How to Read an Oversize Permit: All 48 State Guides

Every state issues its own oversize permit, and every state lays it out differently. This page puts all 48 contiguous states in one table: our guide to reading that state’s permit (where we have one), the state’s page in the JaloPermit Atlas, the office that issues the permit, and a link to the state’s official permit page.

We have 21 state guides live so far. Each one walks through a real permit layout from that state: where the route is printed, where the pilot car, curfew and holiday conditions sit, what the dimensions and axle weights mean, and which attachments are part of the permit. More guides are on the way for the other 27 states.

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How to use these guides

1. Start with the state that issued your permit. On a multi-state trip you carry one permit per state, and each one follows its own rules. Read each permit on its own terms. Our guide to multi-state oversize permit trips covers the hand-offs at state lines.
2. Open our state guide if there is one. It shows where that state prints each condition, and the wording it uses for them.
3. Check the Atlas page for the basics. Every state has a page in the JaloPermit Atlas with its legal limits, pilot car thresholds, travel times and official links on one screen.
4. Go to the official permit page for anything you need to order, amend or confirm. The issuing office is the authority on your permit. JaloPermit does not issue, order or file permits.
5. Read the permit itself last, and trust it first. If a guide, the Atlas or a general rule disagrees with what is printed on your permit, the permit face wins. Call the issuing office if something is unclear.

New to reading permits? Start with how to read an oversize load permit, which covers the parts every state permit shares.

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Oversize permit guides by state: all 48

On a phone, swipe the table sideways. “Guide coming” means we have not published that state’s permit-reading guide yet; the Atlas page and official link for that state are live now.

Office names and permit links were checked November 15, 2026 on the state agency’s own site, or carried over from the official sources in our published state guides. We link each state’s own permit page rather than outside permit services. Where the state runs its online permit system on a separate web address, we link it only when the state names that system as its own: Idaho’s permit system at permits4idaho.com is the one named in the Idaho Transportation Department’s handbook, and New Hampshire’s permit website at nhdotpermits.org is run by NHDOT’s Oversize/Overweight Permit Office.

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The permit face wins

State guides and rules pages describe the usual case. Your permit describes your load. When they differ, follow the permit:

• Route. Drive the route printed on the permit, in the order printed. A state guide can show you where the route sits on the page; it can’t tell you a different route is fine.
• Travel times. Curfews, daylight limits and holiday bans on the permit apply even if a general rule allows more. See checking curfews and travel restrictions, night travel rules by state and holiday restrictions by state.
• Pilot cars. The number and position of pilot cars on the permit is what counts, not a generic table. Our pilot car requirements by state page shows the usual thresholds.
• Attachments. Provision sheets, bridge lists and route annexes are part of the permit. Read every page.

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States without a guide yet

We are still writing guides for Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Until then, each of those rows links to the state’s Atlas page and its official permit page, and the parts every permit shares are covered in how to read an oversize load permit. We add each new guide to this table on the day it goes live.

Live guides: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming.

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Read your own permit in one place

Holding an issued permit PDF? Drop it into the permit decoder on the JaloPermit homepage. It reads the state-issued permit and lays out the route, pilot cars, curfews, dimensions and limits on one card, with a route map, so you can check each item against the original. Guests get three free decodes a day with no account and no card. Logged-in users get 10 free decodes a day. After those free decodes, each one is $3.50. There is no subscription.

JaloPermit, which publishes this guide, is a reading aid for issued permit PDFs. It is not a permit-filing service and it does not plan routes or provide navigation. The issued permit always wins.

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FAQs