannot give you an answer that\u2019s going to keep you from possibly getting written up for moving from your last drop to the nearest truck stop or rest area.<\/p>\n~ The Ask The Law\u2122 programs are an ongoing educational effort between Ol\u2019 Blue, USA\u2122 and commercial law enforcement agencies. Ol\u2019 Blue, USA is a non-profit organization dedicated to highway safety education and to improving relations between the motoring public, law enforcement and commercial drivers. \u201cAsk The Law\u201d is a registered trademark of Ol\u2019 Blue, USA. This column is copyrighted\u00a9 by Ol\u2019 Blue, USA. Warning: Laws are subject to change without notice. These interpretations were made on June 14, 2017.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Questions about Laden CMVs, California Length Laws & More Answered by Law Enforcement Officials (as of July 2017) Warning: Laws are subject to change without notice. These interpretations were made on June 14, 2017. Brought to you as a public service by Ol\u2019 Blue, USA and 10-4. Submit your questions to www.askthelaw.org WE HOPE TO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":15437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ask-the-law"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15439,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15272\/revisions\/15439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"November](\"http:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/JulyATLpic-300x205.jpg\")
<\/a>Please join our Ol\u2019 Blue, USA \u201cSafety Center\u201d\u00ae at the Great American Trucking Show (GATS) in Dallas, Texas on August 24, 25 & 26 in booth 17053 and 18053. We are pleased to announce that Lt. Monty Kea and his team from the Texas Highway Patrol will be joining us in Dallas again this year. As you can see in the photo, taken last year at GATS, many drivers took advantage of the opportunity to ask their questions and\/or voice their concerns about the laws and regulations they deal with on a daily basis directly to the law enforcement officials in our booth. We are here to help, not harass, so come by and talk to one of our friendly and educated troopers. Photo by Monty Dial.<\/p>\n