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GA Insurance and license ?s

Dieselman2001

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Georgia
First do I have to get a commercial license for my M816 wrecker? Or can I get farm use? What kind of insurance? Then how would I register it for a tag? I know it's alot of question and don't won't to appear dumb. The wrecker wont be used or on the road that often.I have basic insurance and use my regular lisence on my deuce and a regular tag.
 

simp5782

Feo, Fuerte y Formal
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First do I have to get a commercial license for my M816 wrecker? Or can I get farm use? What kind of insurance? Then how would I register it for a tag? I know it's alot of question and don't won't to appear dumb. The wrecker wont be used or on the road that often.I have basic insurance and use my regular lisence on my deuce and a regular tag.
Georgia offers a class E CDL license which is a non commercial license. It is a simple process.

@Swamp Donkey will be able to tell you what needs to be done
 

microjeep

In Memorial
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I don't think that class E or F are available for hobby use anymore, I tried to get an F last year and was told E and F are far more restricted use now, farm, volunteer fire, military/civilian in uniform, meaning this is what you can use them for. If someone KNOWS different please enlighten me. Thank you in advance for any information to prove me wrong, it will save me a boat load of time/money.

Here's the link to the Georgia DDS website, this is not to say you can't walk in to the DMV and get what you want. But in today's world of ligation there's no way I would do this. If you were to have an accident and God forbid someone gets seriously hurt or dies.......
 
Last edited:

Karl kostman

Well-known member
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Fargo ND
I think a lot of this is going to depend on your state laws, in ND all my trucks that are big enough are licensed as farm trucks I think the only limitation is I have to stay within 300 miles of home, the insurance is all under collector vehicles and very inexpensive. I have an M920 and an M977 HEMTT and both these vehicles do require a HVUT (Heavy Vehicle Use Tax) in this state its kind of a pain but just more money to the IRS!
 

Swamp Donkey

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Gray, GA
First do I have to get a commercial license for my M816 wrecker? Or can I get farm use? What kind of insurance? Then how would I register it for a tag? I know it's alot of question and don't won't to appear dumb. The wrecker wont be used or on the road that often.I have basic insurance and use my regular lisence on my deuce and a regular tag.
License: Class E Non-Commercial
Make sure to fill out, notorize and bring the certification form from the DDS website. You are allowed to self-certify on that form. There is no driving test so no reason to bring your wrecker. There is only a 20 question multiple choice test. You'll need 3 forms of ID and there is a list of what is accepted on the DDS website. Go for the Class E since it includes trailers. There's nothing extra to do and it leaves your options open if you want to pull a trailer in the future. No medical card needed and there are no endorsements since they're already included, except for Hazmat. You can't have that.

Insurance: Call Progressive Commercial and have them write a NON-commercial policy. If you just call Progressive, they'll tell you they can't do it because they don't deal with vehicles in this weight class. The commercial side handles that weight class of vehicles, whether commercial or not. Make sure you have them change the driving radius to Unlimited. The system defaults to 50 miles but it costs nothing to remove this limit.

Tag: Private Weighted
Make sure to tag it for the total GVWR of the vehicle. There are several weight classes available. If you fall between classes you are allowed to go up a class. The higher the weight, the cheaper the tag. Not sure how that works but it's Georgia, so there ya go. Either way you're going to pay a Road Impact fee every year at renewal due to the weight.

The tag office might be a problem being it's a wrecker. I remember a few threads where wrecker owners in other states ran into problems there. The tag office will require insurance so start with insurance first, then tag office and then DDS. This is the best route I've found in Georgia as far as being the cheapest and with almost no restrictions. You are not making a profit anytime you're driving. Don't come back and say Swamp Donkey is wrong because you didn't follow that rule. That's your restriction. You can drive as far as you want, haul up to your rated capacity and do whatever you want with your truck...except make money. Also realize that I only carry liability insurance so Progressive might not be the cheapest route if you want full coverage.

Microjeep,

I'm not sure why you ran into problems. I just checked the DDS website and the Class E and F wording still reads the same as when I got mine. I was never asked why I wanted it, what type of vehicle it was or anything like that. If you recall, Ron and I had a discussion in a thread a while back about him having endorsements. I went in person shortly after that to renew my license to ask specifically about that. That was just over a year ago and according to DDS, endorsements were not available because they were already included and nothing else had changed. This has worked for several others on here. Maybe try a different DDS?
 

Gunnermac

Chief
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Athens Ga.
Study the commercial license book, while it is not difficult, it is not a gimme. The examiner asked why I needed such a license, he was making sure I was not going to use it for a profit making job ie. commercial. You do not need any endorsements, air brakes etc as they are included. Everything that Bobby said is still true as far as I know, I told the examiner that I was going to be moving equipment that belong to me, which is true. I would find a small town license examiner as I have found some of the large city locations don't always want to deal with things they are not familiar with and will blow you off.
 

microjeep

In Memorial
In Memorial
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466
63
Location
blairsville ga.
Yes I spoke to Swiss and Ron and it was a couple months later that I actually tried to do this. The website at that time stated it was also for RVs also which made no sense due to the fact you don't have to have anything but a standard class c to drive an RV in Georgia. I had studied the manual and passed the written test then the lady asked me why I wanted it. I tried to be as vague as possible but she said it had just changed to only include categories I stated above, then she maid a call to confirm, then she took my phone number and said she would research it further and gave me a call a couple days later to confirm. How it reads currently, it states it is for these uses only, farm, volunteer fireman and military/civilian personnel driving military vehicles that are required to wear uniform. I don't fall into any of those categories so I have been told at two different DMVs I have to have a class A commercial license and health card but I am not required to file a log book and I'm sure there were some other stipulations but it's been about a year and a half. Please don't take this as being confrontational I have been working on this for about about 2 years on and off and keep hitting roadblocks. I will try again in a month or so when I have time and let you guys know how it goes. Dieselman if you have a different outcome please let me know. Oh yeah they kept my $10
 

Dieselman2001

New member
15
0
1
Location
Georgia
License: Class E Non-Commercial
Make sure to fill out, notorize and bring the certification form from the DDS website. You are allowed to self-certify on that form. There is no driving test so no reason to bring your wrecker. There is only a 20 question multiple choice test. You'll need 3 forms of ID and there is a list of what is accepted on the DDS website. Go for the Class E since it includes trailers. There's nothing extra to do and it leaves your options open if you want to pull a trailer in the future. No medical card needed and there are no endorsements since they're already included, except for Hazmat. You can't have that.

Insurance: Call Progressive Commercial and have them write a NON-commercial policy. If you just call Progressive, they'll tell you they can't do it because they don't deal with vehicles in this weight class. The commercial side handles that weight class of vehicles, whether commercial or not. Make sure you have them change the driving radius to Unlimited. The system defaults to 50 miles but it costs nothing to remove this limit.

Tag: Private Weighted
Make sure to tag it for the total GVWR of the vehicle. There are several weight classes available. If you fall between classes you are allowed to go up a class. The higher the weight, the cheaper the tag. Not sure how that works but it's Georgia, so there ya go. Either way you're going to pay a Road Impact fee every year at renewal due to the weight.

The tag office might be a problem being it's a wrecker. I remember a few threads where wrecker owners in other states ran into problems there. The tag office will require insurance so start with insurance first, then tag office and then DDS. This is the best route I've found in Georgia as far as being the cheapest and with almost no restrictions. You are not making a profit anytime you're driving. Don't come back and say Swamp Donkey is wrong because you didn't follow that rule. That's your restriction. You can drive as far as you want, haul up to your rated capacity and do whatever you want with your truck...except make money. Also realize that I only carry liability insurance so Progressive might not be the cheapest route if you want full coverage.

Microjeep,

I'm not sure why you ran into problems. I just checked the DDS website and the Class E and F wording still reads the same as when I got mine. I was never asked why I wanted it, what type of vehicle it was or anything like that. If you recall, Ron and I had a discussion in a thread a while back about him having endorsements. I went in person shortly after that to renew my license to ask specifically about that. That was just over a year ago and according to DDS, endorsements were not available because they were already included and nothing else had changed. This has worked for several others on here. Maybe try a different DDS?
What about where it says military vehicles with civilian drivers have to be required to where uniforms?
 

SETOYOTA

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Location
georgia
I have the GA class E. Prior to the class E Ga had a non-commercial class A that was the same class of license . When license renewal came 9/2018 my Class A non-CDL simply converted to the class E. No test of any kind.

when I initially got the non-commercial CDL the examiner gave me the line about fire-fighters and such. I asked her where it expressly says it’s not available to anyone and she walked away for about 5 minutes. Came back and said I could take the test . Completed the test presented my self certification and got my license. That was in the 2004..
 

Dieselman2001

New member
15
0
1
Location
Georgia
Hi guys,been awhile. I got my insurance and tag. Now time for the licence. My question is on the skip a step online it has a option for applying for regular/ motorcycle or option for commercial. I don't see option for E/F. Which do I choose?
 

SETOYOTA

Well-known member
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Location
georgia
You need the class e. If you don’t have one you will need to go to the dmv and test
 

Dieselman2001

New member
15
0
1
Location
Georgia
You need the class e. If you don’t have one you will need to go to the dmv and test
Yes I know I need class E. It says you have to fill out The Skip A Step section before getting an appointment but the Skip A Step section does not have an option for E class. Just regular class or commercial. I'm calling later if anyone will answer the phone. Maybe they can tell me if I need to complete that section or not.
 

SETOYOTA

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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419
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Location
georgia
That’s in black and white as to why you need it and in fact it says you have to have it. Anyone that has experienced push back from the GA dmv should have this section with them.
As far as the test goes take a few practice versions on line. You will find it’s not very difficult.
 

microjeep

In Memorial
In Memorial
850
466
63
Location
blairsville ga.
Yes I know I need class E. It says you have to fill out The Skip A Step section before getting an appointment but the Skip A Step section does not have an option for E class. Just regular class or commercial. I'm calling later if anyone will answer the phone. Maybe they can tell me if I need to complete that section or not.
I just finished it as commercial, there is a question in there about health card exemption (can't remember how it's worded) you want the 3rd option down.
 
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