Arkansas Oversize Permit Cost: Worked Examples
Four worked Arkansas moves: the flat statutory base fee, the per ton overweight charge that climbs with trip mileage, and the 57 foot trailer.
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 28, 2026 · 11 min read
Arkansas prices a permit with two numbers and a map. The first number is a flat base fee that Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-210 charges on every special permit, whatever the load is over on. The second is an overweight charge for each ton or major fraction of a ton above the lawful weight, and the map decides which rate applies: Appendix 3 of the Arkansas Department of Transportation's 2023 Permit Rules steps that per ton rate up in five mileage bands, so the same heavy load costs more the farther it travels. Every current figure renders with its official source on the Arkansas oversize and overweight permits page. This guide walks four moves through the schedule so it reads like a quote. To check whether your load is oversize anywhere on the route first, run it through the oversize permit cost estimator.
What an Arkansas permit costs, piece by piece
- Base fee: $17.00 on every special permit, set in statute by Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-210 and repeated in the Permit Rules for over-dimensional moves.
- Overweight, 100 miles or less: $8.00 per ton or major fraction over the lawful weight, on top of the base.
- Overweight, 101 to 150 miles: $10.00 per ton.
- Overweight, 151 to 200 miles: $12.00 per ton.
- Overweight, 201 to 250 miles: $14.00 per ton.
- Overweight, 251 miles or more: $16.00 per ton.
- Over-length trailer up to 57 feet: $500.00, the same price for one trip or one year.
Mobile construction vehicles and equipment use a separate chart in the same appendix. It charges less per ton for the first five tons, more for the next five, and more again for everything above that, with each tier also rising by mileage band. Those tiered rates are on the state permits page.
Permits come from the Arkansas Highway Police Permit Section by phone, in person in Little Rock, in writing, or online through the Arkansas Routing and Permitting System (ARPARS), according to ARDOT's Oversize and Overweight Permits page. Payment runs through a bonded account, a card, a check or cash, and a monthly charge account needs a surety bond.
Two things follow from that structure. A load that is only oversize pays the base and nothing else, no matter how far it goes. And an overweight load's bill depends on the trip length as much as the tonnage, which puts Arkansas between two of its neighbors. Oklahoma adds its weight charge by the 1,000 pounds with no distance term at all, while Tennessee bills by the ton mile. Compare the same load across states on the oversize permit costs by state table.
Worked example 1: eleven feet wide at legal weight
An excavator on a lowboy runs eleven feet wide, inside legal height, length and weight. The legal width it crossed is 102 inches under Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-206. The permit is one charge, $17.00, and it costs the same for a 40 mile hop as for a run from Fort Smith to West Memphis.
The Permit Rules shape the rest of the day. Eleven feet sits under the escort line, which starts above twelve feet wide. Oversize moves run in daylight only, as the National Weather Service sets it. There is no movement on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas, and when one of those falls on a Friday or a Monday the adjoining weekend closes too. Through greater Little Rock, oversize loads stay off Interstate 30 between mile markers 138 and 143, Interstate 40 between mile markers 151 and 155, and all of Interstate 630 from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. and from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. The permit is the cheap part of this move.
Worked example 2: twelve tons over, three distances
Take a load grossing 104,000 pounds on a combination whose lawful weight is 80,000 pounds. The overage is 24,000 pounds, or 12 tons. The load has to be one that cannot readily be reduced, since the Permit Rules issue no overweight permit for a divisible load, and its axles have to sit inside the permitted axle limits the rules publish.
The base never moves. The per ton rate does:
- A 90 mile trip lands in the shortest band. Twelve tons at $8.00 per ton is ninety-six dollars, and the base brings the permit to a hundred and thirteen dollars.
- A 180 mile trip lands in the 151 to 200 mile band. Twelve tons at $12.00 per ton is a hundred and forty-four dollars, or a hundred and sixty-one dollars with the base.
- A 300 mile trip lands in the top band. Twelve tons at $16.00 per ton is a hundred and ninety-two dollars, or two hundred and nine dollars with the base.
Watch the band edges. A trip of exactly 100 miles bills at the lowest rate, and a trip of 101 miles bills at $10.00 per ton, which on this load adds twenty-four dollars for one extra mile. The chart keys the band to the mileage to be traveled, so measure the permitted route rather than the straight line.
This load also gets a schedule break. The Permit Rules allow continuous movement on selected highways, including at night and on holidays, for an overweight load that stays within legal width, height and length. A heavy load at legal dimensions can run when a wide one has to park.
Worked example 3: when a fraction of a ton counts
The chart charges for each ton or major fraction of a ton over the lawful weight. Read plainly, a leftover of more than half a ton bills as a full ton and a leftover of less than half a ton does not bill at all. Two loads on a 140 mile trip show what that does:
- 9,200 pounds over is 4.6 tons. The 0.6 is a major fraction, so the permit bills five tons.
- 8,800 pounds over is 4.4 tons. The 0.4 is not, so the permit bills four tons.
At the 101 to 150 mile rate of
$10.00per ton, the first load pays fifty dollars of weight charge and the second pays forty. Four hundred pounds of cargo moved the bill by one full ton. The Permit Rules do not say how an overage of exactly half a ton is treated, so on a load that close to the line, ask the Permit Section before you quote.
Worked example 4: the 57 foot trailer
Arkansas allows a semitrailer up to 53 feet 6 inches in a truck tractor and semitrailer combination, under Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-208, and the Permit Rules set no overall length limit when the trailer stays at that length. A 57 foot trailer is over that limit on its own, loaded or empty.
The Permit Rules offer a special permit for a semitrailer or trailer pulled by a truck tractor that exceeds the length limit but not 57 feet, and the price is
$500.00whether the permit is written for a single trip or for one year. That makes the buying decision simple: a carrier with a 57 foot trailer who expects to run it in Arkansas more than once should take the one year term, because a second single trip would cost the same again. The rules issue no over-length permit at all for a truck tractor, semitrailer and trailer combination.
Height: fourteen feet, and what starts above it
Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-207 sets legal height at 14 feet, laden or unladen, after Act 871 of 2021. Tennessee's legal height is 13 feet 6 inches, so a load that needs a height permit there can run legal here. Above 14 feet the move pays the flat base like any other oversize permit, and the Permit Rules add equipment rather than fees as the height climbs. Over 15 feet the move needs a front escort with a clearance bar set 6 inches above the permitted height. Over 17 feet the carrier also needs written agreements from the utility and signal owners along the route, whose representatives go along unless they decline in writing. A permit is no promise that a bridge or wire will clear the load; the permittee is liable for the damage.
What the fee schedule does not price
The escort is often the largest cost of an Arkansas oversize move, and it never shows on the permit. Under Rule 6 of the Permit Rules, a load over 12 feet and up to 14 feet wide takes one front escort on highways other than four-lane divided controlled-access highways. Over 14 feet it takes a rear escort on those four-lane highways and escorts front and rear everywhere else. Length adds an escort at 100 feet, and past 115 feet a load takes escorts front and rear on highways with fewer than four lanes. Arkansas charges no permit or fee for the escort vehicle itself, but the operator must carry the liability coverage the rules set.
Arkansas also sells no general annual oversize permit. The Permit Rules list single trip permits, a six-day county permit for repeated moves by one unit within one or two adjoining counties, and annual permits only for named uses, such as animal feed haulers, wreckers, farm equipment dealers, cranes, forestry equipment and the 57 foot trailer above. A carrier running ordinary oversize freight buys a permit per trip.
Superloads sit outside the ordinary schedule. The rules define them as loads of 180,000 pounds gross or more, wider than 16 feet 6 inches, 100 feet or longer, or 15 feet 6 inches or higher, and issue them at the department's discretion with possible engineering review. File early.
Reading the schedule like a quote
Ask three questions in order. Is the load over on any dimension? If it is only oversize, the answer is the base fee and the calendar. Is it over its lawful weight? Count the tons, round a major fraction up, and drop the rest. How many miles will the permit cover? Pick the band, multiply, and add the base. Then price the escort, the daylight window, the holiday ban and the Little Rock curfews, because in Arkansas those decide the real cost of a wide move more than the permit does. For the other credentials the state expects before the first load, see Arkansas trucking permits.
FAQ
How much does an Arkansas oversize permit cost?
Every special permit carries one flat base fee set by Ark. Code Ann. Section 27-35-210, whether the load is over on width, height or length. An overweight load adds a charge for each ton or major fraction of a ton over its lawful weight, and that per ton rate rises in five steps with the miles the load will travel. The current figures render with their sources on the Arkansas oversize and overweight permits page.
Does trip distance change what an Arkansas overweight permit costs?
Yes. Appendix 3 of the ARDOT Permit Rules sets five mileage bands, from 100 miles or less up to 251 miles or more, and the per ton charge doubles from the shortest band to the longest. Distance does not change the base fee or the price of a permit that is only oversize.
What does Arkansas charge for a 57 foot trailer?
A semitrailer or trailer pulled by a truck tractor that runs past the 53 foot 6 inch limit, up to 57 feet, can get a special permit, and the Permit Rules charge the same fee whether it is written for a single trip or for a full year. Arkansas issues no over-length permit for a truck tractor, semitrailer and trailer combination.
Does Arkansas sell an annual oversize permit?
Not a general one. The Permit Rules list single trip and six-day county permits plus annual permits only for named equipment and commodities, such as 57 foot trailers, animal feed haulers, wreckers, farm equipment dealers, cranes and forestry equipment. Each is priced separately.