The prohibited practices read as a scattered list in the regulation and as three questions in practice: who may ride with you, what may be in your hand, and what may be in the vehicle at all. Start with the first. § 392.60 says that unless specifically authorized IN WRITING by the motor carrier under whose authority the vehicle is being operated, no driver shall transport any person, or permit any person to be transported, on any commercial motor vehicle other than a bus — and when such an authorization is issued it must state the name of the person, the points where the transportation begins and ends, and the date the authority expires. Three cases need no written authorization: employees or other persons assigned to the vehicle by the carrier, any person transported when aid is being rendered in an accident or other emergency, and an attendant delegated to care for livestock. The section does not apply to vehicles controlled and operated by a farmer carrying agricultural commodities from their farm or supplies to it. § 392.64 then adds a condition on where anyone rides: no person shall ride within the closed body of a commercial motor vehicle unless there are means on the INSIDE of obtaining exit, in a condition that permits ready operation by the occupant.

The second question is the one that has changed most in a working driver’s lifetime. § 392.80 prohibits texting while driving and forbids a carrier to allow or require it; § 392.82 does the same for using a hand-held mobile telephone while driving a commercial motor vehicle. What makes them worth reading rather than assuming is what each means by DRIVING, which is wider than it sounds. Each section defines the word for itself — both open “For the purpose of this section only” — and the handles differ: § 392.80(c) keys on operating the vehicle WITH THE MOTOR RUNNING, § 392.82(b) on operating it ON A HIGHWAY. Where they agree is the part that decides cases. Both count operating the vehicle while TEMPORARILY STATIONARY because of traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays as driving — so a red light is still driving, and so is a queue. And under both, driving stops once the driver has moved the vehicle to the side of, or off, a highway and halted it in a location where it can safely remain stationary. That is the line: pulled over and safely stopped, not merely not moving. Each section carries the same narrow emergency exception — permissible when necessary to communicate with law enforcement officials or other emergency services.

The third question has the shortest answer in the chapter. § 392.71 provides that no driver shall use a radar detector in a commercial motor vehicle, OR operate a commercial motor vehicle that is equipped with or contains any radar detector, and no carrier shall require or permit a violation. Read the second limb. The prohibition is not on using one; it reaches operating a vehicle that merely CONTAINS one, so a detector switched off in a glovebox or a bunk is the violation as surely as one on the windshield. Of the three families this is the only one where possession alone is the offense, which is why it catches drivers who thought putting it away was enough.