The following persons shall be exempt from the commercial licensing requirements under this chapter:
(1) Any active duty military personnel, members of the military reserves, members of the National Guard on active duty, including personnel on full-time National Guard duty, personnel on part-time National Guard training, and National Guard military technicians (civilians who are required to wear military uniforms), and active duty U.S. Coast Guard personnel while operating a motor vehicle for military purposes.
(2) Any person eighteen (18) years or older who satisfies the exemptions set forth in 49 CFR 391.67, as may from time to time be amended, while driving or operating any farm tractor, implement of husbandry temporarily operated or moved on a highway, or any farm vehicle, which would otherwise require the driver to be the holder of a commercial driver's license, provided that said farm vehicle is under seventy-six thousand six hundred (76,600) lbs. registered weight and is not a truck- tractor, semi-trailer combination as defined by § 31-1-5(d), and further provided that the farm vehicle is used to transport either agricultural products, farm machinery, farm supplies, or both to or from a farm.
(3) A nonresident who is at least twenty-one (21) years of age and who has in his or her immediate possession a valid license equivalent to a Rhode Island class license issued to him or her in his or her home state, or province of Canada, may operate a motor vehicle in this state of a comparable class.
(4) Firefighters and other persons who operate commercial motor vehicles which are necessary to the preservation of life or property or the execution of emergency governmental functions are equipped with audible and visual signals and are not subject to normal traffic regulation. These vehicles include fire trucks, hook and ladder trucks, foam or water transport trucks, police SWAT team vehicles, ambulances, or other vehicles that are used in response to emergencies.
(5) Any person operating a vehicle for personal or family use such as a motorized camper or travel trailer equipped with permanent living and sleeping facilities used for camping activities. Any furtherance of commercial or quasi-commercial enterprise shall lapse this exemption.
(6) A nonresident, who establishes residency in the state of Rhode Island, may operate a commercial vehicle in this state not to exceed thirty (30) days from the date of establishing that residency; provided, that the nonresident has in his or her immediate possession a valid commercial license issued by another state, or province of Canada.
History of Section.
P.L. 1990, ch. 176, § 1; P.L. 2002, ch. 404, § 3; P.L. 2005, ch. 77, § 2; P.L. 2005, ch. 82, § 2.