Pole and utility vehicles/trailers – California

General rule

Unless a commodity can be transported within limits specified in the vehicle code, poles, timbers, pipes, integral structural materials, or single unit component parts, including missile components, aircraft assemblies, drilling equipment, and tanks may be transported if not exceeding 80 feet in length on:

• A pole or pipe dolly or other lawful trailer connected to a motor vehicle;
• A semitrailer; or
• A semitrailer and a pole or pipe dolly in connection with a truck tractor to haul flexible integral structural material.

Utilities

The limitations as to the length of vehicles and loads do not apply when poles and the tools and materials incidental to the work to be performed are transported on a pole or pipe dolly or otherwise lawful semitrailer used as a pole or pipe dolly, transporting not more than three poles no more than 80 feet in length between a storage yard and job location where such tools and materials are to be used, by:

• A public utility company;
• Local public agencies engaged in the business of supplying electricity or telephone service;
• By the Department of Transportation; or
• By a licensed contractor in the performance of work for a utility, the department, or a local public agency.

Clearance and side-marker lamps

Pole or pipe dollies, or logging dollies, that are 80 inches or more in overall width and not equipped as required by Cal Veh. Code § 25100(a), must be equipped during darkness with at least one combination clearance and side-marker lamp on each side showing red to the front, side, and rear.

Key definitions

A “pole or pipe dolly” is a vehicle, other than a motor vehicle, having one or more axles, which axles, if there be more than one, are not more than 54 inches apart, and two or more wheels, used in connection with a motor vehicle solely for the purpose of transporting poles, timbers, pipes, or integral structural materials and connected with the towing vehicle both by chain, rope, cable, or drawbar, and by the load, without any part of the weight of the dolly resting upon the towing vehicle.