The short version: a Florida single-trip permit starts at $0 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at over 12' wide; and the load becomes a superload at a gross weight the state does not publish. Everything below carries the Florida document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
Corridor
1. Where the load goes next
The jurisdictions this one borders, each chip carrying the fact that decides whether that crossing is the expensive one — so the row is itself a small comparison. A multi-state lane is the actual job, and from here it is one click per state rather than a return to an alphabetical index.
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
Measure
Legal limit
Width
8'6"undated document · read FS 316.515(1). The same subsection lets FDOT or a local authority restrict vehicles over 96 inches on roads without at least one 12-foot through lane in each direction — a route-specific restriction rather than a statewide limit, so it is not applied here; FDOT's own permit guidance repeats it as "exceeds 102" or exceeds 96" on less than 12' wide travel lane".
Height
13'6"undated document · read FS 316.515(2): "No vehicle may exceed a height of 13 feet 6 inches, inclusive of load carried thereon. However, an automobile transporter may measure a height not to exceed 14 feet." The transporter allowance is not applied because a quote does not collect the body style.
3'undated document · read FS 316.515(4). A stinger-steered automobile transporter may carry 4 ft; the body style is not collected, so the general limit is used.
Rear overhang
None published
Gross weight
80,000 lbundated document · read FS 316.535: "Such overall gross weight of any vehicle or combination of vehicles may not exceed 80,000 pounds, including all enforcement tolerances." The same formula and cap appear in subsection (4) for the Interstate and (5) off it.
Single axle
20,000 lbundated document · read FS 316.535(1). FS 316.545(2)(a) builds a 10-percent scale tolerance into the published weight tables, and permit weights "shall be deemed to include all allowable tolerances".
Not one number per dimension — the whole staircase. Each row is a condition the state actually publishes, what it requires when that condition holds, and the clause it comes from. Where a rule requires escorts and the source states no number, the row says that in the source's own words rather than reporting no requirement.
When
What is required
Source
width from 12' (exclusive) to 14'
1 certified escortCannot be reduced to a number: FAC 14-26.012(7)(c) requires "A minimum of one escort vehicle, with escort, ... at all times" in this width band, and TWO "On roadway lanes less than 12 feet wide, bridges with less than 30 feet curb to curb, and in rural areas with traffic volume greater than 12,000 Average Daily Traffic (ADT) per lane or in urbanized areas (more than 50,000 population) with ADT greater than 8,000 vehicles per lane ... except on loads with a minimum of four warning lights mounted two in front and two in the rear". Lane width, bridge width, ADT and the load's lighting are not collected on a quote, so ONE escort is priced and the second cannot be ruled out. Position follows the road type: the escort precedes the load on a two-lane highway and follows it on a four-lane divided one.
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behindAdvisory: Trip permits only in this band, and FAC 14-26.012(7)(d)3 adds that "Two lane roadways shall not be used as a connector route whenever viable four lane routes are available." Sixteen feet is also the maximum width for a manufactured building.
1 certified escort1 in frontHeight pole requiredAdvisory: FAC 14-26.012: "For over height loads, the lead vehicle must have a height indicator, i.e., height pole, used to determine vertical clearance. This device must be manufactured of non-conductive and non-destructive material and must be positioned at a height of at least 6 inches above the height of the load being escorted." A load between 13 ft 6 in and 14 ft 6 in needs a permit but no escort and therefore no pole.
1 certified escort1 in front1 police escort in frontHeight pole requiredCannot be reduced to a number: FAC 14-26.012(8)(c): "One law enforcement escort in addition to one qualified escort is required. The qualified escort must precede the load with a vertical height indicator", and "Appropriate utility personnel will also be required whenever the load will encounter low barriers such as overhead structures, traffic signals, and low wires." Movement is restricted to local moves; multi-trip permits stop at 18 ft; over 18 ft an affidavit verifying the route clears the load by six inches is required. Florida publishes no law-enforcement escort rate — FHP escorts of commercial overdimensional loads are off-duty police employment under FHP Policy 5.10 — so the trooper and any utility standby are excluded from the total.
1 certified escort1 behindAdvisory: FAC 14-26.012(4): "If the load is over length only, the escort vehicle shall be in the rear of the load at all times." A truck tractor-semitrailer with three points of articulation is allowed up to 105 ft with no escort at all.
overall length over 150' and the road is “fl limited access” or “interstate”
1 certified escort1 behindAdvisory: FAC 14-26.012(9): "Two qualified escorts are required when the length exceeds 150 feet unless the vehicle is traveling on a limited access facility, then only one qualified escort is required." This is one of only two places in the whole chapter where the road class changes the escort COUNT rather than the escort position.
1 certified escort1 behind1 police escort in frontCannot be reduced to a number: FAC 14-26.012(9): "One law enforcement escort and one qualified escort are required when the length exceeds 250 feet." Florida publishes no law-enforcement escort rate anywhere in FHP Policy 5.10, FAC 14-26, FS 316.550 or on FDOT's permit pages, and FHP treats commercial overdimensional escorts as off-duty police employment requiring troop-commander approval, an Escort Safety Plan (HSMV 61199), a release of liability, five working days' notice and at least two marked patrol vehicles. No police-escort amount is included and none can be estimated.
$0rev. · read FAC 14-26.008 sets out Tables 1A and 1B and no separate base or issuance charge. FS 316.550(6): "The minimum fee for issuing any such permit shall be $5." — a floor that Table 1A's $5 row already meets, not an amount added to the tables.
Transaction / card
$5rev. · read Table 1B "(3) SPECIAL PERMIT FEES Transmission Fee $5.00", priced in the TRIP PERMIT column and NOT APPLICABLE for multi-trip permits. No percentage surcharge appears anywhere in FAC 14-26; third-party wire-service charges are expressly excluded from the $3.33 by the rule's own wording. When the fee is "applicable" is not defined — see `fl-transmission-fee-applicability`.
Route analysis review
Not yet covered
Route with no bridges
Not yet covered
Dimension bands
Band
Fee
up to 12 ft wide, 13 ft 6 in high and 85 ft long
$5rev. · read "Up to 12 feet wide, or up to 13 feet 6 inches high or up to 85 feet long. $5.00" (trip permit, 10 days). FS 316.550(6) sets $5 as the minimum fee for issuing any permit, so this row is also that floor.
over 12 ft wide, up to 14 ft wide / 14 ft 6 in high / 95 ft long
$15rev. · read "Up to 14 feet wide or up to 14 feet 6 inches high or up to 95 feet long. $15.00", reached on WIDTH.
over 13 ft 6 in high, up to 14 ft wide / 14 ft 6 in high / 95 ft long
$15rev. · read The same $15 step reached on HEIGHT rather than width. Bounded at the step's own ceilings so it cannot also match a load already covered by the $5 row.
over 85 ft long, up to 14 ft wide / 14 ft 6 in high / 95 ft long
$15rev. · read The same $15 step reached on LENGTH.
over 14 ft 6 in high, up to 14 ft wide / 18 ft high / 120 ft long
$25rev. · read "Up to 14 feet wide or up to 18 feet high or up to 120 feet long. $25.00", reached on HEIGHT. Width cannot exceed 14 ft inside this step — the row above it in the table has the same width ceiling.
over 95 ft long, up to 14 ft wide / 18 ft high / 120 ft long
$25rev. · read The same $25 step reached on LENGTH.
over 14 ft wide
$25rev. · read "Over 14 feet wide or over 18 feet high or over 120 feet long. $25.00" — the trip-permit price does not rise past $25 however far over the load is, though multi-trip permits are NOT ISSUED above this line and the movement conditions tighten sharply.
over 18 ft high
$25rev. · read The same $25 top row reached on HEIGHT.
over 120 ft long
$25rev. · read The same $25 top row reached on LENGTH.
Priced by the mile. FAC 14-26.008 Table 1B prices the overweight trip permit per mile at a rate stepped by gross weight, from $0.27 up to 95,000 lb to $0.47 up to 162,000 lb, then "$0.003 Per 1,000 Pounds Per Mile" above that. Miles are billed in 25-mile increments rounded up, a $3.33 administrative cost is added for weights over 80,000 lb, and the result is rounded up to the nearest dollar. Florida prices the oversize and overweight components separately and adds them, subject to a combined cap the rule states but does not quantify.
Rounding is not a detail here: the same rate over the same miles can differ by a whole increment depending on which pounds are rounded and in which direction, so the rule is printed with the source's own words rather than applied silently.
Gross weight
Axles
Rate and rounding
Source
80,001 lb – 95,000 lb
any
$0.27 per milemiles are rounded up to a multiple of 25plus $3.33 added before any dollar roundingthe result is rounded up to the whole dollar
A permit priced against an unposted-road assumption in March is simply wrong, and wrong in the expensive direction. This is the window we watch, the basis for that window in the state's own orders or statute, and the authority that posts it.
Florida is not in the seasonal-restriction registry, so we hold no posting window for it and are not inventing one.
Superload
7. Florida's superload threshold
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
The dimensions at which Florida triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
Measurement
Inspection / review trigger
Width
over 16'rev. · read secondary hostThe survey letter must verify "2 feet on each side for width greater than 16 feet". Applications over 22 ft wide must be supported by the letter. The survey is the applicant's cost, not a state charge.
Height
over 15'rev. · read secondary hostThe survey letter must verify "clearances exceed the requested permitted dimension by a minimum of 6 inches for height greater than 15 feet". Applications over 18 ft high must be supported by the letter.
Length
Not yet covered
Police escorts
9. Police escorts
No schedule exists, and that is structural rather than a gap. FHP escorts of commercial overdimensional loads are OFF-DUTY POLICE EMPLOYMENT under FHP Policy 5.10, approved troop by troop, so there is no statewide schedule. Nothing in FHP 5.10, FAC 14-26, FS 316.550 or FDOT's permit pages states a rate.
This is a positive finding: we searched and there is nothing to quote. It is not the same as "no police escort is ever required here".
Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for Florida. The seasonal picture — which is a different question — is in section 6 above.
Why those windows are absent rather than estimated
They are not guessed at here. What we do publish is the seasonal weight-restriction picture, with the date we last read each state's own bulletin — a curfew invented from a plausible pattern is worth less than an honest gap, because a reader cannot tell the two apart on the page.
Who issues it
11. Permit office
The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure. We publish no per-state permit-office phone number.
Why there is no phone number here
We are not publishing per-state permit-office phone numbers yet, and the reason is worth stating: the two seed lists available for them are both demonstrably stale — the federal one gives two different states the same phone number — and a wrong number on a page like this costs somebody a morning. The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure, which is the part we can stand behind today.
Source conflicts
12. Where the sources disagree
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
legal semitrailer length
57'6"Fla. Admin. Code r. 14-26.008 — Schedule of Fees (FDOT copy) — Table 1A overdimension fees; Table 1B overweight fees; the $3.33 administrative cost and the 25-mile worked example; "(3) SPECIAL PERMIT FEES Transmission Fee $5.00" rev. · read
57'Fla. Stat. §316.515 — Maximum width, height, length — width 102 in (96 in on roads without a 12 ft through lane); height 13 ft 6 in (14 ft for automobile transporters); semitrailer 48 ft, or up to 57 ft with a kingpin-to-rear-axle distance not over 41 ft; front overhang 3 ft; last amended s. 2, ch. 2019-149 undated document · read
Both are in effect and neither has been adopted.
legal tandem-axle weight
40,000 lbFla. Stat. §316.535 — Maximum weights — single axle 20,000 lb; W = 500((LN ÷ (N–1)) + 12N + 36) and 80,000 lb gross "including all enforcement tolerances"; subsection (3) axle-spacing table; last amended s. 6, ch. 2002-20 undated document · read
34,000 lbFla. Stat. §316.535 — Maximum weights — single axle 20,000 lb; W = 500((LN ÷ (N–1)) + 12N + 36) and 80,000 lb gross "including all enforcement tolerances"; subsection (3) axle-spacing table; last amended s. 6, ch. 2002-20 undated document · read
FDOT — Oversize/Overweight Permits (self-issue thresholds) — Florida Department of Transportation — "Customers can SELF-ISSUE Trip permits using the Permit Application System (PAS) for loads up to 16 feet wide, 18 feet high, 150 long and 200,000 pounds (140,000 pounds for self-propelled equipment)." undated document · read
Fla. Admin. Code r. 14-26.00411 — Permitting process (via Cornell LII) — Cornell Legal Information Institute, reproducing FAC 14-26 — (4) payment methods and ten-business-day lead time; (5) route survey and survey letter; (6) structural evaluation at any axle over 30,000 lb or gross of 300,000 lb or more rev. · read secondary host
Fla. Admin. Code r. 14-26.008 — Schedule of Fees (FDOT copy) — Florida Department of Transportation — Table 1A overdimension fees; Table 1B overweight fees; the $3.33 administrative cost and the 25-mile worked example; "(3) SPECIAL PERMIT FEES Transmission Fee $5.00" rev. · read
Fla. Stat. §316.515 — Maximum width, height, length — The Florida Senate, 2024 Florida Statutes — width 102 in (96 in on roads without a 12 ft through lane); height 13 ft 6 in (14 ft for automobile transporters); semitrailer 48 ft, or up to 57 ft with a kingpin-to-rear-axle distance not over 41 ft; front overhang 3 ft; last amended s. 2, ch. 2019-149 undated document · read
Fla. Stat. §316.535 — Maximum weights — The Florida Senate, 2024 Florida Statutes — single axle 20,000 lb; W = 500((LN ÷ (N–1)) + 12N + 36) and 80,000 lb gross "including all enforcement tolerances"; subsection (3) axle-spacing table; last amended s. 6, ch. 2002-20 undated document · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Florida?
The single-trip base is $0, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Florida require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 12'.
What is a superload in Florida?
Florida publishes no gross-weight superload threshold in the documents on file — see the superload section, which shows the dimensional triggers it does publish.
Do Florida's own documents contradict each other?
Yes, in 2 place(s) we hold both documents for. They are set out in full above, each with its pinpoint citation, and none of them has been adopted.