The short version: a Minnesota single-trip permit starts at $15 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at no width the state publishes; and the load becomes a superload at over 250,000 lb. Everything below carries the Minnesota 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"rev. · read § 169.80 subd. 2(a): "The total outside width of a vehicle exclusive of rearview mirrors or load securement devices which are not an integral part of the vehicle and not exceeding three inches on each side, or the load may not exceed 102 inches". INCLUSIVE — 102.0 in is legal. The mirror and load-securement exclusion is capped at THREE INCHES PER SIDE, so up to 6 in of measured width can be exempt. § 169.80 subd. 2(c) also allows a low-bed trailer or equipment dolly carrying farm machinery or construction equipment 9 ft on non-interstate roads while requiring a permit for the same rig on the interstate — a route-conditioned exemption, recorded and not applied.
53'undated document · read § 169.81 subd. 2(b), quoted in full above. The 53 ft allowance is conditioned on a kingpin-to-rear-axle-group distance of 43 ft or less, which is held in `kingpinToRearAxleIn`; the unconditional figure is 48 ft. A trailer between 48 and 53 ft whose KPRA is not stated is NOT flagged by this row.
Overall length
75'undated document · read MnDOT: "75' - 0" (Combination vehicles)". Also "45' - 0" (Single vehicles) / 48' - 0" (Mobile cranes)", which § 169.81 subd. 2(a) states as the single-vehicle cap.
Kingpin to rear axle
43'undated document · read § 169.81 subd. 2(b): "if the distance from the kingpin to the centerline of the rear axle group of the semitrailer does not exceed 43 feet". INCLUSIVE. This is the measurement that lets a Minnesota semitrailer run between 48 and 53 ft.
20,000 lb“paved multilane divided” or “paved undivided”
18,000 lb“unpaved multilane divided” or “unpaved undivided”
Tandem axle
34,000 lbundated document · read § 169.824 subd. 1(a) sets a table of maximum gross weights on "any group of two or more consecutive axles ... for the distance between the centers of the first and last axles", and its value for two consecutive axles at 4 to 8 ft is 34,000 lb. The same subdivision publishes Minnesota's measurement rule — see `MINNESOTA_AXLE_SPACING_ROUNDING`. Subd. 1(b) sets a THREE-axle group spanning seven or eight feet at 34,000 lb as well, "except for vehicles manufactured before August 1, 1991" — a permanent grandfather clause a quote cannot evaluate. The parenthesised cells of the published table are governed by subd. 1(b)-(e), which was not fully captured, so the table itself is not encoded.
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 at the bottom of the load over 15' or width at the top of the load over 16' and the road is “paved multilane divided” or “unpaved multilane divided”
$15rev. · read § 169.86 subd. 5(a): "$15 for each single trip permit." This is the ENTIRE state fee for an oversize-only single trip — there is no width, height or length component anywhere in the subdivision. Subd. 5(b) prices a job permit, for "like loads carried on a specific route for a period not to exceed two months", at $36; the same per-mile overweight charge applies on top of either.
Transaction / card
None publishedrev. · read No convenience fee, no percentage and no per-transaction charge is stated in any Minnesota source opened. The 2022 Trucking Regulations say only "Payment must be made before a permit will be issued. Payment can be made using Visa, MC, American Express, and Discover." UNKNOWN, recorded and not filled in: the online permit system itself was not exercised.
Route analysis review
Not yet covered
Route with no bridges
Not yet covered
Dimension bands
Band
Fee
no seasonal width surcharge — width at or under 14 ft 6 in
$0rev. · read Minnesota charges no dimensional oversize fee: § 169.86 subd. 5 prices a single trip at "$15 for each single trip permit" with no width, height or length component anywhere in the subdivision. This $0 band records that positively, so a load under the § 169.86 subd. 5(g) width is priced rather than falling through the schedule.
seasonal width surcharge — over 14 ft 6 in while load restrictions are in effect
$120rev. · read § 169.86 subd. 5(g): "For vehicles which exceed the width limitations set forth in section 169.80 by more than 72 inches, an additional cost equal to $120 added to the amount in paragraph (a) when the permit is issued while seasonal load restrictions pursuant to section 169.87 are in effect." 102 in + 72 in = 174 in; EXCLUSIVE ("by more than 72 inches"). This is the one place in Minnesota law where the frost calendar changes a permit PRICE rather than its legality.
over 14 ft 6 in with no seasonal load restrictions in effect — no surcharge
$0rev. · read The other half of § 169.86 subd. 5(g). The $120 attaches ONLY "when the permit is issued while seasonal load restrictions ... are in effect", so outside the restriction season an extra-wide single trip is still $15. Held as its own row so that a quote which cannot state the season keeps both readings and is told what would settle it, rather than being priced as summer by default.
Per mile, per axle group. § 169.86 subd. 5(e) charges "the product of the distance traveled times the sum of the overweight axle group cost factors shown in the following chart" — a function of the axle CONFIGURATION rather than of gross weight, so two loads of the same gross with different arrangements are different prices.
There is no weight schedule to print, and under this model there is not supposed to be one.
Seasonal posting
6. Minnesota seasonal posting windows
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.
Seasonal posting
Programme
A statewide seasonal programmeSix frost zones, each with a published start and end date. MnDOT announces changes at least three days ahead, which is what makes a several-hour poll comfortably fast enough.
Posting window we watch
02-15 → 06-01MnDOT publishes both a start and an end date per frost zone before the season opens, and announces each at least three calendar days in advance. 2026's table ran Mar 3 (Metro/South/Southeast) to May 15 (North).
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
Trigger
Threshold
Gross weight
over 250,000 lbrev. · read MnDOT: "Minnesota defines a superload as a vehicle or load that exceeds any one of the following: Height: 16 feet Width: 16 feet Length: 150 feet Weight: 250,000 GVW". All four are EXCLUSIVE ("exceeds any one of"). This is agency policy, not statute — the word "superload" appears nowhere in §§ 169.80-169.88 or in Minn. R. 7455 — and unlike Texas there is no short-axle-spacing side trigger.
The dimensions at which Minnesota triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
Measurement
Inspection / review trigger
Width
over 20'undated document · read MnDOT: "When any one dimension exceeds 16 feet high; or 20 feet wide; or 175 feet long". EXCLUSIVE. Corroborated by the 2022 Trucking Regulations for width and height.
Height
over 16'rev. · read "Route Survey: Mandatory for loaded or unloaded vehicles that exceed 16'0" high or 20'0" wide (and in some cases, excessive length)". The 2022 book leaves LENGTH indeterminate where the current page fixes it at 175 ft — a determinacy divergence rather than a value one, so only the current page carries a length row.
Charges exist and no schedule is published. Minnesota requires a lead LICENSED PEACE OFFICER whenever a load crosses the centerline on an undivided roadway, and publishes no rate for one. Minn. Stat. § 169.812, § 299D.085, Minn. R. 7455, the MnDOT escorts page and the May 2025 superload guide were all read; the only price in the scheme is Minn. R. 7455.0300 subp. 1(A) sets $180 initial and $90 renewal for the CIVILIAN certification course. MnDOT devolves the escort to three tiers of agency — State Patrol, county sheriffs, city police — and says "individual agency requirements may vary". Minnesota also requires the officer to hold the same § 299D.085 certificate as a civilian, so not every trooper qualifies.
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 Minnesota. 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.
Minn. R. ch. 7455 — Pilot/escort vehicle drivers — Minnesota Department of Public Safety — 7455.0300 subp. 1 and subp. 3 (certification and reciprocity), 7455.1000 item (10) (height pole); "Published Electronically: February 25, 2013" rev. · read
Minn. Stat. § 169.80 — Width, height, length — Office of the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota — subd. 2(a); the page carries no publication date, so the year comes from the section’s own amendment table rev. · read
Minn. Stat. § 169.81 — Height and length of vehicles — Office of the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota — subd. 1 (height), subd. 2 (single vehicle and semitrailer), subd. 3 (combination); the amendment table shows no year for subd. 1 undated document · read
Minn. Stat. § 169.812 — Escort vehicles — Office of the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota — subd. 2 (width) and subd. 3 (length); History "2020 c 100 s 11; 1Sp2021 c 5 art 4 s 65". RE-VERIFIED 2026-10-18 against the 2025 edition, and subd. 2 reads exactly as this file encodes it: "(b) Only one rear escort vehicle is required on a multilane divided roadway if the width of an overdimensional load is more than 15 feet as measured at the bottom of the load or is more than 16 feet as measured at the top of the load. (c) Only one lead escort vehicle and one rear escort vehicle is required on any undivided roadway if [the same test]." THE DISJUNCTION IS THE STATUTE'S OWN — "or", not "and" — which is why `WIDTH_TRIGGER` is an `any` of the two measures and not an `all`. MnDOT's own escort page corroborates the figures in the same words ("15 feet wide as measured at the bottom, or 16 feet wide as measured at the top") and no MnDOT document disagrees with the statute; Minn. R. 8810.9000 was REPEALED (L 2012 c 287) and Minn. R. 7455.0800 covers escort signing only, with no width in it. NOTHING IN THE PUBLISHED TEXT DERIVES EITHER MEASURE FROM AN OVERALL WIDTH, which is the settled ground this file is built on. Two live caveats, neither of which moves a threshold: the "or" makes paragraph (a)'s exemption and paragraphs (b)/(c)'s requirement BOTH true of a load 15.5 ft at the bottom and 15.8 ft at the top, and the statute does not say which controls; and HF 2798 (94th Leg., 2025) proposes to reword subd. 2(e) and add a new (f) allowing fewer escorts "if alternative safety measures are established by the carrier", but it is not in the 2025 edition and leaves the 15 ft / 16 ft figures untouched. rev. · read
Minn. Stat. § 169.86 — Special permits; fees — Office of the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota — subd. 5(a) $15 single trip, subd. 5(e) the overweight axle group cost factors, subd. 5(g) the $120 seasonal width surcharge, subd. 5a the excessive-gross-weight tax; History "2012 c 287 art 3 s 35" rev. · read
MnDOT — Damage assessment fee calculator — Minnesota Department of Transportation — the axle-group cost-factor table indexed by TOTAL axle group weight, and MnDOT’s own worked example undated document · read
MnDOT — Guide to Transporting Superloads in Minnesota — Minnesota Department of Transportation — printed header "May 2025" on every page; the PDF title metadata ("Route Survey Version 2024") is left over from another document and is not used rev. · read
MnDOT — Pilot car escorts — Minnesota Department of Transportation — undated page; the footer "2026 Minnesota Department of Transportation" is a copyright line, not a revision date undated document · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Minnesota?
The single-trip base is $15, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Minnesota require a pilot car?
Minnesota publishes no numeric width trigger for an escort in the documents on file. That does not mean none is ever required — see the escort section above.
What is a superload in Minnesota?
Minnesota's published gross-weight superload line is over 250,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
Do Minnesota'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.