OT: Farm Truck Plates MD

In our area of Maryland I see a lot of farm truck license plates. I can't find anything about it at the MVA website.

What are the advantages, disadvantages, and requirements?

We only have a small farm and lease our tillable to a farming company. Not sure if we would meet the requirements or if we could benefit on auto insurance etc.

There are two types of Farm Plates for Maryland. The first type, called Farm Area Vehicle (class K) restricts you to a 10 mile radius from your point of registration (ie, your home address). The benefit of this type of plate is you do not need to have your vehicle inspected.

The second type of plate is a Farm Truck. Your vehicle will need to pass the same type of inspection that an ordinary vehicle will undergo. The benefit is lower charges for weight. The charge for Farm Truck plates is something like $2.50 or so per ton. If you register your truck with regular plates the charge is something like $150 per ton. There are no milage restrictions like there are on the Farm Area truck. The catch, you cannot use your truck for a business (ie, commercial), unless it is in support of your farm. So you cannot register as a Farm Truck and use the truck for your landscape business.

The MVA web site is terrible. I found a lot of this information by calling the MVAs main office in Baltimore. I registered my truck as a Farm Area Vehicle because it would not pass the Maryland inspection. In addition, I don't use it for much that requires driving more than 10 miles.

Hope this helps. Good luck with the registration.

If it is anything like Nebraska is, you have to be engaged in the business of farming before you are issued a "farm" tag.

Allan

I've got a friend who works at the treasurers' office at the courthouse and she makes up the registrations. I'll have to quiz her a little.

All I know is that I've always been automatically issued farm plates. Both the trucks and the pickups. Until the day of the farm sale.

All of a sudden, I was required to wear commercial tags. I think it is how the residence property is zoned, isn't it? I live way out in the boonies, but it isn't considered agricultrial real estate because of the zoning.

Feller right across the fence from me is a rancher and he wears farm tags because his side of the gate is zoned "ag".

I'll ask ol' Barb; she'll know for sure.

Allan