Bill Text: IA SSB1109 | 2025-2026 | 91st General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: A bill for an act relating to raw farm products for purposes of increased gross weight for motor vehicles transporting such products on this state's public highways.

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-11 - Introduced, referred to Transportation. [SSB1109 Detail]

Download: Iowa-2025-SSB1109-Introduced.html

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Senate Study Bill 1109 - Introduced
SENATE FILE _____
BY (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORTATION BILL BY
CHAIRPERSON ZUMBACH)
A BILL FOR
An Act relating to raw farm products for purposes of increased
gross weight for motor vehicles transporting such products
on this state’s public highways.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
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Section 1. Section 321.460, Code 2025, is amended to read
as follows:
321.460 Spilling loads on highways.
A vehicle shall not be driven or moved on any highway by
any person unless such vehicle is so constructed or loaded or
the load securely covered as to prevent any of its load from
dropping, sifting, leaking, or otherwise escaping or its load
covering from dropping from the vehicle, except that sand may
be dropped for the purpose of securing traction, or water or
other substance may be sprinkled on a roadway in cleaning or
maintaining such roadway. The provisions of this section shall
not apply to vehicles loaded with hay or stover or the products
listed in section 321.466, subsections subsection 4 and 5 .
Sec. 2. Section 321.466, subsections 4, 5, and 6, Code 2025,
are amended to read as follows:
4. a. A Except as otherwise provided in paragraph “b” , a
person shall not operate a motor truck, trailer, truck tractor,
road tractor, semitrailer, or combination thereof, or any such
vehicle equipped with a transferable auxiliary axle or axles,
on the public highways with a gross weight exceeding the gross
weight for which it is registered by more than five percent ;
provided, however, that any .
b. A person may operate a vehicle or vehicle combination
referred to in this subsection , paragraph “a” while carrying
a load of raw farm products , or soil fertilizers including
ground limestone, raw dairy products, livestock, live
poultry, or eggs, or a special truck , while carrying a load of
distillers grains, may be operated with a gross weight of up to
twenty-five percent in excess of the gross weight for which it
is registered. However, this subsection paragraph shall not
be construed to allow the operation of a special truck on the
public highways with a gross weight exceeding the maximum gross
weight allowed under section 321.463, subsection 6 .
c. As used in paragraph “b” , “raw farm product” includes but
is not limited to any of the following:
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(1) Animals that are dead.
(2) Blood.
(3) Corn, including ear corn and hybrids, shelled corn, and
corn cobs.
(4) Cream that is separated.
(5) Distillers grain, either dried or wet.
(6) Eggs, including fresh or frozen in the shell.
(7) Flax or flax seed.
(8) Fodder.
(9) Fruits or berries, that are fresh.
(10) Grains, either threshed or unthreshed.
(11) Hair.
(12) Hay, either baled or loose.
(13) Hides.
(14) Honey, either in a comb or extracted.
(15) Livestock.
(16) Manure.
(17) Melons.
(18) Nursery stock.
(19) Peat.
(20) Potatoes.
(21) Poultry that are alive.
(22) Raw milk or raw dairy products.
(23) Saw logs.
(24) Sod.
(25) Soybean meal, either dried or wet.
(26) Soybeans.
(27) Straw, either baled or loose.
(28) Vegetables that are fresh.
(29) Wood, either cord or stove.
(30) Wool.
5. d. For the purposes of this section As used in paragraph
“b” , cracked or ground soybeans, sorgo, corn, wheat, rye,
oats, or other grain shall be deemed to be a raw farm products
product , provided that such products are product is being
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directly and immediately delivered to a farm , from the place
where the whole grain had been delivered from a farm for the
purpose of cracking or grinding and immediate delivery to
the farm to which such cracked or ground products are being
delivered .
6. 5. The A truck operator shall have in the truck
operator’s possession a receipt showing place of processing on
the return trip.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
BACKGROUND. Current law prohibits a person from operating
a motor truck, trailer, truck tractor, road tractor, or
semitrailer having a gross weight that exceeds the vehicle’s
registered gross weight by 5 percent. An exception allows such
a vehicle transporting certain loads associated with farming
to operate on the public highways so long as the gross weight
does not exceed the vehicle’s registered gross weight by 25
percent. Loads subject to this exemption include raw farm
products, fertilizers, raw dairy products, livestock, live
poultry, and eggs. “Raw farm product” is defined by department
of transportation (DOT) rule to include a list of commodities,
including live poultry and eggs (761 IAC 400.47). Another
statutory exemption provides that cracked or ground grain
may be considered a raw farm product if it is being directly
delivered between farms for purposes of cracking or grinding.
BILL’S PROVISIONS. This bill codifies the list of raw farm
products adopted by DOT rule entitled to be transported subject
to the additional 25 percent registered gross weight exception.
The bill strikes the statutory terms raw dairy products,
livestock, live poultry, and eggs from the statutory exemptions
and adds them into the codified list of raw farm products. The
bill also adds manure, soybean meal, and wet or dry distillers
grains to that list.
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