A guide to transportation regulations for farmers is now available from the Iowa Department of Transportation. The DOT’s Melisa Gillett helped create the farm guide.
“There are many regulations that apply to agriculture operations, and it can be challenging sometimes for farmers to really understand those regulations that apply to them, or the exceptions that may apply at the federal and state level,” Gillett says. She says this should be a one-stop place to answer some of the questions. “What we did was try to consolidate all of that into this specific guide for farmers. And I would say, this is something we worked on when I was in the Motor Vehicle Division, and kind of inspired by my dad, who’s a farmer in western Iowa, and his friends that he meets with at the at the coffee shop at the local gas station, you know, and they have these conversations. And so he helped to kind of test this,” she says.
They gave the farm guide a test drive at last year’s Iowa State Fair. “We were visiting with farmers and talking with them about what information is helpful, and so it’s gone through some iterations and some revisions since then to gather that input directly from them,” Gillet says. Gillett says you can find the guide online or get a printed copy.
“You know, I think about the farmers, they like the physical copies to have available to reference them,” she says. We also have it available on our website as well, but distributing them at our driver’s license locations. We’re working with Iowa State Patrol and the commercial motor vehicle unit as well to help help them distribute as well.”
Gillette presented the finished guide at the Transportation Commission meeting this past week.