By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 27, 2026
MassDOT Highway Division issues oversize and overweight permits through its OASIS web system. Legal limits come from M.G.L. c. 90, ss. 19 and 19A: 102 inches wide, 13 feet 6 inches high, 53-foot semitrailers and 80,000 pounds gross. Under 700 CMR 8.00 an irreducible load permit costs $40 per trip or $400 a year, and a superload over 130,000 pounds needing detailed engineering costs $300 per trip. Six holidays are no-move days, with a wider noon-to-noon ban around New Year's Day, Independence Day and Christmas, and the Callahan and Sumner Tunnels in Boston cap height at 12 feet 6 inches.
Who issues what in Massachusetts
The permit pages
Oversize and overweight
Massachusetts legal limits, fees, escorts, travel windows
Intrastate authority
The state operating credential, where required
IRP registration
Apportioned plates for interstate trucks
IFTA
The fuel tax license and decals
Diesel emissions inspection
Massachusetts requires an annual smoke opacity test
Massachusetts-specific requirements
Massachusetts issues no freight operating authority but requires a USDOT number on every intrastate truck of 10,001 pounds or more (540 CMR 2.22, since September 1, 2018). The DPU Transportation Oversight Division licenses household goods movers, involuntary tow companies and intrastate bus companies, and collects UCR for the state. The RMV runs IRP from Quincy on a July-to-June year, the Department of Revenue runs IFTA through MassTaxConnect, and MassDOT Highway Division issues oversize permits through OASIS.
USDOT number for intrastate trucks since 2018
Since September 1, 2018, 540 CMR 2.22 has required every intrastate vehicle of 10,001 pounds GVWR or GCWR or more, every placarded hazmat vehicle and every vehicle designed for more than 15 passengers to be permanently marked with a USDOT number, obtained free from FMCSA. How the vehicle is registered with the RMV does not matter.
Turnpike miles are fuel-tax exempt, then use-taxed
IFTA filers may report Massachusetts Turnpike miles as nontaxable if they keep toll receipts and fuel invoices, but the fuel then owes the 6.25 percent use tax on an annual Form ST-10 due April 15.
Two Boston tunnels are a foot lower
The Callahan and Sumner Tunnels cap vehicle height at 12 feet 6 inches, a foot under the 13 feet 6 inch limit that applies on the Turnpike, the Ted Williams and O'Neill Tunnels and everywhere else.
Hazardous cargo is barred from the Boston tunnels
All hazardous cargo and cargo tankers are prohibited from the Boston tunnels, and through routing of hazardous cargo is restricted from downtown Boston from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a prescribed surface route at night.
22,400-pound single axle
The Massachusetts single-axle limit is 22,400 pounds (18,000 pounds per axle when axles are under 6 feet apart), higher than the common 20,000-pound figure, within an 80,000-pound gross cap.
Noon-to-noon holiday blackouts
Oversize permit loads may not move on six holidays and, for New Year's Day, Independence Day and Christmas, from noon the day before to noon the day after. Weekend travel on State Highways stops at noon Saturday and resumes Sunday from 12:01 a.m. to noon.
IRP needs a real Massachusetts office
A Massachusetts IRP account needs a commercial, non-residential place of business with a lease of at least 12 months, 20 business hours a week, a full-time employee and signage, or else a Massachusetts residence plus a Massachusetts driver's license. Virtual offices are refused.
Tandem trailers stay on the Pike
Tandem trailers generally may run only on I-90 between the New York line and I-95 in Weston, breaking down or parking at four permit lots, and never in the Sumner, Callahan or Ted Williams Tunnels.
Movers win authority at a monthly hearing
A household goods mover's DPU application is heard on the second Tuesday of the month after it is complete, the principal owner must attend, and the business then has 60 days to file insurance, a balance sheet, a tariff and decal applications.
The Massachusetts permit system
- Apply or log in (OASIS (Oversize Overweight Permitting and Routing Application))
- oasis.massdot.state.ma.us
More Massachusetts rules that catch carriers out
- State carrier number: summary
- The only Massachusetts-issued carrier number is the DPU certificate number for household goods movers, which M.G.L. c. 159B, s. 16B requires in every advertisement in the form MDPU NO. General freight carriers display a USDOT number from FMCSA instead; see intrastate-authority.
- UCR participation: summary
- Massachusetts participates in UCR. M.G.L. c. 159B, s. 10 requires interstate for-hire carriers to register with the DPU under the Unified Carrier Registration Act of 2005, and the DPU sends every carrier to ucr.gov, with no paper form. 2027 renewal opens October 1, 2026 and enforcement starts January 1, 2027. The fee depends on fleet size and follows the national UCR fee brackets.
The permit office and OASIS
The Truck Permit Office sits beside the State Police barracks on the westbound Mass Pike in Weston and keeps weekday business hours. Applications, routing and the fee quote all run through OASIS, the Oversize Overweight Permitting and Routing Application. Its phone line, email and address are sourced fields on our oversize page.
One mix-up to avoid: the MassDOT permit pages also list an address for trip and fuel permits. Those belong to the RMV's IRP unit, not the oversize office.
The permit types Massachusetts issues
An irreducible load, one that cannot be broken down, moves on a single-trip permit or an annual permit at a flat fee each. A reducible load, such as a triaxle dump truck running heavy, is priced by the weight over the federal bridge formula and is usually bought as a Reducible Annual Permit, good only on designated state highways and through routes. Adding the Mass Pike to a reducible permit costs a share of the state roadway fee on top.
A superload over the regulation's weight line needs detailed engineering calculations and carries its own per-trip fee. Our Massachusetts oversize and overweight page carries the full fee schedule with its source.
Tunnels, holidays and hazmat routes
Boston sets the tightest limits. Two older tunnels, the Callahan and the Sumner, cap height below the statewide limit, tandem trailers generally stay on the Pike west of Weston, and hazardous cargo is barred from the tunnels and restricted from downtown by day.
Permit loads also sit out six holidays, with a wider noon-to-noon ban around three of them, and weekend movement on state highways stops at Saturday noon and resumes only Sunday morning until noon.
Compare beyond Massachusetts
Running multi-state loads? The trucking permits by state table shows which permit families and issuing offices apply in every jurisdiction, the oversize permit costs by state table compares limits and fees across all 51 jurisdictions, and the permit cost estimator prices a specific load per state.