Does the farm-commodity exemption for loading trucks also let a farmer drive an overweight truck on Texas highways?

Texas AG Opinion JM-567: Overweight Truck Rule

Plain-English summary

The Colorado County Attorney asked about overweight trucks. Section 5(a) of article 6701d-11 makes it illegal to drive a commercial vehicle on a public highway over the weight limits, with no built-in exceptions. In 1983 the legislature added section 5(b), a separate offense: loading a truck with the intent to exceed those limits. Section 5(b) carries an exemption for loading an agricultural or forestry commodity before it is processed. The question was whether that exemption also lets a farmer drive his own harvest to market in an overweight truck. The AG said no. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

The two sections describe different offenses. Section 5(a) is about operating the overloaded truck; section 5(b) is about loading it with unlawful intent. The commodity exemption is written into section 5(b) and reaches only the loading offense. So a farmer hauling rice or corn on his own truck is not exempt from section 5(a) just because the load is an unprocessed farm commodity. The AG also addressed an earlier opinion, JM-354, explaining it dealt only with whether logs and pulpwood leaving a wood yard were an unprocessed forestry commodity for the loading offense, not with the operating offense. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1986. 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

Can a farmer legally drive an overweight truck if he is hauling his own crop?

No. The AG concluded that section 5(a), which prohibits operating an overweight vehicle, has no farm-commodity exception. The exemption the farmer pointed to lives in section 5(b) and covers only the loading offense, so it does not make it legal to actually drive the overloaded truck on the highway. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

What is the difference between the two offenses?

Section 5(a) is the operating offense: driving a truck that is over the weight limit. Section 5(b) is the loading offense: loading a truck, or causing it to be loaded, with the intent to exceed those limits (intent is presumed if the load is 15 percent or more over the limit). They are separate violations. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

What does the section 5(b) agricultural exemption actually cover?

It covers the act of loading, or causing to be loaded, an agricultural or forestry commodity before that commodity is processed. In other words, you are not committing the section 5(b) loading-with-intent offense when you load an unprocessed farm or forestry commodity. It says nothing about the separate operating offense in section 5(a). Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

How does this fit with Opinion JM-354 about wood yards?

The AG explained that JM-354 answered a narrower question: whether logs and pulpwood leaving a wood yard are an unprocessed forestry commodity for purposes of the section 5(b) loading offense. It did not decide whether operating an overloaded truck violates section 5(a), so it does not create an operating-offense exemption. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

Background and statutory framework

Article 6701d-11 governs vehicle weight limits on Texas highways. Section 5(a) makes it unlawful to operate a commercial motor vehicle, truck-tractor, trailer, or semitrailer over the specified weight limits and contains no express exceptions. Section 5(b), added in 1983, makes it a separate offense to load or cause to be loaded a vehicle with the intent to violate the section 5(a) limits, and presumes that intent when a loaded vehicle exceeds the applicable gross weight limit by 15 percent or more. The last sentence of section 5(b) states that the subsection does not apply to loading an agricultural or forestry commodity before the commodity is processed. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

The AG read the commodity exemption as tied to the offense it sits in. Because the exemption relates only to loading a truck with intent to violate the limits, it does not carry over to the section 5(a) operating offense. The opinion distinguished its earlier Opinion JM-354, which addressed only whether logs and pulpwood leaving a wood yard were an unprocessed forestry commodity, and noted the office answers only the questions actually asked. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

Citations and references

The opinion cited the following authorities. Source: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

Statutes:

• V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 5(a) (operating an overweight vehicle)
• V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 5(b) (loading with intent to violate weight limits; commodity exemption)
• V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 5 1/2
• V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 6, subdiv. 6

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-0567
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1986/jm0567.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

October 22, 1986

Honorable Edward Woolery-Price
Colorado County Attorney
910 Milam
Columbus, Texas 78934

Opinion No. JM-567

Re: Whether exemption for certain commodities in section 5(b) of article 6701d-11, V.T.C.S., applies to section 5(a) of article 6701d-11, V.T.C.S.

Dear Mr. Woolery-Price:

You ask a question regarding overweight trucks. Section 5(a) of article 6701d-11 makes it unlawful to operate on the public highways a commercial motor vehicle, truck-tractor, trailer, or semitrailer having a weight in excess of the specified weight limitations. It contains no express exceptions. In 1983, the legislature added section 5(b), which further provides that:

(b) No person shall load, or cause to be loaded, a vehicle for operation on the public highways of this state with the intent to violate the weight limitations in Subsection (a) of this section. Intent to violate those limitations is presumed if the loaded vehicle exceeds the applicable gross vehicular weight limit by 15 percent or more. This subsection does not apply to the loading or causing to be loaded of an agricultural or a forestry commodity prior to the processing of the commodity. (Emphasis added).

V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 5(b).

In the context of a farmer using his own truck to transport his harvest of rice or corn on a public highway from his farm to a place to sell the product, or to have the product processed, or to store the product pending sale, you ask the following question:

Does section 5(b), article 6701d-11, V.T.C.S., exempt the driver or owner of that vehicle, who is also the farmer . . . from section 5(a) of article 6701d-11?

It is our opinion that section 5(b) does not exempt the driver or owner of an overloaded vehicle from the provisions of section 5(a).

The provisions of section 5(a) determine whether the operation of an overloaded truck violates article 6701d-11. A violation of section 5(b) is a different offense. Section 5(b) prohibits the loading of a truck for operation on a public highway with the intent to violate the weight limitations that are specified in section 5(a). The express provision by the legislature that section 5(b) does not apply to the loading of an agricultural or forestry commodity prior to the processing of the commodity relates only to the loading of a truck with the intent to violate the limitations of section 5(a). Cf. V.T.C.S. art. 6701d-11, § 5 1/2; § 6, subdiv. 6.

You inquire about the effect of Attorney General Opinion JM-354 (1985) on the question of whether section 5(b) of article 6701d-11 exempts a vehicle from the provisions of section 5(a) of article 6701d-11. The question asked in Attorney General Opinion JM-354 was not whether the operator of an overloaded truck would violate article 6701d-11, and it is the policy of this office to answer only the questions that are asked. Attorney General Opinion JM-354 relates solely to the owner or operator of a wood yard who has loaded or caused to be loaded a vehicle for operation on the public highways in violation of weight limits. This office expressed the opinion that the exception for a forestry commodity prior to the processing of the commodity, which exception section 5(b) creates for the offense of overloading or causing the overloading of a vehicle, does not apply to the hauling of logs or pulpwood from a wood yard under the facts presented in that opinion. The opinion deals with the question of whether logs and pulpwood leaving a wood yard are a forestry commodity prior to the processing of the commodity.

SUMMARY

The exception in section 5(b) of article 6701d-11, V.T.C.S., for an agricultural or forestry commodity prior to the processing of the commodity does not apply to the offense of operating an overloaded vehicle under section 5(a), article 6701d-11.

Very truly yours,

Jim Mattox
Attorney General of Texas

JACK HIGHTOWER
First Assistant Attorney General

MARY KELLER
Executive Assistant Attorney General

RICK GILPIN
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Prepared by Nancy Sutton
Assistant Attorney General