Kansas Oversize Permit Cost: Worked Examples

Five worked Kansas oversize moves: the flat seven day permit, the 14 foot escort line, large structures, superloads and the annual permit.

By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 28, 2026 · 11 min read

Kansas prices an oversize move by permit type, not by distance or weight. One statute, K.S.A. 8-1911, fixes every fee. A standard single-trip permit covers a load that is oversize, overweight or both at one flat price and stays good for seven days. Past the standard envelope, the load becomes a large structure or a superload, each billed as its own single trip with more review attached. Every current figure renders with its official source on the Kansas oversize and overweight permits page. This guide walks five moves through the schedule so it reads like a quote. To check where your load turns oversize along the whole route, run it through the oversize permit cost estimator.

What a Kansas permit costs, component by component

Permits are ordered through K-TRIPS, the Kansas Truck Routing and Intelligent Permitting System, from a company account run by the transporting company or an authorized permit service.

Standard single trip: $40.00 for a load up to 16 feet 6 inches wide, 126 feet long and 18 feet high, valid seven days.
Large structure: $200.00 per single trip for a load wider than 16 feet 6 inches or taller than 18 feet, valid 30 calendar days.
Superload: $200.00 per single trip, with a KDOT bridge analysis required first.
Annual: $200.00 per year, assigned to one power unit.

Here is what makes the Kansas schedule unusual. The standard permit reaches 150,000 pounds gross, and it carries no per-ton, per-mile or per-axle surcharge. A load that is wide and heavy pays the same standard fee as a load that is only wide. Compare that with the per-ton-mile states on the oversize permit costs by state table, where the route sets the bill.

The legal line the permit starts from comes from three statutes. Width is 8 feet 6 inches (K.S.A. 8-1902). Height is 14 feet, and a combination may run 65 feet, with a semitrailer in a tractor and semitrailer rig limited to 59 feet 6 inches (K.S.A. 8-1904). Gross weight tops out at 80,000 pounds on the Interstate under the bridge table in K.S.A. 8-1909. Off the Interstate that table runs higher by axle count and spacing, so a heavy load can be legal on one road and overweight on the next.

Worked example 1: a 12 foot wide excavator, heavy, for one week

A contractor needs to move an excavator on a lowboy. It runs 12 feet wide and over 80,000 pounds gross on the Interstate, inside the standard permit's weight ceiling. One standard permit covers both the width and the weight: $40.00.

The seven-day window is where Kansas saves real money. K.A.R. 36-1-38(b) lets a standard permit cover repeat trips on the same route with similar loads inside those seven days. A carrier shuttling two machines between the same yard and job site that week can do it on one permit.

Three conditions still apply:

Registration: the power unit must be registered for at least the total gross weight it moves under the permit. When that gross is above the top registration class, the carrier must buy the maximum registration (K.S.A. 8-1911(c)). Check what your apportioned plate covers on the Kansas IRP registration page before ordering.
Daylight: an overwidth load may not move from 30 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise (K.S.A. 8-1911(m)(1)).
No escort: at 12 feet wide the load sits under the 14 foot escort line in K.A.R. 36-45-8.

Worked example 2: a 15 foot wide load, and the escort line

Take the same move at 15 feet wide. The permit fee does not change, because 15 feet is still inside the standard envelope: $40.00.

What changes is the escort bill. Over 14 feet wide, K.A.R. 36-45-8(b)(4) calls for one front and one rear escort. The rear escort may be dropped when warning lights sit on the top and rear of the load, 2 to 8 feet above the road, and a rear OVERSIZE LOAD sign is attached. The permit schedule sets no escort price, so that cost comes from the escort provider's quote.

A few rules shape that quote:

Registered providers: every escort company registers with KDOT each year, and each operator must have finished an escort training course from a state KDOT accepts (K.A.R. 36-45-2).
Spacing and radios: the lead escort stays within 500 feet of the load inside city limits and 1,000 feet outside, the rear escort within 500 feet, and everyone talks by two-way radio (K.A.R. 36-45-8(h) and (i)).
Four-lane highways: the older common-requirements rule, K.A.R. 36-1-36(f), says that on roads of four or more lanes only superloads and large structures need a rear escort. The 2020 escort rule states its counts with no highway split. Both are still printed, so follow the escort conditions written on your permit.

One route adds a step. A load 14 feet or wider, or 126 feet or longer, on the 131-mile U.S. 83 corridor between the southern Finney County line and the east Thomas County line must share its live location through the KanDrive app, as the permit instructs (KDOT letter to oversize load carriers, August 2, 2024).

Worked example 3: a 17 foot wide tank, a large structure

A storage tank 17 feet wide passes the 16 foot 6 inch edge of the standard envelope, so it becomes a large structure under K.A.R. 36-1-35(h). The fee steps up to

$200.00

per single trip, and the permit runs 30 calendar days.

The fee is the smaller change. K.A.R. 36-1-38(d) keeps large structures off the Interstate except in extreme cases KDOT approves, and then local law enforcement must escort the move for traffic control. The mover must notify utilities and railroads and clear any tree trimming or sign removal with the district engineer. Loads more than 17 feet high must notify every affected utility before moving (K.A.R. 36-1-36(l)(2)). The escort rule calls for front and rear escorts, with an escort holding traffic at side-road intersections while the structure passes (K.A.R. 36-45-8(b)(2)).

Height works the same way. A load over 16 feet high needs a front escort with a height-measuring pole under the standard permit, and a load over 18 feet high becomes a large structure.

Worked example 4: a transformer over 150,000 pounds, a superload

A power transformer on a multi-axle trailer that grosses above 150,000 pounds is a superload under K.A.R. 36-1-35(o). So is a lighter load when any axle group runs over the permit axle limits. The fee is $200.00 per single trip.

The permit axle limits are the ones to check before assuming you are under the line. Under K.A.R. 36-1-37, standard and annual permits allow 22,000 pounds on a single unpowered axle, 45,000 pounds on a tandem, 60,000 pounds on a triple and 65,000 pounds on a quad or more. Axle groups wider than 8 feet 7 inches earn higher figures, and the external spacing table caps gross weight by the distance from the steering axle to the last axle, reaching 150,000 pounds only at 91 feet or more.

Superload permits are single trip only (K.A.R. 36-1-38(c)). KDOT completes a bridge analysis before the load travels on any Kansas highway, the mover pays for all damage the move causes, and escort companies need KDOT-approved certification. The escort rule adds a third escort when the permit requires slowing at bridges (K.A.R. 36-45-8(b)(1)). Build the analysis time into the schedule before quoting a delivery date.

Worked example 5: a fleet running wide loads all year

A heavy-haul carrier making repeat moves on different routes may prefer the annual permit: $200.00 for one power unit for one year. It covers loads up to 16 feet 6 inches wide, 126 feet long and 15 feet high, with a gross ceiling of 120,000 pounds and the same permit axle limits as the standard permit (K.A.R. 36-1-37(a)).

The annual permit is tied to one power unit and cannot move to another truck or company. Route deviation is allowed only at origin and destination, on the safest, shortest and most direct roads (K.A.R. 36-1-38(a)). It also stops short of the standard permit's envelope in two places: 15 feet of height against 18, and 120,000 pounds against 150,000. A load outside either line goes back to a single-trip permit.

The math is simple. Divide the annual fee by the standard single-trip fee to get the break-even count. Because each standard permit already covers a week of repeat trips on one route, count the distinct routes and weeks you expect, not the individual trips.

Kansas permits that sit outside the size tiers

Some permits in K.S.A. 8-1911 and on the K-TRIPS price list price a commodity or a season instead of a size:

Hay: a five-year permit lets hay bale loads run up to 12 feet wide on non-Interstate highways, at $25.00.
Custom combines: a per-power-unit permit from May 1 to November 15 lets a custom combine operator haul two combine headers on designated Interstates, at $10.00.
Poles, beams and girders: structural loads permitted up to 140 feet long, at $40.00.
Agricultural divisible loads: the Kansas Corporation Commission's Procedures for Safety Compliance (October 2021) describe an annual permit ordered through K-TRIPS for six, seven and eight axle tractor-trailers hauling farm inputs, feed, commodities, livestock or biofuels. It raises gross weight to 90,000 pounds by axle spacing off the Interstate. The truck must carry the maximum 85,500 pound registration and stay at 80,000 pounds or less on the Interstate.

K-TRIPS also sells a Kansas Turnpike access permit, for six months or a year. And vehicles owned by counties, cities and other political subdivisions pay no permit fees at all under K.S.A. 8-1911(f).

What the fee schedule does not price

Four costs sit outside the permit fee and can be larger than it.

Insurance: every KDOT permit requires half a million dollars each of general liability and auto liability coverage, written by an insurer authorized in Kansas, with proof riding in the permitted vehicle (K.A.R. 36-1-36(i)).
Escorts: priced by the provider, and required at the width, height and weight lines above.
Weather: no oversize or overweight load may move in visibility under half a mile, in moderate to heavy rain, sleet, snow, fog or smoke, or on a slippery road (K.A.R. 36-1-36(p)). Manufactured homes and modular building sections stop when sustained ground wind passes 30 miles per hour.
Fuel and registration for out-of-state trucks: a truck without IFTA credentials or Kansas apportioned plates needs temporary fuel and registration permits for the trip. Those fees render on the Kansas trip and fuel permits page.

One cost Kansas does not add is calendar time. There is no weekend or holiday moratorium: carriers may move permitted loads every day of the year, including holidays (K.A.R. 36-1-36(m)(3)). Overweight-only loads, legal in width and length, may run 24 hours a day (K.S.A. 8-1911(m)(2)).

Reading the Kansas schedule like a quote

Ask three questions in order. Does the load fit the standard envelope of 16 feet 6 inches wide, 126 feet long, 18 feet high and 150,000 pounds with axle groups inside the permit limits? If yes, one standard permit covers the week. If it is wider or taller, it is a large structure. If it is heavier, or an axle group is over, it is a superload. Then check the escort lines at 14 feet wide and 16 feet high, and the U.S. 83 corridor. See every other credential Kansas expects at Kansas trucking permits.

FAQ

How much does a Kansas oversize permit cost?

K.S.A. 8-1911 sets every fee. A standard single-trip permit covers a load that is oversize, overweight or both at one flat price, with no mileage or weight charge, and it stays good for seven days. Large structures and superloads cost more per trip, and an annual permit is sold per power unit. The current figures render with their sources on the Kansas oversize and overweight permits page.

When does a Kansas oversize load need escorts?

Under K.A.R. 36-45-8, a load over 14 feet wide runs with a front and a rear escort, a load over 16 feet high runs with a front escort carrying a height pole, and large structures and superloads run with front and rear escorts. The rear escort on a wide load may be dropped when the load carries the required warning lights and a rear OVERSIZE LOAD sign.

What is a superload in Kansas?

A nondivisible load over 150,000 pounds gross, or one with any axle group over the permit axle limits, under K.A.R. 36-1-35. Superload permits are single trip only and need a KDOT bridge analysis before the load moves.

Can oversize loads move on Kansas holidays?

Yes. K.A.R. 36-1-36 lets permitted loads move every day of the year, including holidays. Loads over legal width or length are held to daylight, from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset, while overweight-only loads may run around the clock.