A 4-minute lesson from the Mississippi course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Loads that spill, shift or blow off trucks cause crashes. Mississippi requires covers and sideboards for loose loads, spacing between trucks, and special care with fuel and explosives. The biggest vehicles require a CDL.
Know the rule
If you use a tarpaulin, canvas or cover of any kind, secure it so no end, string or binding flaps as the truck moves.
Farm machinery is exempt from size, weight and height limits when moved in daylight on a state highway within 50 miles of its point of origin. It can't be moved on interstates and needs front and rear reflector lights plus a blinking light visible front and rear.
To move a load exceeding any size or weight limit, request a permit from the MDOT Maintenance Division Permit Section. Pull into weigh stations, found on most main highways, so your truck can be weighed.
No vehicle may be loaded so any of the load can spill, shift, leak or escape onto the road. Exceptions: dropping sand for traction, and authorized vehicles spraying water or other substances to clean the road.
You're hauling gravel in an open dump truck on the highway. Cover the load with a secured tarp, raise and secure your four 6-inch sideboards, and stay at least 300 feet behind other trucks outside town unless you're passing.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
Outside business or residential districts, how closely may a truck follow another truck (except when passing)?
Not within 150 feet
Not within 100 feet
Not within 500 feet
Not within 300 feet
Answer: Not within 300 feet
Trucks and truck-trailers must not follow within three hundred feet of other trucks outside business or residential districts, except when passing.