Maryland Oversize Permit Cost: Worked Examples
Three worked Maryland moves: the fee floor written into law, the per ton overweight ladder to the 150,000 pound line, and no annual permit.
By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 27, 2026 · 12 min read
Maryland writes its hauling permit prices into the vehicle law itself. Transportation 24-112 sets a floor under every oversize permit, and SHA prices the oversize side at exactly that floor while the overweight side climbs a statutory ladder, one rung per ton, from 45 tons of gross weight to the 150,000 pound line where the superload process takes over. The three moves below show what that structure does to a quote: a flat fee that never moves, weight arithmetic that moves constantly, and a permit catalog with no general annual permit to graduate to. Every Maryland fee in this guide renders with its official source on the Maryland oversize and overweight permits page. To see which states call your load's width and height oversize before you price anything, run it through the oversize permit cost estimator.
How Maryland builds the number
Maryland splits the fee book in two, and both halves stand on the same number.
- The oversize half is one flat fee. Transportation 24-112(a)(2) requires a fee of not less than $30 for each oversize permit, and the Motor Carrier Handbook prices any oversize-only move at exactly that statutory floor: $30.00. Width past 102 inches from Transportation 24-102, height past 13 feet 6 inches, or the length lines that apply to the configuration: any of them alone puts the load on this row, whatever the route length.
- The overweight half is a ton ladder. Transportation 24-112(b)(2) starts at $30 for a vehicle at or below 45 tons of gross weight and adds $5 for every additional ton or part of a ton. The published SHA table prices the rungs: $30.00 at 45 tons of gross weight, $55.00 at 50 tons, $80.00 at 55 tons, $105.00 at 60 tons and $180.00 at 75 tons, the last line on the table. In pounds those rungs sit at 90,000, 100,000, 110,000, 120,000 and 150,000 of gross weight, and every ton between them has its own line.
- The rounding rule is the trap. The statute bills each additional ton or part of a ton whole, so a load one pound into its 46th ton pays for a full ton. There is no prorated step anywhere on the ladder.
- The fine dwarfs the fee. The Motor Carrier Handbook prices a violation of the permit requirement or its conditions at a $1,020 fine plus possible confiscation of the permit, and Transportation 24-112 carries its own escalating fines for moving without a permit at all.
Two eligibility rules gate the overweight side before the arithmetic means anything. The Handbook requires maximum weight registration and a minimum of five axles for an overweight hauling permit. And any vehicle over 73,000 pounds gross may travel only on State and federal numbered highways, except while making a pickup or delivery by the shortest available legal route, with Baltimore City allowing such vehicles only on its designated truck routes.
Worked example 1: twelve feet of excavator across the Bay Bridge
A track hoe leaves a Baltimore equipment yard on a lowboy, loaded to 12 feet wide and 13 feet 2 inches high at legal weight. Width is the only legal limit broken, so this is an oversize-only move, and the whole state charge is $30.00.
At 12 feet the escort table has not engaged: Maryland's first width escort arrives above 13 feet, the second at 14 feet and up, and the police escort at 16 feet and up. Signage has engaged, because the marking rules start at 9 feet of width: Wide Load or Oversize Load signs front and rear in black letters at least 10 inches high on a yellow background, red or orange fluorescent flags at least 18 inches square at the widest extremities during daylight, and two red lights marking the widest part of any rear overhang beyond 4 feet. SHA states that 90 percent of applications auto-issue through Maryland One, its online permitting system, with manual review depending on the route, the weight and the dimensions.
The calendar, not the fee, sets the delivery date. COMAR 11.04.02.06 restricts permitted moves to daylight by default, half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset. And the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on US 50/301 belongs to the Maryland Transportation Authority, whose facilities allow no permit movement from noon Friday until 9 a.m. Monday: the transporter calls MDTA Police at least an hour before arriving at any bridge or tunnel, and uses the far right toll lane at starred toll plazas. A Friday afternoon quote across the Bay is a Monday morning move.
Worked example 2: 99,600 pounds, and the part of a ton rule
A transformer section grossing 99,600 pounds runs inside every legal dimension, so its entire permit question is weight, and the arithmetic is statutory. Ninety-nine thousand six hundred pounds is 49.8 tons. That is 4.8 tons above the 45 ton line, and the part of a ton rule rounds the 4.8 up to 5. Five ton charges at $5 each, stacked on the $30 floor, put the permit at $55.
The published fee table agrees with the arithmetic, because the row covering that load is the one SHA prints for 50 tons: $55.00. The first rung sits lower than most carriers expect: cross the 45 ton line by any fraction and the fraction bills whole, so the permit reads the 46 ton row at $35.00. A hauler who trims 800 pounds off a load sometimes drops the permit a full rung, and a hauler who adds 40 pounds to a load sitting exactly on a ton mark raises it one.
Above the ladder's midpoint the company changes. Weight above 60 tons of gross brings the first escort on weight alone, and 75 tons gross brings a police escort. Past 150,000 pounds the move is a superload: engineering review before issuance, an operating envelope of 27,000 pounds on a single axle, 52,000 on a tandem and 63,000 on a tridem, up to 120 feet long, 16 feet wide and 16 feet high, police and private escorts, and a day window of 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with night moves from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Run any of those moves outside the permit's conditions and the Handbook's number is a $1,020 fine against a permission fee measured in tens of dollars. The Maryland fee is small. The exposure is not.
Worked example 3: the same move every week, and no annual to buy
A steel hauler runs the same coil run from Sparrows Point to a Frederick fabricator every Tuesday, over legal dimensions but past 80,000 pounds gross. In most states the second question after the single trip fee is when an annual permit pays for itself. In Maryland the question has no answer, because Maryland issues no general annual oversize or overweight permit at all.
What Maryland sells instead is a set of credentials typed by load:
- Blanket, utility blanket, special hauling and test permits are published permit types, but SHA publishes no fee amounts for them on its permit pages, so no price can be quoted here.
- The containerized cargo permit runs one year and covers manifested international freight as the only load in a sealed seagoing container moving to or from the Port of Baltimore, with 24 hour travel on designated routes. It prices gross vehicle weight by wheelbase, 80,000 pounds below 36 feet and 90,000 pounds at 36 feet or more, on intermodal chassis capped at 22,400 pounds per single axle and 44,000 per tandem.
- The exceptional hauling permit for agricultural products under Transportation 24-113.2 is the one recurring credential with a published price: $250 for a year or $30 for 30 consecutive days, for farm products loaded in fields or other off-highway locations as the only load, on a combination of not less than six axles with at least 50 feet of front to rear axle spacing, capped at 87,000 pounds gross and not valid on interstates except for fluid milk.
- Seasonal permits cover raw milk from March 1 through June 30 at 88,000 pounds on five axles and 95,000 on six, and live poultry from November 1 through April 30 at 88,000 pounds on combinations of five or six axles in certain counties.
None of that helps the steel hauler. The coil run buys a single trip permit every Tuesday of the year, and the fee line repeats without a break-even point ever arriving. The repetition arithmetic that does exist is narrow: the 30 day farm credential costs the same as one oversize trip, so for a qualifying farm operation it pays for itself on the second load of the month.
The calendar that prices the move
Daylight is the default window under COMAR 11.04.02.06, and the live SHA page allows continuous travel, day and night, for loads at or under 200,000 pounds gross, 13 feet 11 inches wide, 14 feet 6 inches high and 120 feet long. Above those lines the day narrows fast.
A load 14 feet wide or more may move only from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on any highway. On the Capital Beltway (I-495/I-95) and the Baltimore Beltway (I-695), a vehicle over 45 tons gross, 100 feet or more long, or 12 feet or more wide gets that same 9 to 3:30 window, and special mobile equipment that cannot reach 40 mph is banned from both beltways in the morning and evening peaks. Movement is barred any Saturday after noon and any Sunday unless the permit authorizes other hours. The MDTA facilities from the first example close to permit moves from noon Friday to 9 a.m. Monday outright: the JFK Memorial Highway, the Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor tunnels, the Hatem, Nice and Chesapeake Bay bridges. Seven holidays are closed to permitted travel altogether, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, with published no-move windows around each. And the permit stops being valid the moment a snow emergency plan takes effect for the area.
What to check before you quote Maryland
Check which half of the fee book the load lives in. An oversize-only move is one flat number no matter how far it travels, and an overweight move is arithmetic against the ton ladder, so two loads 2,000 pounds apart can carry different permit lines.
Check height against 14 feet 6 inches early. At that height Maryland wants a front pole vehicle and a completed route survey before it will issue the permit at all, which converts a fee question into a lead time question.
Check the escort triggers against every dimension and the weight: above 13 feet one escort and at 14 feet two, with police at 16 feet; above 85 feet one and at 140 feet two; above 60 tons one and at 75 tons police. Ask whether the route touches a beltway or an MDTA facility, because those bring the 9 to 3:30 window and the Friday noon closure with them. And ask whether the cargo matches one of the load-type credentials, because that is the only place Maryland sells repetition.
Compare the same move in neighboring states on the oversize permit costs by state table, and see the rest of the credential stack at Maryland trucking permits.
FAQ
How much does a Maryland oversize permit cost?
Maryland writes its fee floors into the vehicle law. Transportation 24-112 sets a minimum fee for each oversize permit, prices overweight permits at the same minimum for the first 45 tons of gross weight plus a per ton charge above that, and the SHA fee table publishes the resulting ladder rung by rung to the 150,000 pound superload line. Current amounts render with their official source on the state permits page.
Does Maryland sell an annual oversize permit?
No general one. The recurring credentials Maryland issues are typed by load: blanket, utility blanket, special hauling and test permits, a one year containerized cargo permit for sealed international containers to and from the Port of Baltimore, exceptional hauling permits for agricultural products sold by the year or by 30 days, and seasonal permits for raw milk and live poultry. Several of those types carry no published fee.
When does a Maryland load need an escort?
Width sets the tier: above 13 feet one escort, 14 feet or more two, and 16 feet or more two plus a police escort. Height at 14 feet 6 inches or more needs a front pole vehicle and a route survey before the permit will issue. Length above 85 feet needs one escort and 140 feet or more two. Weight above 60 tons needs one escort, and 75 tons gross or more needs police.
When can a permitted load travel in Maryland?
Daylight is the default under COMAR 11.04.02.06, from half an hour after sunrise to half an hour before sunset. Loads inside the published continuous travel envelope may move around the clock. Above that the windows narrow: 14 foot widths and qualifying beltway moves get 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Saturdays after noon and Sundays are closed unless the permit says otherwise, MDTA bridges and tunnels close to permit moves from noon Friday to 9 a.m. Monday, and seven holidays are closed outright.