Nobody weighs the truck. That is the honest starting point for this one. A crew loads what the day needs — the packs for the recip saws, the spare packs, the battery on the mini-excavator or the robotic mower, the jump box — and drives. The weight limit that has governed that truck since the nineties is a number almost no one in the trade could name.
It is two hundred kilograms. Four hundred and forty pounds, aggregate, of everything hazardous on board. That is the materials-of-trade exception in 49 C F R 173.6, and it is the reason your truck is not a placarded hazmat vehicle with shipping papers and a trained driver. It has quietly been the deal for thirty years.
This morning P H M S A changed it, and the change is genuinely good news. I want to give it its due before I get to the part that is going to catch people.
Aggregate net weight of lithium cells and batteries permitted on a motor vehicle as materials of trade, effective September 3.
Plus a per-item ceiling of 30 kg (66 pounds) for each individual cell or battery — and, for batteries contained in equipment, no limit at all. The saw is not the problem. The spare packs are what get counted.
That is real relief and P H M S A priced it: $14.4 million in annualized savings, in 2024 dollars. The rule names the trades it is for in its own summary — “construction, landscaping, mowing, tree service, food service, and entertainment.” The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute told the docket its members were struggling to move robotic mowers and yard tractors under a fully regulated hazmat framework. They won.
The four-hundred-and-forty-pound cap did not go away, by the way. It still applies to everything else on the truck — the refrigerant, the aerosols, the solvents, the propane. Batteries just stepped out from under it into their own, larger allowance.
Now the part I have not seen anyone write up, because it is in the amendatory instructions rather than the summary.
Cells or batteries, including when contained in or packed with equipment, in packages exceeding 30 kg (66 pounds) net weight of batteries must be labeled with the Class 9 label as specified in § 172.447 and marked with the four-digit UN identification number, as applicable.
I checked what (c)(4) said before, because a revised paragraph is not the same as a new obligation and I did not want to sell you one as the other. Here is what was there this morning at eight a.m.
“The operator of a motor vehicle that contains a material of trade must be informed of the presence of the hazardous material ... and must be informed of the requirements of this section.”
That is the old (c)(4). It was not deleted — it moved down to a newly added (c)(5), word for word, and the Class 9 labeling requirement took its slot. So the tell-the-driver rule is unchanged and thirty years old. The hazard label is new.
Thirty days from publication. There is no comment period — this is a final rule and it is done. Which makes the useful window the next four weeks: it is the last stretch in which the answer to “how much battery is in that bin” can be found out calmly, rather than at a roadside inspection by somebody who read the rule more recently than you did.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance — the people who actually run roadside inspections — opposed this. C V S A argued the existing 440-pound allowance was sufficient, that battery quantity “directly correlates to the severity of potential incidents,” and pointed at recent crashes and fires that closed highways and ports. It also made a sharper point: that the petitioner had itself conceded small businesses often lack the expertise to handle these materials outside the exception, which C V S A read as an argument against granting them more room. P H M S A disagreed and called the increase “modest and incremental.” I have no way to referee that. But when the inspectors say a limit should not move and it moves, it is worth knowing which side of that your truck is on.
Kept honest. I am reading the rule as published this morning, not applying it to your operation. Whether any given load qualifies as a material of trade at all turns on the definition in 171.8 and on the load being “in direct support of a principal business” — if you are hauling batteries as freight, none of this section applies to you and never did. “As applicable” is doing work in that labeling sentence and I am not going to pretend I can resolve it for every product; the U N number depends on what the battery is and whether it ships alone, in equipment or packed with it. Ask your supplier what U N number their pack carries — they know. P H M S A declined two things people asked for: sodium-ion batteries were not added to the allowance, and the 66-pound per-item ceiling was not raised for portable power stations, which the agency said it lacked data to support. If your fleet runs either, this rule did not help you. Prototype and low-production-run batteries are excluded — everything here requires cells proven to the U N Manual of Tests and Criteria, section 38.3. I have not verified how any state enforces this; the H M R is federal and intrastate adoption varies. And the $14.4 million is P H M S A’s own estimate from its regulatory impact analysis, not an independent one.
Source, primary and singular, fetched and read in full this morning, August 4, 2026: Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (P H M S A), Department of Transportation, Hazardous Materials: Reducing Burdens on Domestic Companies Using Battery-Powered Equipment in Trades, final rule, Docket No. PHMSA–2025–0091 (HM–268C), R I N 2137-AG05, published in 91 FR 49345 et seq. on August 4, 2026, effective September 3, 2026. FR Doc. 2026-15823. Metadata via the Federal Register JSON API and the full rule text extracted from the govinfo PDF with pypdf, per house rules for WAF-blocked origins. Source of: the summary sentence naming “construction, landscaping, mowing, tree service, food service, and entertainment”; the quantity structure of new 173.6(a)(7)(iii) — 30 kg (66 pounds) per cell or battery, 500 kg (1,102 pounds) aggregate net weight per motor vehicle, no limit for batteries contained in equipment, and the U N Manual of Tests and Criteria part III sub-section 38.3 testing condition; the amendatory instruction list confirming that (c)(4) was revised and (c)(5) added; the new (c)(4) text quoted verbatim above; the addition of “batteries” to (b)(3); new (b)(6) and its three conditions; revised (d) retaining the 200 kg (440 pound) aggregate gross weight cap for everything other than materials of trade under (a)(1)(iii) and (a)(7)(iii); the estimated $14.4 million annualized savings in 2024 dollars from the final Regulatory Impact Analysis; the docket table of thirteen N P R M commenters; the O P E I and Infotrac comments on robotic mowers and yard tractors; P H M S A’s refusals on sodium-ion batteries, portable power stations and prototype batteries; and the C V S A and William Forbes objections, including the quoted phrase that battery quantity “directly correlates to the severity of potential incidents” and P H M S A’s “modest and incremental” reply. The pre-amendment text of 173.6(b)(3), (c)(1) through (c)(4) and (d) — which is how I established that the operator-notification rule was renumbered rather than replaced, and that the Class 9 labeling duty is new — was read this morning from the e C F R current text of 49 C F R 173.6, which as of this reading still reflects the pre-September 3 version. No trade press supplied any fact in this edition.
PHMSA more than doubled the battery weight you can legally carry on a work truck this morning. Effective September 3. 440 pounds to 1,102. That's the materials-of-trade exception in 49 CFR 173.6 — the reason your van isn't a placarded hazmat vehicle with shipping papers and a trained driver. It's been the deal for about thirty years and almost nobody in the trades can name the number. The relief is real and I want to give it its due. Per-battery ceiling of 66 pounds. Batteries actually installed in equipment: no limit at all. PHMSA put $14.4 million a year on it. The rule names the trades it's for in its own summary — construction, landscaping, mowing, tree service, food service, entertainment. The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute told the docket its members couldn't move robotic mowers and yard tractors sanely. They won. The 440-pound cap didn't disappear, by the way. It still covers the refrigerant, the aerosols, the solvents, the propane. Batteries just stepped out from under it. Now the paragraph nobody's going to write up, four down from the good news: "Cells or batteries, including when contained in or packed with equipment, in packages exceeding 30 kg (66 pounds) net weight of batteries must be labeled with the Class 9 label as specified in § 172.447 and marked with the four-digit UN identification number, as applicable." A Class 9 hazard label. On a bin in your van. I went and checked what that paragraph said before, because "revised" is not the same as "new" and I didn't want to sell you one as the other. The old (c)(4) was the rule that the driver has to be told there's hazmat aboard. That rule didn't die — it moved down to a newly added (c)(5), word for word. The labeling requirement took its slot. So: the tell-the-driver rule is thirty years old and unchanged. The hazard label is new. And the whole point of materials of trade was that you don't do hazmat marking. That's what the exception buys. What makes it bite is the arithmetic. 66 pounds is maybe six or eight large tool packs, or one decent portable power station. PHMSA just told you to carry up to 1,102. So the rule encourages a heavier load and puts a labeling duty at a threshold most crews will now clear without noticing. One useful detail: it's per PACKAGE, not per truck. A bin with 70 pounds of packs needs the label. Two bins at 40 each don't. I'm not telling you to game it. I am telling you that for most vans the practical answer is how the load is divided, not whether you buy a roll of labels. Two things that got genuinely easier, both worth knowing: (b)(3) used to excuse outer packaging for "receptacles or articles" secured against shifting. The word "batteries" is now in that list. Loose packs in a secured cage are explicitly fine with no box around them. And new (b)(6) asks you to prevent short circuits, shifting damage, and "accidental activation of the equipment." That last one isn't about the battery. It's about a trigger getting pressed in transit. It's a reason to pull the pack off the saw, and it costs nothing. The dissent deserves printing. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance — the people who run roadside inspections — opposed this. They argued 440 pounds was enough, that quantity "directly correlates to the severity of potential incidents," and pointed at crashes and fires that closed highways and ports. PHMSA called the increase "modest and incremental." I can't referee that. But when the inspectors say a limit shouldn't move and it moves, it's worth knowing which side of it your truck is on. Thirty days. No comment period; this one is final. Which makes the next four weeks the last calm stretch to find out how much battery is actually in that bin. Kept honest: this only applies if the load is in direct support of your principal business — haul batteries as freight and none of it reaches you. "As applicable" is doing real work in that labeling sentence and the UN number depends on the product; ask your supplier, they know theirs. PHMSA declined to add sodium-ion batteries and declined to raise the 66-pound ceiling for portable power stations, saying it lacked the data. Prototype batteries are excluded outright. And the $14.4 million is PHMSA's own estimate, not an independent one.
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FIRST SOURCE · one verified original-source finding, composed for one reader · this edition: home services — written for the people who load the truck before anyone else is awake