Trucks and trailers for tree work: licence, weight and equipment rules by state and province

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It covers the trucks tree crews drive and the trailers they tow: chip trucks, bucket trucks, dump trucks and chipper trailers. Driving licence classes by weight for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are on driving the chip truck, which this page does not repeat. Each place below states its own rules, and a place can set a lower line than the federal one.

The federal lines, once

When a vehicle is a commercial motor vehicle

Federal motor carrier safety rules define a commercial motor vehicle in 49 CFR 390.5. For a self-propelled or towed vehicle used on a highway in interstate commerce to carry passengers or property, the definition is met when the vehicle has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or a gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of 4,536 kg (10,001 pounds) or more, whichever is greater. Other limbs of the definition cover passenger vehicles and vehicles carrying hazardous materials in placarded quantities. The definition speaks of interstate commerce. Many states adopt the federal parts for work inside the state, with their own weight lines and exemptions, and the table and the place pages show what each state's text says. See 49 CFR 390.5 on definitions.

Trailer brakes

49 CFR 393.42 says every commercial motor vehicle must have brakes acting on all wheels. Two exceptions concern light trailers. A semitrailer or pole trailer with a gross weight of 1,361 kg (3,000 pounds) or less, laden or unladen, is not required to have brakes if its axle weight does not exceed 40 percent of the sum of the towing vehicle's axle weights. A full trailer or four-wheel pole trailer with a gross weight of 3,000 pounds or less is not required to have brakes if the sum of its axle weights does not exceed 40 percent of the sum of the towing vehicle's axle weights. Both exceptions apply to trailers "subject to this part", so they are tied to the federal rules' coverage. The section was last amended on February 19, 2026. See 49 CFR 393.42 on brakes required on all wheels.

The commercial driver licence

Group A, B and C commercial driver licences are set in terms of weight rating by 49 CFR 383.91, which the driving licences page covers. State licence text follows the same weight lines in different words, as the Florida and Minnesota rows show.

Place by place

Abbreviations: CDL is commercial driver licence, CVOR is commercial vehicle operator's registration, lb is pounds. The 3,000 lb entries are gross weight.

A cell reading not published means the pages read for that place do not state it. The states, provinces, territories and Australian states and territories missing from the table have not been read yet. The pages below each carry the sources and the dates.

What the place pages show

Ontario ties its carrier registration to a weight line of 4,500 kg and counts a trailer toward the registered gross weight once the trailer and load pass 2,800 kg, according to the Ontario CVOR page. Florida sets the brake exception for light trailers at 3,000 pounds with a 40 percent condition and adds a breakaway rule above 3,000 pounds in section 316.261. Washington writes the same 3,000-pound and 40 percent condition in RCW 46.37.340. Virginia sets the line at 3,000 pounds actual gross weight in section 46.2-1070, and Michigan requires brakes on all wheels of a trailer from 15,001 pounds in section 705. Minnesota differs: section 169.67 asks for brakes on a trailer at a gross vehicle weight of 3,000 pounds or more, or one whose gross weight exceeds the towing vehicle's empty weight.