Plain-English primers on oversize and superload freight — what needs a permit, how escorts and route surveys work, and where standard oversize ends and superloads begin.
What makes a load oversize, when it needs a permit, pilot cars and police escorts, route surveys, and travel restrictions.
What makes a load a superload, state thresholds, route surveys and engineering, and why they take weeks to plan.
50 of 51 states require a route survey above a set height or width; 16 ft high is the most common trigger. Every state's survey threshold in one table.
How long an oversize permit takes in every state: 34 of 50 issue routine permits in about a day, superloads take 2 to 30 days, and how long a permit stays valid.
34 of 51 states are daylight-only for oversize loads, 15 allow night travel in defined conditions, 8 restrict weekends. The rules by state, and what they do to a multi-day move.
45 states stop oversize loads on Memorial Day. Which holidays, how many states, and how the blackout usually extends to the day before and after.
13 states cut axle weight limits during spring thaw, usually February through May. Which states, when, and by how much.
29 states allow 4 ft of rear overhang before it counts toward length; others allow more under permit; 50 require flags or lights on any overhang. Every state's front and rear limits.
48 states sell an annual oversize permit and 3 do not. Which states offer one, what it covers, what it does not, and when it beats single-trip permits.
Every state's superload line: width from 14 ft to 20 ft, weight from 100,000 to 300,000 lbs. The full table.
How Canadian provinces differ from US states on oversize freight: metric limits, a roughly 140,000 lb gross weight ceiling in Ontario vs 80,000 lbs in the US, escort and pilot car rules, and what changes at the border.
When each state requires a pilot car, a second car, or a high-pole car, why escorts are the biggest cost on an oversize move after the truck, and how to avoid triggering them.
What decides the price of an oversize permit in each state: flat fees, weight-based charges, superload review, and why the permit is the smallest line on an oversize invoice.
A superload is an oversize load past a state's routine-permit limits, usually over 16 ft wide or 160,000 lbs. What triggers it in each state, what it costs, and how long it takes.
Which states require a route survey for an oversize load, at what height and width, what it typically costs, and what the surveyor actually checks.
A flatbed can legally haul a load about 8 ft 6 in tall: the deck is about 5 ft and legal height is 13 ft 6 in in 31 states (14 ft in 20, so 9 ft). Step deck, lowboy and RGN limits, and every state's height rule.
Legal limits, escort and survey triggers, superload thresholds, travel windows and permit fees for any two jurisdictions, side by side.
Legal limits, escort thresholds, and travel rules for oversize loads in every U.S. state and Canadian province.