Texas Oversize Permits

The default permit and the one most haulers use. If your load is over legal width, height, length or weight and it is a one-off move, this is the permit you apply for unless a more specific category below fits your load better.

Covers: One movement of one oversize and/or overweight load over an approved route, valid for a limited number of days.

Fee: Fees are quoted in TxPROS at application; TxDMV does not publish a flat rate.

For the heaviest loads — typically transformers, vessels and industrial modules. Expect engineering review of the route, bridge analysis, and a longer lead time than a general single-trip permit.

Covers: Movement of a load exceeding the weight ceilings handled by an ordinary overweight permit.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS; engineering review may add cost.

For a job that will run for weeks — a plant turnaround, a construction contract — where buying a single-trip permit per move would be absurd. Covers dimension, not weight.

Covers: Repeated oversize-width or oversize-length movement over a fixed 30, 60 or 90 day window.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS; priced by window length.

For carriers who are permanently over length — pole trailers, long haul beds — and would otherwise permit every single trip.

Covers: Twelve months of over-length movement.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For a fleet that runs the same oversize envelope repeatedly. The permit follows the COMPANY, so any truck in the fleet can use it — useful when you cannot predict which unit takes the load.

Covers: An annual permit covering any qualifying vehicle in a named company fleet, within set dimension limits.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For combines, planters, sprayers and similar farm equipment. Agricultural implements get their own class in nearly every state, usually with relaxed escort and daylight rules within a limited radius.

Covers: Movement of farm machinery and implements.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For hauling round or square bales, which are wide and tall but light. The permit exists because hay is a dimensional problem rather than a weight one, and seasonal haulers move a great deal of it.

Covers: Transport of baled hay above legal dimensions.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For log haulers working out of East Texas timber country. Like hay, it is a recognised commodity class rather than something you permit trip by trip.

Covers: Transport of timber and forest products above legal weight.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For milk tankers. Milk cannot wait for a lighter trailer, so it has a statutory carve-out in several states — Texas gives it a named permit.

Covers: Transport of fluid milk above legal weight.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For pole trailers hauling transmission and distribution poles. Poles overhang by design, so the permit addresses length and rear overhang rather than weight.

Covers: Transport of utility poles exceeding legal length.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For drayage running loaded boxes out of Texas ports. A sea container arrives at whatever weight it was packed to overseas, which can exceed US axle limits, so port drayage gets its own permit and route set.

Covers: Movement of loaded intermodal containers on approved routes near ports.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

The inland equivalent of the port container permit, for the Dallas-Fort Worth intermodal yards. Region-specific: it authorises named routes, not statewide travel.

Covers: Movement of intermodal containers on designated routes in the North Texas region.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For workover rigs and well service units moving between well sites. Texas treats oilfield service equipment as its own permit class rather than making operators buy a general permit for every move.

Covers: Operation of oil and gas well servicing units above legal weight.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For the winch/gin-pole trucks that erect and dismantle drilling rigs. If you run rig-up equipment in the oil patch this is your category rather than a general oversize permit.

Covers: Operation of a rig-up truck used to assemble and move drilling rigs.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For water well drillers, as distinct from oil and gas rigs. The machinery is usually over legal weight on its own axles, so the permit covers the equipment moving itself rather than a load on a trailer.

Covers: Movement of water well drilling rigs and associated machinery.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For frac spreads moving between pads. Added as its own class because frac equipment moves constantly within a field and buying single-trip permits for every move would be impractical.

Covers: Movement of hydraulic fracturing trailers and associated pumping equipment.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For cranes, excavators, scrapers and similar machines travelling under their own power. Because the machine IS the vehicle, its axle weights are permitted directly rather than as cargo.

Covers: Movement of equipment that drives itself rather than riding on a trailer.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For a crane moving between jobs with no load and no counterweights aboard. Running unladen is what makes this category cheaper and simpler than permitting the same machine loaded.

Covers: Movement of cranes and lift equipment travelling empty.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For moving a factory-built home on its own chassis. This is a separate category from a general oversize permit because manufactured housing has its own escort, routing and time-of-day rules in most states.

Covers: Movement of a manufactured (mobile) home, in single-trip or annual form.

Fee: Fee varies by single-trip vs annual; quoted in TxPROS.

For haulers moving storage barns, site offices, cabins and similar pre-built structures. Distinct from manufactured housing: a portable building is not built to the HUD housing code and is permitted under its own category.

Covers: Movement of a portable or pre-built building unit that is not a manufactured home.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For relocating an actual stick-built house — not a manufactured home. These moves usually need utility coordination for overhead lines and a route survey, and are permitted separately because of it.

Covers: Movement of a conventional site-built house or large section of one.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For mixer trucks. A loaded mixer is heavy on few axles and cannot part-load without the concrete going off, so the state permits the vehicle class rather than each delivery.

Covers: Operation of ready-mix concrete trucks above legal axle weight.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

The same idea as the company envelope but bound to a single unit. Cheaper if only one truck ever runs oversize; useless if the work moves between trucks.

Covers: An annual permit tied to one identified vehicle, within set dimension limits.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.

For operators whose overweight running is real but irregular. Instead of paying per trip you fit a hubometer and pay for the distance actually travelled that quarter.

Covers: Overweight operation billed on measured mileage over a three-month period, recorded by a hubometer.

Fee: Billed on recorded mileage; rate quoted by TxDMV.

For emergency response hauling — generators, poles, equipment and relief supplies — after a declared disaster. Normal permitting steps are shortened or waived while the declaration is active.

Covers: Relaxed size and weight permitting for loads moving under a declared federal disaster.

Fee: Fees are commonly waived during an active declaration; confirm with TxDMV at the time.

Not an oversize permit as such — it is what lets an unregistered or out-of-state unit move legally at all. Listed here because TxDMV issues it through the same system and haulers frequently need both.

Covers: Short-term registration allowing a vehicle to operate legally while permanent registration is arranged.

Fee: Quoted in TxPROS.