By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Jul 29, 2026
Michigan legal limits (no permit needed at or under these)
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.
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Permit fees
- Single trip
- $15 (Michigan's single-trip permit fee is fixed by statute, not by a weight or distance formula. MCL 257.725(5) sets $15.00 for a vehicle or combination that exceeds the maximum size but not the maximum weight or load, and MCL 257.725(4) sets $50.00 for the state transportation department's single-trip permit otherwise, which MDOT states as $50 for a load that is over-dimension and/or over legal axle weight. A single trip permit is valid for one trip and may be issued for a five-day period on request; a return move may be included within the same five-day window for an identical configuration or an empty trailer over the reversed route. Electronically submitted single-trip permits are usually issued within 12 business hours and may be applied for up to seven business days ahead. MiTRIP assigns the fee from the exact dimensions and weights entered, and prices permitted loads against Michigan's legal allowable axle weights rather than the federal bridge weights.)
- Annual eligibility
- MDOT calls its annual permit an extended permit. Extended permits are issued on an annual basis for loads and vehicles owned by the applicant or held under a bona fide lease or rental agreement, described specifically by make, model, and serial or VIN number, in categories including construction equipment, agricultural, miscellaneous, pipe and pole, and modular or mobile home. Extended permits are not available to for-hire carriers. Annual renewal is $30.00 for each truck, trailer, and piece of equipment that is over-dimension and legal in weight, and $100.00 for each that is overweight and/or over-dimension when loaded; construction equipment annual renewal is $264.00 for each power unit. A new extended permit is prorated because extended permits expire alphabetically by company name through the year, so the first-year fee ranges from $30 to $57 for oversize and from $100 to $191 for overweight depending on the existing expiration month and the first letter of the company name; farm-to-farm-only permits pay 10 percent of the prorated overweight fee. Extended permits are usually issued 15 to 21 business days after receipt, may be applied for up to 60 days before expiration, and MDOT recommends filing a renewal at least 30 days ahead.
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.
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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 Michigan oversize permit cost worked examples.
Escort thresholds
Travel restrictions
- Curfews
- MDOT special provision 15 voids a permit for movement from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in eleven counties: Genesee, Ingham, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Macomb, Muskegon, Oakland, Saginaw, Washtenaw, and Wayne. The provision applies when it is printed on the permit.
- Weekend / holiday
- Permits are not valid for movement from 12:00 noon on the day preceding until daylight of the first day after New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. When a holiday falls on a Friday or Monday the block runs from noon before the three-day weekend to daylight of the first day after it. Annual Construction Equipment permits are blocked only for Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. MDOT publishes the dated holiday restriction calendar each year; for 2026 it shows no travel on January 1 and 2, May 23 through 25, July 4 and 5, September 5 through 7, November 26, December 25 through 27, and January 1 through 3, 2027, with movement resuming for mobile homes after noon and all others at daybreak on the released day.
Superload and beyond-permit review
Loads past the standard single-trip permit thresholds get individual state review rather than an off-the-shelf permit.
MDOT calls anything past those single-trip limits a superload. Efforts must first be made to move the load by another means (rail, water, an alternate route around the state) or to dismantle it so it comes within the standard permit limits. Permits may be considered for limited movement of a superload only if all other means have been exhausted and the object cannot feasibly be reduced.
The shipper provides a complete written explanation on company letterhead, a properly completed MiTRIP application, and a Route Survey Certification (Form 2465). Documentation for special consideration or a superload must reach the Lansing Transport Permit Office at least ten working days before the tentative date of movement.
Legal limits before you need a permit
Michigan splits width three ways. The code caps the total outside width of a vehicle or its load at one figure, allows a pneumatic-tired vehicle a wider measurement from outside of tire to outside of tire while still capping the body or load, and MDOT restates the practical rule as one width on non-designated highways and a wider one on designated highways. Concrete and ferrous pipe, agricultural products, and unprocessed logs get a wider load-only allowance, and a snowplow blade gets a seasonal pass without a permit.
Height is a single figure, and the owner of a vehicle that strikes a lawfully established bridge or viaduct is liable for the damage whether or not the clearance was posted. Length depends on configuration: a longer semitrailer is limited to designated highways, a tractor-semitrailer combination has no overall limit while the trailer stays inside its figure, and a tractor with two towed units has no overall limit while each unit and the coupled pair stay inside theirs.
Weight is where Michigan stops looking like anywhere else. The familiar interstate maximum, the single and tandem axle limits, and the federal bridge formula apply on the interstate system and on highways designated for that operation. Off those routes there is no published gross-weight table at all: legal weight is whatever the axle spacing schedule allows across the statutory axle cap, subject to a wheel load stated per inch of tire width, with a companion MDOT chart converting tire size into allowable load.
Single-trip permits
The fee is statutory and flat, which makes Michigan easy to budget and unusual among big freight states. One amount applies to a vehicle or combination that exceeds the maximum size but not the maximum weight or load. A second applies to a single-trip movement that is over legal weight, or over-dimension and over weight together.
A single-trip permit covers one trip and can be issued for a five-day period on request, with a return move allowed inside the same window for an identical configuration or an empty trailer over the reversed route. Electronically submitted single-trip permits are usually issued within half a business day, and can be applied for about a week ahead.
MiTRIP assigns the fee from the exact dimensions and weights you enter, and prices the load against Michigan's legal allowable axle weights rather than the federal bridge weights. Enter the configuration honestly: operating beyond the size or weight shown on the permit voids it immediately.
Extended permits, and why for-hire carriers cannot have one
MDOT's annual product is the extended permit, issued for loads and vehicles the applicant owns or holds under a bona fide lease or rental agreement, described by make, model, and serial or VIN. The published category list runs through construction equipment, agricultural, miscellaneous, pipe and pole, and modular or mobile home, each with its own width, height, length, and weight envelope.
MDOT's own guidance closes them to for-hire carriers. So a for-hire operator running repeated oversize work in Michigan buys a single-trip permit every time, which changes the arithmetic on whether a Michigan lane is worth running at all.
Renewal amounts are set per unit and differ for over-dimension equipment, overweight equipment, and construction equipment power units. A brand new extended permit is prorated, because extended permits expire alphabetically by company name through the year and the first letter of your name sets the expiration month. Farm-to-farm-only permits pay a fraction of the prorated overweight amount.
Escorts arrive as numbered provisions, not a table
Michigan publishes escort thresholds by dimension for one class of load only: mobile homes and building modules. Those carry a rear escort past one width, front and rear past a greater width, front and rear with a height-measuring device when wide and tall together, and front and rear past a published overall length.
Every other oversize or overweight load gets its escort requirement as a numbered special provision printed on the individual permit. The provisions cover a following escort, a preceding escort with a measuring device above a stated height, extra flashing amber lights on the extreme rear of the load, police supervision of traffic, and radio communication between escorts and the towing vehicle. Signing the permit accepts whatever is listed on it, so read the provisions before the truck rolls.
Equipment rules are published even where thresholds are not: a passenger vehicle or pickup with a flashing or rotating amber light visible for a distance, and an oversize load sign of stated dimensions on the roof, or in the bed of a pickup if the sign sits higher than the cab. MDOT lists escort companies as a convenience and states outright that Michigan does not regulate or certify escort services.
When oversize loads can move
Daylight hours only, Monday through Friday, from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset, unless the load fits the weekend envelope, which runs all day Saturday and into Sunday afternoon and excludes mobile and modular homes. Self-propelled vehicles have minimum speeds to hold on non-freeway and freeway routes, and an annual construction-equipment permit cannot demand travel far below the posted limit.
A numbered provision voids the permit during morning and evening peak hours in eleven named counties whenever it is printed on the permit. Holiday blocks run from midday before each major holiday until daylight after, stretching across three-day weekends, with annual construction equipment permits blocked for a shorter list. MDOT publishes a dated holiday calendar each year.
Wind voids a permit past a stated velocity, and the Mackinac Bridge Authority can stop a crossing on the same basis. Four crossings each want at least a day of notice, and two of them escort the load across with their own vehicle.
The spring restriction period
For three months every spring the maximum axle load falls on concrete and concrete-base pavements, and falls further on every other road type, with the wheel load allowance cut to match and a reduced speed limit across the board. MDOT renders the reductions as a conversion table, so a given legal axle becomes a smaller allowable load on rigid pavement and a smaller one again on flexible pavement.
On MDOT-jurisdiction routes the department issues no overweight permits during the restriction except in a public emergency, issues nothing past a published width, and holds the axle count at the statutory cap. Restricted routes are shown on the MDOT Truck Operators Map and posted with signs, and there is a hotline for the current status. Local agencies set their own dates, so a county road can be restricted when a trunkline is not.
Superloads
Michigan draws the single-trip ceiling at published width, height, and overall length figures, and calls anything past them a superload. Before MDOT will even consider one, the shipper has to show that other means were tried: rail, water, an alternate route around the state, or dismantling the object so it comes inside standard permit limits.
When a superload does go forward, the paperwork is heavier than the load. The shipper supplies a written explanation on company letterhead, a completed MiTRIP application, and a route survey certification, and the documentation has to reach the Lansing office at least ten working days before the tentative movement date. MDOT publishes no separate superload fee, so the statutory single-trip amounts are the only permit charges recorded for these moves.
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 Michigan permit stack, see Michigan trucking permits.
Frequently asked questions
What can I haul in Michigan without an oversize permit?
- Anything inside the published width, height, and configuration length limits that also stays inside the axle loading schedule. Off the interstate system Michigan has no gross-weight table at all: what matters is axle spacing, the axle cap, and the wheel load allowance per inch of tire width.
How much does a Michigan single-trip oversize permit cost?
- One flat statutory amount when the load is over-dimension but legal in weight, and a higher flat amount when it is over legal weight. There is no per-mile or per-ton component, and MDOT publishes no separate superload charge on top.
Can a for-hire carrier get an annual Michigan oversize permit?
- No. MDOT states that extended permits are not available to for-hire carriers. They cover equipment the applicant owns or holds under a bona fide lease, identified by make, model, and serial or VIN, so a for-hire operator buys single-trip permits instead.
When does an oversize load need an escort in Michigan?
- For mobile homes and building modules, at published width, combined width and height, and overall length thresholds. For everything else Michigan publishes no dimension table: the escort requirement arrives as a numbered special provision on your individual permit, and signing the permit accepts it.
What counts as a superload in Michigan?
- A load past the published single-trip ceiling for width, height, or overall combination length. MDOT expects rail, water, an alternate route, or dismantling to be ruled out first, then wants a letterhead explanation, a route survey certification, and about two weeks of lead time.
Haul Handbook publishes educational information about trucking registration and compliance requirements. This is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Rules, fees, and deadlines change; confirm with the agency before you file or pay.