By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 2, 2026
Iowa DOT's Office of Vehicle and Motor Carrier Services issues oversize and overweight permits online through ia.gotpermits.com, by mail, over the counter in Ankeny by appointment, or through a commercial permit service. The common move is a 35-dollar single or round trip permit valid 5 days. Annual oversize runs 50 dollars and the annual oversize/overweight permit 400 dollars with a 156,000-pound gross ceiling. Permitted loads travel daylight hours on non-holiday days unless the nighttime continuous-movement conditions are met, and escorts follow the width, height and length bands in 761 IAC 511.20.
Iowa legal limits (no permit needed at or under these)
- Height
- 13.5 ft13 feet 6 inches (Iowa Code 321.456); 14 feet for auto transporters hauling passenger vehicles, light delivery trucks, pickup trucks or recreational vehicle chassis.
- Gross weight
- 80,000 lbA permit is typically required when gross weight exceeds 80,000 pounds. Iowa sets no overall vehicle length limit for truck-tractor semitrailer combinations (Iowa Code 321.457).
- Length: note
- 65-foot maximum for power units designed to carry cargo in combination with a trailer or semitrailer (3-foot front and 4-foot rear overhang allowed in addition when exclusively transporting automobiles, boats or recreational vehicle chassis); no overall length limit on truck-tractor semitrailer combinations; 70-foot combination of three vehicles other than truck-tractor; 85-foot combination of two vehicles one of which is a recreational motorsports vehicle; 97-foot saddle-mounted power units.
Axle weight limits
Gross weight is one ceiling; each axle group carries its own limit, and a load can be legal on gross weight yet overweight on an axle. Exceeding any of these needs an overweight permit.
Scroll sideways to see every column.
Permit fees
- Single trip
- $35 (Single or round trip permit is 35 dollars, valid 5 days; overweight single-trip permits may carry an additional ton fee under Iowa Code 321E changes effective Oct. 27, 2025 per Iowa DOT.)
- Annual eligibility
- Iowa issues annual oversize ($50 small and large annual oversize), annual oversize/overweight ($400, up to 156,000 pounds gross), and annual special mobile equipment permits ($25 at 80,000 pounds combined gross weight or less, Iowa Code 321E.7(3)). Annual permits require checking route restrictions against the vertical clearance, bridge embargo, pavement restriction maps and 511ia.org before each move; a Route Approval is needed when listed dimensions are exceeded. The All-Systems overweight permits run 160 dollars (321E.8(1)) and 500 dollars (321E.8(2)) deposited in the road use tax fund.
Single-trip permit fee schedule
A single-trip permit stacks a base fee with a weight-tiered maintenance fee, and the heaviest loads add a supervision fee.
Scroll sideways to see every column.
To price a specific load, try the oversize permit cost estimator, or compare every state on the national oversize permit table.
To see how these fees combine on real loads, walk through Iowa oversize permit cost worked examples.
Escort thresholds
What the escort itself has to be
Hitting the threshold is only half of it. The escort vehicle, its equipment, its driver's certification and where it rides are all regulated, and the carrier is the one holding the permit when they are not met.
- Escort rules
- 761 IAC 511.20 sets minimum warning devices and escorts: loads over 85 feet up to 120 feet need flags and lights but no escort; loads over 120 feet need a rear escort. Escorts must be at least 18, hold an unrestricted license, carry proof of liability insurance at 100,000/200,000/50,000 dollars, and operate a midsize automobile or motor truck with clear front and rear vision. Oversize loads requiring law enforcement escorts must give at least one week of notice to use the Iowa State Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Unit. The permit-issuing authority may require additional escorts (761 IAC 511.20(4)), and Iowa Code 321E.14(3) lets authorities charge up to 250 dollars per day per person and car for escort service.
Liability cover the permit itself requires
Distinct from your operating-authority minimums: this is the cover Iowa attaches to the permit, banded by the dimension you are permitted for. Each one is sourced.
- Permit insurance groups
- 761 IAC 511.6 requires public liability insurance of 100,000 dollars bodily injury each person, 200,000 dollars bodily injury each occurrence, and 50,000 dollars property damage, with proof carried in the permitted vehicle, for annual oversize, annual oversize/overweight, annual raw forest products, annual small crane, annual all-systems oversize, annual all-systems overweight, multi-trip, emergency interstate, annual fluid milk products, and single-trip permits. Self-insurance is possible with department approval.
Escort rules beyond the thresholds
Knowing when you need an escort is half of it. These are the Iowa rules on who may run one, what the vehicle has to carry, and how the move is conducted.
- Escort notes
- 761 IAC 511.20 sets minimum warning devices and escorts: loads over 85 feet up to 120 feet need flags and lights but no escort; loads over 120 feet need a rear escort. Escorts must be at least 18, hold an unrestricted license, carry proof of liability insurance at 100,000/200,000/50,000 dollars, and operate a midsize automobile or motor truck with clear front and rear vision. Oversize loads requiring law enforcement escorts must give at least one week of notice to use the Iowa State Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Unit. The permit-issuing authority may require additional escorts (761 IAC 511.20(4)), and Iowa Code 321E.14(3) lets authorities charge up to 250 dollars per day per person and car for escort service.
Conditions attached to every permit
The standing conditions Iowa writes into the permit itself, which apply whether or not they are printed on your copy.
- Permit conditions
- Every vehicle operating under permit must carry the permit plus the Iowa General Provisions for Oversize Load Permit in the vehicle and show them to any authorized official. Permitted loads must be non-divisible unless moving under the All-Systems overweight permit; trucks or combinations transporting raw agricultural products may exceed registration weight by up to 25 percent in Iowa. Permits are issued for state and interstate highways only; county and city permits are separate. The power unit must be registered for the gross weight of the vehicle and load (temporary registration permits are not allowed for oversized loads under permit), except private special mobile equipment moves.
Travel restrictions
- Daylight only
- Yes (Permitted loads may operate only from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset unless the continuous-movement (nighttime) conditions are met: width 11 feet or less, length 100 feet or less, height 14 feet 6 inches or less, weight within permit limits, roadway at least 22 feet wide, lanes at least 11 feet, and operating side-marker and clearance lights.)
- Curfews
- Movement is allowed seven days a week except designated holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day. Movement is prohibited on those holidays and after noon on the preceding day or holiday weekend Friday, through the holiday weekend. Iowa DOT publishes per-holiday no-move windows in its Dates to Remember schedule, such as the 2025 closure on oversize movement from noon Friday May 23 until 30 minutes before sunrise Tuesday May 27.
- Daylight hours rule
- Permitted loads may operate only from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset unless the continuous-movement (nighttime) conditions are met: width 11 feet or less, length 100 feet or less, height 14 feet 6 inches or less, weight within permit limits, roadway at least 22 feet wide, lanes at least 11 feet, and operating side-marker and clearance lights.
More Iowa permit rules
- Single trip fee note
- Single or round trip permit is 35 dollars, valid 5 days; overweight single-trip permits may carry an additional ton fee under Iowa Code 321E changes effective Oct. 27, 2025 per Iowa DOT.
- Annual permit eligibility
- Iowa issues annual oversize ($50 small and large annual oversize), annual oversize/overweight ($400, up to 156,000 pounds gross), and annual special mobile equipment permits ($25 at 80,000 pounds combined gross weight or less, Iowa Code 321E.7(3)). Annual permits require checking route restrictions against the vertical clearance, bridge embargo, pavement restriction maps and 511ia.org before each move; a Route Approval is needed when listed dimensions are exceeded. The All-Systems overweight permits run 160 dollars (321E.8(1)) and 500 dollars (321E.8(2)) deposited in the road use tax fund.
- Annual permit details: note
- Annual oversize/overweight: maximum 156,000 pounds gross, 20,000 pounds per axle, 13 feet 5 inches wide, 15 feet 5 inches high, 120 feet long; no interstate travel when gross weight exceeds 80,000 pounds; MCS routing not required. Annual oversize ($50): maximum 80,000 pounds gross, 12 feet 5 inches wide (small) or 16 feet wide (large), 13 feet 10 inches high (small), 120 feet long; small annual oversize needs no route approvals.
- Escort notes
- 761 IAC 511.20 sets minimum warning devices and escorts: loads over 85 feet up to 120 feet need flags and lights but no escort; loads over 120 feet need a rear escort. Escorts must be at least 18, hold an unrestricted license, carry proof of liability insurance at 100,000/200,000/50,000 dollars, and operate a midsize automobile or motor truck with clear front and rear vision. Oversize loads requiring law enforcement escorts must give at least one week of notice to use the Iowa State Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Unit. The permit-issuing authority may require additional escorts (761 IAC 511.20(4)), and Iowa Code 321E.14(3) lets authorities charge up to 250 dollars per day per person and car for escort service.
- Permit insurance groups
- 761 IAC 511.6 requires public liability insurance of 100,000 dollars bodily injury each person, 200,000 dollars bodily injury each occurrence, and 50,000 dollars property damage, with proof carried in the permitted vehicle, for annual oversize, annual oversize/overweight, annual raw forest products, annual small crane, annual all-systems oversize, annual all-systems overweight, multi-trip, emergency interstate, annual fluid milk products, and single-trip permits. Self-insurance is possible with department approval.
- Permit conditions
- Every vehicle operating under permit must carry the permit plus the Iowa General Provisions for Oversize Load Permit in the vehicle and show them to any authorized official. Permitted loads must be non-divisible unless moving under the All-Systems overweight permit; trucks or combinations transporting raw agricultural products may exceed registration weight by up to 25 percent in Iowa. Permits are issued for state and interstate highways only; county and city permits are separate. The power unit must be registered for the gross weight of the vehicle and load (temporary registration permits are not allowed for oversized loads under permit), except private special mobile equipment moves.
- Overweight fee schedule note
- Iowa prices single-trip oversize/overweight at a flat 35 dollars rather than a weight-banded fee table, so no distance-band by weight-band matrix exists. Two tonnage-based charges live in regulation instead: single-trip registration is 4 dollars per ton exceeding 40 tons (761 IAC 511.5(5)), and vehicles transporting buildings other than mobile homes pay 5 cents per ton exceeding registered weight per mile of travel (761 IAC 511.5(6)).
| Name |
|---|
| Multi-trip permit (unlimited trips between two fixed points on one route, 60 days, 156,000 pounds gross) |
| Special alternative energy multi-trip permit (unlimited trips to an alternative energy site, 60 days, 256,000 pounds gross) |
| Annual raw forest products permit (divisible loads from fields to processing, Iowa Code 321E.8) |
| Annual fluid milk products permit (400 dollars, Iowa Code 321E.29B) |
The Iowa permit office
- Apply or log in (Iowa DOT online permits service (ia.gotpermits.com))
- ia.gotpermits.com
- Agency
- Iowa Department of Transportation, Office of Vehicle and Motor Carrier Services (Oversize/Overweight Permits)
- Hours
- Permit counter in Ankeny by appointment, Monday through Friday; email [email protected]
Legal limits and when a permit kicks in
Iowa's legal envelope: width and height at the common federal footprints, a length list that varies by configuration with no overall cap on tractor-semitrailer combinations, and the federal gross weight line on interstates. Off the interstate, Iowa's state and U.S. highways stretch the gross weight ceiling for six- and seven-axle configurations, and raw agricultural products get a registration-weight tolerance.
A permit is typically required past any of those lines, for non-divisible loads. The indivisible test is Iowa's own: separating the load would destroy its value, defeat the vehicle's purpose, or take more than a stated number of work hours.
Permit types and fees
The workhorse is the single or round trip permit, valid days rather than weeks. Repeat lanes justify the multi-trip permit, which pins the movement to one route for a fixed window, and the alternative-energy variant that raises the weight ceiling for wind and similar projects. Annual permits cover a year of unlimited trips within their dimension caps, with the oversize-only annuals at the low end and the full oversize-overweight annual at the high end of both weight and price.
The full schedule renders below from the sourced tables; specialty lines cover cranes, private equipment moves, fire trucks, house moves, and duplicates.
Escorts, curfews, and travel rules
Iowa's escort table keys off length, projection, height, and width, with placement depending on lanes: rear escorts on four-lane roads, front on two-lane, and a height-pole escort past the height line. Escort vehicles and drivers carry qualification requirements, and law-escort moves need advance notice to the State Patrol unit.
Travel runs from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, seven days a week outside the published holiday closures, unless the load meets the continuous-movement conditions that allow nighttime operation. Loads over the weight line stay off the interstate under the annual permit.
How to read this page
A value reading "Not confirmed" means we could not verify the figure on an official agency page at review time, so it stays open rather than guessed. Superload moves above the standard permit thresholds get individual review by the state; contact the permit office named on this page. For the rest of the Iowa permit stack, see Iowa trucking permits.