Did Kentucky's weight allowance for forest-product trucks require exclusive timber hauling?

Plain-English summary

A Kentucky senator asked in 1998 whether trucks had to haul forest products exclusively to receive a ten-percent weight tolerance. The Attorney General concluded that they did not. KRS 189.222(4) extended the tolerance to qualifying registered vehicles while they transported primary forest products, such as logs, sawdust, wood chips, bark or slabs. The provision excluded interstate highways.

The confusion came from a different statute. KRS 186.050(9) gave a reduced annual registration fee to certain heavy vehicles used exclusively to carry forest products from a harvest area to a nearby mill or processing facility. The Attorney General said that exclusive-use condition governed the fee reduction, not the separate weight allowance.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1998. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Could a truck that sometimes hauled other goods receive Kentucky's forest-product weight tolerance in 1998? A: The Attorney General said yes while it carried primary forest products, if it was properly registered under the provision named in the weight statute. Exclusive hauling was not a condition of the tolerance.

Q: Did the ten-percent tolerance apply on interstate highways?
A: No. The text of KRS 189.222(4) quoted in the opinion expressly excluded the interstate highway system.

Q: Was the reduced vehicle-registration fee governed by the same rule? A: No. The opinion described a separate twenty-five-percent fee reduction for specified heavy vehicles used exclusively to transport forest products from the harvest area to a mill or processing facility within the statute's distance limit.

Background and statutory framework

The opinion compared KRS 189.222(4), which named vehicles registered under KRS 186.050(3)(b), with KRS 186.050(9), which expressly required exclusive forest-product transport for a fee reduction. It gave effect to that difference in wording and concluded that any properly registered vehicle carrying the listed products could use the weight tolerance under the statute as it then stood.

Citations and references

Statutes: KRS 189.222(4); KRS 186.050(3)(b); KRS 186.050(9).

Source

Source

• Landing page: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_1f0796a0-6452-4146-9188-98cf5f52879a/
• Original PDF: https://kdla.access.preservica.com/download/file/IO_1f0796a0-6452-4146-9188-98cf5f52879a

Original opinion text

OAG 98-10
July 27, 1998
Subject:

Weight tolerance limits for vehicles transporting primary forest products

Requested by:

Senator Richard Sanders
The Honorable Senator from Simpson County

Written by:

Diane Schuler Fleming

Syllabus:

The ten percent weight tolerance established by KRS
189.222(4) is available to all commercial vehicles
transporting primary forest products.

Statutes construed:

KRS 186.050; and KRS 189.222

Opinion of the Attorney General
The Office of the Attorney General is asked by Senator Sanders
to render an opinion pertaining to weight tolerance limits for vehicles transporting primary forest products. The Attorney General provides this opinion on a public question of law submitted by a member of the legislature. KRS 15.025(2). Senator Sanders poses the following question, “Is the ten percent weight tolerance for vehicles engaged in the transportation of primary forest products established by KRS 189.222(4) available only to those trucks which are registered exclusively for transporting primary forest products under the provisions of KRS 186.050(9), or is the tolerance available to all commercial vehicles which happen to be transporting such products?”

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Page 2

KRS 189.222 sets forth detailed height, length and weight limits
for motor vehicles on designated highways throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It states in relevant part that: Vehicles registered pursuant to KRS 186.050(3) (b) and engaged in the transportation of primary forest products, including, but not limited to, vehicles transporting sawdust, wood chips, bark, slabs, or logs may exceed the axle, or gross weight provisions as set forth in accordance with subsection (1)(c) of this section by a weight tolerance of ten percent (10%), except on the interstate highway system. KRS 189.222(4). The annual registration fees for commercial vehicles are found in KRS 186.050(3). One of the exceptions enumerated in this statute pertains to the transportation of primary forest products, and is set forth as follows: Motor vehicles having a declared gross weight in excess of eighteen thousand (18,000) pounds, which are used exclusively for the transportation of primary forest products from the harvest area to a mill or other processing facility, where such mill or processing facility is located at a point not more than fifty (50) air miles from the harvest area . . . shall pay seventy-five percent (75%) of the fee set out in subsection (3) of this section . . . KRS 186.050(9). (Emphasis added.) According to the rules of statutory construction, when the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous, it should be given effect as written. Lynch v. Commonwealth, Ky., 902 SW2d 813, 814 (1995); Barnard v. Stone, Ky., 933 SW2d 394 (1996). Indeed, when the words employed in a statute are unambiguous, the statute must be applied

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Page 3

to those terms without resort to any construction or interpretation.
Terhune v. Commonwealth, Ky.App., 907 SW2d 779 (1995).
Reviewing the statutes in question, we find that KRS 189.222(4)
provides a 10 percent weight tolerance for any vehicle registered pursuant to KRS 186.050(3)(b) that is transporting primary forest products. By way of comparison, pursuant to KRS 186.050(9), the operator of a motor vehicle in excess of 18,000 pounds, must “exclusively” transport primary forest products from the harvest area to a mill or processing facility within 50 air miles of the harvest area, to receive a 25 percent reduction in the annual registration fee. The language in each of these statutes is clear and unambiguous. To receive a 25 percent reduction in annual registration fees, an operator must be engaged in the exclusive transportation of primary forest products. However, such a requirement has not been appended to KRS 189.222(4). Therefore, any properly registered vehicle transporting primary forest products may receive the 10 percent weight tolerance. ALBERT B. CHANDLER III ATTORNEY GENERAL

DIANE SCHULER FLEMING
ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL