Ca. DMV Declaration of Gross Vehicle Weight Question

wildtoad wrote:
No skin the game, just curious, but to me the key word is "commercial". Why does this apply to a private use pickup truck? Is the second sentence not related to the first?

In California, anything with an open bed is considered commercial and has to pay the appropriate weight fees at registration. This is because "you could haul stuff" (as I had been told by a DMV representative). So a Ford Explora-Trac or a Subaru Baja, etc., which has an open bed, would also pay for commercial plates.