Louisiana Oversize Permit Cost: Worked Examples

Most states price an overweight permit from what the load weighs. Louisiana prices it from what the load weighs and how far it goes. La. R.S. 32:387(H)(2) reads as a grid: a weight band on one axis, the miles travelled inside Louisiana on the other, across three separate schedules picked by how many axles are under the load. Haul the identical trailer twice as far and the permit costs more, with nothing about the load changed. Every current figure renders with its official source on the Louisiana oversize and overweight permits page; this guide walks three moves through the grid. To see which states call your load's width and height oversize in the first place, run it through the oversize permit cost estimator.

How the Louisiana grid works

Four features shape a Louisiana quote:

• Oversize and overweight price on different logic. A load over legal width, height or length that stays inside legal weight is a flat $10.00La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026, charged per trip, or per operating day when the move runs past one calendar day. Oversize dimensions ride free on an overweight permit as long as they are written on it, so a load that is both wide and heavy pays the overweight price only.
• Three schedules, picked by axle count. Schedule 1 covers a load over legal axle weight on a short axle count, plus off-road equipment, and prices on excess weight. Schedule 2 covers four-axle combinations and Schedule 3 covers five-axle and larger combinations, both priced on gross weight rather than excess.
• Five distance bands. Inside every schedule the fee steps at 50, 100, 150 and 200 miles travelled in Louisiana. Route length is a pricing input here, not just a routing detail.
• A ton-mile tail. Past the top row the fee stops being a lookup and becomes a small base permit fee plus a per ton-mile charge on the excess weight, plus a structural evaluation fee set by the kind of bridges on the route.

Two things sit in front of the fee. The DOTD Truck Permit Office has required a certificate of insurance on file before it issues any permit since December 2019, and a vehicle has to be licensed for its maximum allowable license weight before it can hold an overweight permit at all. Neither changes the price. Both decide whether the first permit issues today or next week.

Worked example 1: a wide machine at legal weight

An excavator wider than 102 inches, at legal height, length and weight, buys the cheapest permit Louisiana sells. It is a flat $10.00La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026 for the trip under La. R.S. 32:387(H)(1)(a), or the same amount for each operating day when the move runs past midnight. Nothing about the mileage matters, because the distance axis belongs to the overweight table and this load never reaches it.

What the move costs instead is escorts and calendar. A private escort is required over 12 feet wide, State Police take over above 16 feet, and front and rear State Police escorts are required above 18 feet. Height brings its own vehicle: a pole truck runs ahead of a load over 15 feet 10 inches, and a pole truck equipped to lift utility lines is required over 16 feet 8 inches. Every private escort vehicle must itself hold a Louisiana Escort Vehicle Permit, which expires each December 31 whatever month it was bought in, and the escort company has to be registered with the state and insured. Those width and height thresholds render with their sources on the Louisiana permits page.

Cargo type can move the load onto its own fee line. A mobile home or mobile office that is oversize but not overweight is priced separately at $10.00Single Trip Permits (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Truck Permit Office)Verified Aug 5, 2026, valid for a consecutive 72 hour period, which DOTD publishes as three days with no extensions.

Worked example 2: 100,000 pounds, and why distance is the second axis

Load that trailer to 100,000 pounds gross on a five-axle combination and the flat fee disappears. The move lands in Schedule 3, in the band that runs from 80,001 to 100,000 pounds gross, and the first cell of that band, for a haul of up to 50 miles inside Louisiana, is $45.00La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026.

Now move the same load across the state instead. The band has four more cells, stepping at 100, 150 and 200 miles, and the top cell for a haul past 200 miles is more than three times the short-haul figure. Nothing about the trailer changed. The whole difference is where the load is going, which is the input most out-of-state quotes leave out entirely. The full five-cell row renders with its source on the Louisiana oversize and overweight permits page.

Axle count picks the schedule before weight does, and the ordering is worth money. Run 90,000 pounds on a four-axle combination and Schedule 2 applies, at $67.50La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026 for the first band; carry the same 90,000 pounds on a five-axle combination and Schedule 3 applies instead, at $45.00La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026 for the same distance. The heavier-looking configuration is the cheaper one, because a fifth axle moves the load onto a schedule written for it.

Permitted axle weights are their own constraint on top of the fee. Louisiana caps a permitted tandem group at 48,000 pounds while gross stays at or under 120,000 pounds and tightens it above that, and it limits how the weight may sit inside a group: no axle in a permitted tandem may carry more than 60 percent or less than 40 percent of the group's permitted weight. A trailer that prices cleanly can still fail on distribution.

Worked example 3: past the top of the table

Above 254,000 pounds gross the permit leaves the grid. La. R.S. 32:387(H)(2) prices it as a base permit fee of $15.00La. R.S. 32:387, the special permit authority and the statutory oversize and overweight permit fee schedules (Louisiana State Legislature)Verified Aug 5, 2026 plus a per ton-mile charge on the weight above 80,000 pounds, plus a structural evaluation fee that changes with the bridge type on the route. Treated timber and concrete slab structures carry the low evaluation fee, general structures the middle one, and truss, continuous span and movable bridges plus every Mississippi River crossing carry the high one. Those three figures render with their source on the Louisiana permits page.

The review clock starts well before the price does. A request for a gross combination weight over 232,000 pounds on non-designated highways, or over 254,000 pounds on any highway, has to carry full axle spacings, tire counts, tire sizes and the proposed route, and must be filed four to six weeks ahead of the movement date. DOTD's stated position is that railroads and navigable waterways can handle combinations that heavy, so an applicant who wants the highway has to produce written proof from the rail or water carrier that the load cannot go by either. A load over 900,000 pounds may be sent to an independent engineering firm for analysis.

A carrier that repeats a heavy move buys the annual instead of counting trips. Louisiana's general annual Oversize/Overweight permit for individual non-divisible heavy equipment is $2,500.00Oversize and Overweight Truck Permits (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Truck Permit Office)Verified Aug 5, 2026. It is issued to the pulling unit, is not transferable to another unit or company, is not refundable, and covers up to 120,000 pounds gross at 14 feet 4 inches high and 12 feet wide. Since September 2025 every new one also needs a route registered and approved before each move, which routes automatically when nothing on it is restricted.

Why an older Louisiana quote is wrong

Every figure in the La. R.S. 32:387(H) tables was last set by Act 301 of the 2019 Regular Session, House Bill 217, which raised each amount by half. A page still quoting the pre-2019 schedule understates the current fee by a third of the number the table now carries, and the gap is widest exactly where it hurts, on the heavy long-haul cells and on the structural evaluation fees for Mississippi River bridges. Price the move from the current schedule, which renders with its source on the Louisiana oversize and overweight permits page.

Two sets of legal limits, one state

Check which limit set the route is measured against before any of this, because Louisiana publishes two. La. R.S. 32:386 sets the gross, axle and tire limits, and DOTD publishes an Interstate column and a non-Interstate column against them. Height is 14 feet on Interstate highways and 13 feet 6 inches everywhere else, so a load that clears on I-10 can need a permit the moment it exits. Weight runs the other way: a single axle is capped at 20,000 pounds on the Interstate and 22,000 pounds off it, and a combination with a tridum or larger axle group may gross 83,400 pounds on the Interstate against 88,000 pounds on other state-maintained highways. Width is 102 inches everywhere. Getting this backwards is the common way a carrier discovers at a weigh station that the trip needed a permit it never bought.

What to check before quoting

Count the miles inside Louisiana first, because distance is a pricing axis here and is not one in most states. Count the axles next, since that picks the schedule before the weight band does. Confirm whether the route stays on the Interstate, because the legal limits move with it. Then check the weekday curfews in Shreveport, Monroe, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and the Mississippi River bridge windows, since those decide the delivery date more often than the fee does. Compare Louisiana against the same move elsewhere on the oversize permit costs by state table, and see the rest of the credential stack at Louisiana trucking permits.

FAQ

Why do two identical Louisiana overweight permits cost different amounts?

Distance. La. R.S. 32:387(H)(2) prices an overweight single trip from the miles travelled inside Louisiana as well as from the weight, in five bands that step at 50, 100, 150 and 200 miles. The same load pays more for a longer haul, and the current figures render with their sources on the state permits page.

What does an oversize but legal-weight load cost in Louisiana?

A flat fee per trip under La. R.S. 32:387(H)(1)(a), or the same amount for each operating day when the move spans more than one calendar day. Oversize dimensions ride free on an overweight permit as long as they are written on it. The current figure renders with its source on the state permits page.

Why do older Louisiana permit quotes come up short?

Act 301 of the 2019 Regular Session raised every figure in the La. R.S. 32:387(H) fee tables by half. A quote built from the pre-2019 schedule understates the current fee by a third of the number the table now carries.