Driving is a commercial activity.

Even long before Ford invented the model t, driving was a licensed privilege. We find this while searching for licensed carriage drivers in 1850.


As the commercial center of the antebellum South, New Orleans depended on an adequate system of transportation to get its varied goods to market. The municipal government regulated this activity by licensing operators of carts, carriages, and other conveyances. This document is a security bond designed to insure that the licensee, a free black man by the name of Jacques Voltaire, abided by the rules governing such vehicles.

From here
http://www.neworleanspubliclibrary.org/~nopl/exhibits/black96.htm

Now in England they licensed carriage drivers as well, or hackney drivers as they called them.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Ao4SAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA279&lpg=RA2-PA279&dq=carriage+drivers+licensed+in+the+1850's&source=bl&ots=Yy8XHpMl-p&sig=JRZWV78c4aG-qaz1yN5HwhH_whg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO3Mvm07HJAhXMNiYKHc37CsEQ6AEILTAD#v=onepage&q=carriage%20drivers%20licensed%20in%20the%201850's&f=false


Now to define the word "driver"

DRIVER. One employed...
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856

 

DRIVER-- one employed in conducting a coach, carriage, wagon, or other vehicle..."
BOUVIER'S LAW DICTIONARY, (1914)p. 940.

 

DRIVER. One employed...
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Ed, 1951

What is DRIVER?

One employed in conducting a coach, carriage, wagon, or other vehicle,with horses, mules, or other animals, or a bicycle, tricycle, or motor car, though not a street railroad car. See Davis v. Petrinovich, 112 Ala. 654, 21 South. 344, 36 L. R. A.615; Gen. St. Conn. 1902,

Law Dictionary: What is DRIVER? definition of DRIVER (Black's Law Dictionary)

driver

[drahy-ver] /ˈdraɪ vər/

• Examples
• Word Origin

noun

1.

a person or thing that drives.

2.

a person who drives a vehicle; coachman, chauffeur, etc.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/driver


So we can see that "driving" has been a licensed occupation long before autos came around. Now lets take a look at some other commonly used words we think we understand.

Title18, UNITED STATES CODE  Sec. 31
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 2 - AIRCRAFT AND MOTOR VEHICLES
Sec. 31. Definitions

When used in this chapter the term -

''Motor vehicle'' means every description of carriage or other contrivance propelled or drawn by mechanical power and used for commercial purposes on the highways in the transportation of passengers, passengers and property, or property or cargo;

Motor vehicle - Laws of Florida c. 14764 (1931)

The term "motor vehicle" shall include all vehicles or machines propelled by any power other than muscular used upon the public highways (but not over fixed rails) for the transportation of persons or property for compensation either as common carriers, private contract carriers or for hire carriers.

Traffic - Webster's Unified Dictionary and Encyclopedia, International Illustrated Edition (1960)

1. Business or trade, commerce. 2. Transportation. 3. The movement of vehicles on street or highway, as, the traffic is very heavy today.

Traffic - Bouvier's Law Dictionary (1856)

Commerce, trade, sale or exchange of merchandise, bills, money and the like.

Traffic - Black's Law Dictionary 3^rd

Commerce; trade; sale or exchange of merchandise, bills, money, and the like. The passing of goods or commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money. Senior v. Ratterman, 44 Ohio St. 673, 11 N.E. 321; People v. Horan, 293 Ill. 314, 127 N.E. 673, 674; People v. Dunford, 207 N.Y. 17, 100 N.E. 433, 434; Fine v. Morgan, 74 Fla. 417, 77 So. 533, 538; Bruno v. U. S. (C.C.A.) 289 F. 649, 655.
Traffic includes the ordinary uses of the streets and highways by travelers. Stewart v. Hugh Nawn Contracting Co., 223 Mass. 525, 112 N.E. 218, 219; Withey v. Fowler Co., 164 Iowa, 377, 145 N.W. 923, 927.

Traffic - Black's Law Dictionary 4^th

Commerce; trade; sale or exchange of merchandise, bills, money, and the like. The passing of goods or commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money. Senior v. Ratterman, 44 Ohio St. 673, 11 N.E. 321; Fine v. Morgan, 74 Fla. 417, 77 So. 533, 538; Bruno v. U. S. C.C.A.Mass., 289 F. 649, 655; Kroger Grocery and Baking Co. v. Schwer, 36 Ohio App. 512, 173 N.E. 633. The subjects of transportation on a route, as persons or goods; the passing to and fro of persons, animals, vehicles, or vessels, along a route of transportation, as along a street, canal, etc. United States v. Golden Gate Bridge and Highway Dist. Of California, D.C.Cal., 37 F. Supp. 505, 512.

Traffic -Black's Law Dictionary 6^th

Commerce; trade; sale or exchange of merchandise, bills, money, and the like. The passing or exchange of goods or commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods and money. The subjects of transportation on a route, as persons or goods; the passing to and fro of persons, animals, vegetables, or vessels, along a route of transportation, as along a street, highway, etc.

Transportation - Webster's Unified Dictionary and Encyclopedia, International Illustrated Edition (1960)

1. The act or business of moving passengers and goods. 2. The means of conveyance used. 3. Banishment, esp. of convicts to a penal colony.

Transportation - Black's Law Dictionary 3^rd

The removal of goods or persons from one place to another, by a carrier. See Railroad Co. v. Pratt, 22 Wall. 133, 22 L.Ed. 827; Interstate Commerce Com'n v. Brimson, 154 U.S. 447, 14 Sup.Ct. 1125, 38 L.Ed. 1047; Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U.S. 196, 5 Sup.Ct. 826, 29 L.Ed. 158.
Under Interstate Commerce Act, (49 USCA sec. 1 et seq.), "transportation" includes the entire body of services rendered by a carrier in connection with the receipt, handling, and delivery of property transported, and includes the furnishing of cars. Pletcher v. Chicago, R. L. & P. Ry. Co., 103 Kan. 834, 177 P. 1, 2.
In a general sense transportation means merely conveyance from one place to another. People v. Martin, 235 Mich. 206, 209 N.W. 87.

Transportation - Black's Law Dictionary 4^th

The removal of goods or persons from one place to another, by a carrier. Railroad Co. v. Pratt, 22 Wall. 133, 22 L.Ed. 827; Interstate Commerce Com'n v. Brimson, 14 S.Ct. 1125, 154 U.S. 447, 38 L.Ed. 1047; Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 5 S.Ct. 826, 114 U.S. 196, 29 L.Ed. 158.

Transportation - Black's 6^th

The movement of goods or persons from one place to another, by a carrier.

Transportation - 49 U.S.C. ¤ 5102(12)

"transports" or "transportation" means the movement of property and loading, unloading, or storage incidental to the movement.

Transportation - Words and Phrases

See State v. Western Trans Co. (1950, Iowa) 43 N.W.2d 739 [The judge, after giving his conclusion, goes on to give examples of "transportation" - all involving the movement of persons or goods for hire.]

Terms found in the CALIFORNIA VEHICLE CODE  and associated with the DMV and applied to those persons who do what the DMV regulates:

 

 

COMMERCIAL.  Relating to or connected with trade and traffic or commerce in general.  “Zante Currents”, C.C.Cal.,73 F. 189.  Occupied with commerce.  Bowles v. Co-Operative G. L. F. Farm Products, D.C.N.Y., 53 F. Supp. 413, 415.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Ed., p. 337

 

INTERSTATE COMMERCE.  Traffic, intercourse, commercial trading, or the transportation of persons or property between or among the several states of the Union, or from between points in one state and points in another state; commerce between the states, or between places in different states.
It comprehends all the component parts of commercial intercourse between different states.
[Cites omitted]
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Ed., p. 955

 

TRAFFIC. Commerce; trade; sale or exchange of merchandise, bills, money, and the like.  The passing of goods or commodities from one person to another for an equivalent in goods or money.  Senior v. Ratterman, 44 Ohio St. 673, 11 N.E. 321; Fine v. Moran, 74 Fla. 417, 77 So. 533, 538; Bruno v. U.S., C.C.A.Mass., 289 F. 649, 655; Kroger Grocery and Baking Co. V. Schwer, 36 Ohio App. 512, 173 N.E. 633.  The subjects of transportation on a route, as persons or goods; the passing to and fro of persons, animals, vehicles, or vessels, along a route of transportation, as a long a street, canal etc.  United States v. Golden Gate Bridge and Highway Dist. of California , D.C.Cal., 37 F. Supp. 505, 512.
Black’s Law Dictionary. 4th Ed., p. 1667

 

TRANSPORTATION.  The removal of goods or persons from one place to another, by a carrier. Railroad Co. v. Pratt, 22 Wall. 133, 22 L.Ed. 827; Interstate Commerce Com’n v. Brimson, 14 S.Ct. 1125, 154 U.S. 447, 38 L.Ed. 1047; Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 5 S.Ct. 826, 114 U.S. 196, 29 L.Ed. 158
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Ed., p. 1670

 

 

So basically if you are a "driver", "operator" driving a "motor vehicle" in "traffic" then you are admitting that you are engaging in commerce.

 

 

...state activities integrally related to commerce, and acted within its sphere of power to afford "security * * * to the rights of the people" by preventing the States from releasing personal information that they require individuals to submit as a condition of engaging in activity-owning and operating a motor vehicle-that is integrally related to commerce generally...
JANET RENO, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. CHARLIE CONDON, ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ET AL.,
In the Supreme Court of the United States, (Jan. 12, 2000)
No. 98-1464
[Emphasis added]

 

 

 

But fear not friends, freedom IS possible.