Licensing RVers---is it time?
Is it time to insist that a special license be needed for driving/towing larger recreational vehicles. I once asked a DOT complaint officer why a person renting a GVWR 26,000 (26' box) truck could ...
Forum Discussion
To some degree the problem of in-experienced, in-capable RV drivers is self-policing since most all RV's both towables and Class-A's are owner-operated units due to repair and increased insurance costs that come directly out of their pockets. Also when most RV owners driving miniscule miles with little to know confidence have a accident or collision they usually end up quite scared and very often change their RV'ing habits by downsizing or completely changing their method of travel.
This is a completely different perspective than commercial drivers driving hundreds of thousand's of miles a year earning a living driving either someones else's equipment or their owned bank-owned equipment usually at a point in their life when the pressure of earning a buck or 2 unfortunately trumps caution and common sense at times and leads to serious accidents.
In my jurisdiction there is no licensing class for towable or motorhomes over 11K KG's or 24,200lbs combined gross weight that is not a CDL and as such forces all RV owners of units over that weight to undertake all the arduous requirements of getting a CDL.
While my jurisdiction try's to tell me this is in line with 41 other jurisdictions they avoid the fact that many of those other jurisdictions have non-CDL options for RV's over that 11K KG limit.
Also in my jurisdiction enforcement is unfairly biased against heavy fifthwheel owners who choose to tow with a higher degree of safety using a singled OTR tractor while the Class A's over 11KG's never are pulled over to check for license infractions.
All this leads to many in-correctly licensed but competent drivers of RV's that have been paid for with their own hard earned money driving cautiously very minimal number of miles usually under very good road conditions with very few serious accidents per mile driven.
I would love to see factual evidence of serious accident rates per mile driven for private RV's owners versus commercial OTR drivers.
Just my rambling thoughts on a cold grey overcast winter Saturday morning impatiently waiting for spring and RV season to get here.
This is a completely different perspective than commercial drivers driving hundreds of thousand's of miles a year earning a living driving either someones else's equipment or their owned bank-owned equipment usually at a point in their life when the pressure of earning a buck or 2 unfortunately trumps caution and common sense at times and leads to serious accidents.
In my jurisdiction there is no licensing class for towable or motorhomes over 11K KG's or 24,200lbs combined gross weight that is not a CDL and as such forces all RV owners of units over that weight to undertake all the arduous requirements of getting a CDL.
While my jurisdiction try's to tell me this is in line with 41 other jurisdictions they avoid the fact that many of those other jurisdictions have non-CDL options for RV's over that 11K KG limit.
Also in my jurisdiction enforcement is unfairly biased against heavy fifthwheel owners who choose to tow with a higher degree of safety using a singled OTR tractor while the Class A's over 11KG's never are pulled over to check for license infractions.
All this leads to many in-correctly licensed but competent drivers of RV's that have been paid for with their own hard earned money driving cautiously very minimal number of miles usually under very good road conditions with very few serious accidents per mile driven.
I would love to see factual evidence of serious accident rates per mile driven for private RV's owners versus commercial OTR drivers.
Just my rambling thoughts on a cold grey overcast winter Saturday morning impatiently waiting for spring and RV season to get here.
