By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Sep 28, 2026
MnDOT issues oversize and overweight permits for state trunk highways, U.S. highways and the interstate through its online permit system; county and city roads need the local road authority's own approval. Legal limits are 8 feet 6 inches wide, 13 feet 6 inches high, 75 feet for combinations, and 80,000 pounds. A single-trip permit is $15 for 7 days, plus a per-mile damage assessment fee when axle groups are overweight. Loads over 16 feet wide or high, over 150 feet long, or over 250,000 pounds are superloads.
Who issues what in Minnesota
The permit pages
Minnesota-specific requirements
Minnesota intrastate authority is cheap and permanent but not hands-off. The certificate of registration for general freight costs nothing and never expires, yet the carrier must finish MnDOT's online IMCC education within 90 days or lose it, keep a Form E on file at a $100,000/$300,000/$50,000 split limit far below the federal minimum, and follow the federal hours-of-service and ELD rules inside Minnesota, which state law incorporates for intrastate carriers. IRP and IFTA run through one DPS office in St. Paul, oversize permits through MnDOT, and there is no weight-distance tax.
Free, permanent property carrier certificate
The MnDOT certificate of registration for general freight has no application fee, no per-vehicle fee, and no renewal: it is valid until suspended, revoked, or canceled. Household goods movers, by contrast, pay $150 plus $75 per vehicle every year.
IMCC education within 90 days or the registration is void
Every motor carrier first registered with MnDOT after January 1, 2000 must have an official with substantial control of the business complete the Initial Motor Carrier Contact program within 90 days. It is offered online; missing the deadline voids the registration.
Intrastate liability minimum far below federal
A Minnesota intrastate property carrier files a Form E for $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident bodily injury and $50,000 property damage, against the $750,000 federal minimum for interstate general freight in 49 CFR 387.9.
Notarized application and workers' compensation certificate
The registration statement must be signed by an officer, general partner, LLC board member, or sole proprietor and notarized, and must come with a Certificate of Compliance with the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Law; the Department of Labor and Industry assesses a $2,000 penalty for missing or false information.
Construction aggregate and forest products hauls exempt from authority
Sand, gravel, asphalt mix, ready-mix concrete, and crushed rock within 50 miles of home or a public road project, and pulpwood, poles, wood chips, and similar forest products from where they are produced, need no Minnesota operating authority.
Superloads start at 16 feet or 250,000 pounds
Loads over 16 feet wide or high, over 150 feet long, or over 250,000 pounds go through the Minnesota SUPERLOAD Permit System, with physical route surveys no more than 14 days before the move when MnDOT requires one.
Fishing opener and summer weekend travel bans
Oversize loads over 12 feet 6 inches wide or 110 feet long cannot move during the Minnesota fishing opener weekend or from 4 to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, in addition to the major holiday restrictions.
IRP registrations all expire in February
Every Minnesota apportioned registration expires the last day of February, and the IFTA renewal must be finished before the IRP renewal can be.
The Minnesota permit system
- Apply or log in (Minnesota online permit system (mn.gotpermits.com): order annual, seasonal, or single-trip permits; superload applications go through the Minnesota SUPERLOAD Permit System at the same address)
- mn.gotpermits.com
More Minnesota rules that catch carriers out
- State carrier number: note
- No roadside state carrier number. The MnDOT certificate of registration is numbered, but vehicles carry the USDOT number and carrier name. See the state intrastate authority page (B1).
- ELD intrastate adoption: regulation
- Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 9, incorporating 49 CFR part 395 except paragraphs (a), (c), (d), (f), (h), (i), (m), and (n) of section 395.1
- ELD intrastate adoption: summary: text
- Minnesota incorporates 49 CFR part 395 for intrastate carriers by statute, so the federal 11-hour, 14-hour, and 60/70-hour limits and the ELD requirement run inside Minnesota too. Subdivision 9(c) takes drivers of lightweight vehicles out of part 395, and Minn. Stat. 221.012, subd. 22 defines a lightweight vehicle as 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less, unless it carries passengers for hire or placarded hazardous materials. The 2026 Resource Book describes the intrastate scope more broadly, as for-hire carriers with any size vehicle; the statute's lightweight-vehicle carve-out is recorded here as controlling. Minnesota also sets its agricultural planting and harvest period as January 1 through December 31.
- ELD intrastate adoption: scope: value
- The 2026 Resource Book lists intrastate private carriers with a vehicle over 10,000 pounds GVW, for-hire motor carriers with any size vehicle, and private or for-hire carriers in any size vehicle hauling placarded hazardous materials; Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 9(c) nonetheless excludes drivers of lightweight vehicles (10,000 pounds or less, other than passengers for hire or placarded hazmat) from part 395. Excepted intrastate operations include private carriers that are covered farm vehicles, public utilities, cooperative electric associations, telephone companies, or building contractors hauling their own materials and tools shop to site, pipeline welding trucks, utility construction materials within 50 miles of a project, and transportation described in Minn. Stat. 221.025.
- ELD intrastate adoption: scope: regulation
- Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 9(c); Minn. Stat. 221.012, subd. 22; Minn. Stat. 221.031
- ELD intrastate adoption: agricultural period: value
- For 49 CFR 395.1(k), Minnesota's planting and harvest period is January 1 through December 31.
- Intrastate driver age: detail
- Minn. Stat. 221.0314, subd. 4: drivers in intrastate transportation subject to the driver qualification rules must be at least 18; drivers of vehicles subject to the hazardous materials section 221.033 must be at least 21 except as that section provides. Minnesota does not incorporate the federal age-21 rule in 49 CFR 391.11(b)(1) for intrastate driving.
Which permit you need
Match the permit to the problem. A load wider, taller, longer or heavier than Minnesota's legal limits needs a MnDOT oversize or overweight permit. A truck without Minnesota apportioned plates needs a trip permit or a temporary registration from DVS. A qualified vehicle without an IFTA licence needs a fuel permit, unless a border agreement or the two-axle exception covers it.
The two systems do not overlap. A DVS weight increase or base plate registration raises what the truck is registered for, and DVS states it does not replace a MnDOT overweight permit.
MnDOT's permit types
The single trip permit covers one move of a non-divisible load for a week. The job permit covers repeated like loads on one route with the same power unit. Annual permits come in oversize-only and overweight versions for construction equipment, mobile cranes, manufactured homes and boat hauling, plus commodity permits for forest products, livestock, farm products and tow trucks.
Seasonal permits follow Minnesota's weather: a harvest increase, a winter increase on the interstate, snowplow blades, and permits for running during spring load restrictions. Loads past the superload line go through a separate SUPERLOAD system with route reviews.
DVS trip, fuel and temporary registration permits
DVS sells its temporary credentials online through e-Services. The trip permit covers registration for a five-day window and is priced as a slice of the annual registration tax for the truck's weight, limited to one per vehicle every 30 days. The fuel permit is a flat fee for the same window with no limit on how many you buy. Base plate registrations and weight increases run for 30, 60 or 90 days.
Compare beyond Minnesota
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.