The short version: a North Carolina 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 over 132,000 lb. Everything below carries the North Carolina 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 "The total outside width of any vehicle or the load thereon shall not exceed 102 inches, except as otherwise provided in this section." Commodity and vehicle-specific statutory exceptions exist and are not modelled.
Height
Three official sources disagree13'6" — versus — 14' — versus — 14'
Semitrailer length
53'undated document · read "Motor vehicle combinations of one semitrailer of not more than 53 feet in length and a truck tractor (power unit) may exceed the 60-foot maximum length." The general limits are 40 ft for a single vehicle and 60 ft for a combination.
Overall length
None published
Kingpin to rear axle
None published
Front overhang
None published
Rear overhang
None published
Gross weight
80,000 lbundated document · read "...or the maximum gross weight limit of 80,000 pounds." The lawful gross can be LOWER under the statutory axle-group table or a posted road or bridge restriction, neither of which a quote can see.
Single axle
20,000 lbundated document · read "The single-axle weight of a vehicle or combination of vehicles shall not exceed 20,000 pounds."
Tandem axle
38,000 lbundated document · read "The tandem-axle weight of a vehicle or combination of vehicles shall not exceed 38,000 pounds."
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.
2 certified escortsThe count is settled; the source does not say front or rear — at least 1. Published as: “three certified escort vehicles shall be required; one shall be the North Carolina State Highway Patrol”Cannot be reduced to a number: North Carolina requires THREE escorts for a load over 16 ft wide and requires one of the three to be a State Highway Patrol escort. NCDOT does not publish where any of the three ride, and the Highway Patrol publishes no hourly or per-mile rate — G.S. §143B-1729 only requires the mover to pay "a fee covering the full cost to administer, plan, and carry out the escort within this State". Two civilian pilot cars are counted here; the Highway Patrol vehicle is a police escort whose cost is not in the permit total and cannot be estimated from published sources. Note also that this is at or above the width at which North Carolina stops issuing an ordinary single-trip permit at all.
$0undated document · read The statute states one charge and no base: "a fee of twelve dollars ($12.00) for each dimension over lawful dimensions". NCDOT's handbook prints the resulting range as "$12 - $48 (state fee)", which is four dimensions at twelve dollars and no issuance charge on top.
Transaction / card
Not yet covered
Route analysis review
$100rev. · read "$100 non-refundable application fee due upon submission of application."
Route with no bridges
$100undated document · read North Carolina's $100 application fee is flat: it does not vary with whether the approved route crosses a structure, so the same amount applies.
Dimension bands
Band
Fee
over legal width, 13 ft 6 in high or under — one over-legal dimension at $12
$12undated document · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over legal width and over 14 ft high — two over-legal dimensions at $12 each
$24undated document · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over 14 ft high at legal width — one over-legal dimension at $12
$12undated document · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over legal width, between 13 ft 6 in and 14 ft high — one over-legal dimension at $12, reading the legal height as the statute’s 14 ft
$12undated document · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively. This is the band North Carolina's own documents disagree about: G.S. §20-116 puts the legal height at 14 ft, so a load here is over on WIDTH ONLY and owes $12; the 2024 EVO Handbook's written words put it at 13 ft 6 in, so the same load is over on width AND height and owes $24.
over legal width, 13 ft 6 in high or under — one over-legal dimension at $12
$12rev. · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over legal width and over 14 ft high — two over-legal dimensions at $12 each
$24rev. · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over 14 ft high at legal width — one over-legal dimension at $12
$12rev. · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively.
over legal width, between 13 ft 6 in and 14 ft high — two over-legal dimensions at $24, reading the legal height as the EVO Handbook’s written 13 ft 6 in
$24rev. · read $12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions (G.S. §20-119); the legal width of 102 in is not in dispute. The $12 charge for over-legal LENGTH is not banded here — see the `nc-length-charge-not-banded` rule for why — and the $12 charge for over-legal WEIGHT is in `overweightBands`, which adds cumulatively. This is the band North Carolina's own documents disagree about: G.S. §20-116 puts the legal height at 14 ft, so a load here is over on WIDTH ONLY and owes $12; the 2024 EVO Handbook's written words put it at 13 ft 6 in, so the same load is over on width AND height and owes $24.
Graduated weight bands. The Superload Publication states the tier above the threshold as "$3.00 per 1,000 lbs. over 132,000 lbs. gross weight.", added to the dimensional fee.
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.
North Carolina is not in the seasonal-restriction registry, so we hold no posting window for it and are not inventing one.
Superload
7. North Carolina's superload threshold
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
Trigger
Threshold
Gross weight
over 132,000 lbrev. · read "Weight in excess of 132,000 pounds gross weight on seven or more axles".
The dimensions at which North Carolina triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
Measurement
Inspection / review trigger
Width
Not yet covered
Height
Not yet covered
Length
Not yet covered
Police escorts
9. Police escorts
Charges exist and no schedule is published. One of the three escorts over 16 ft wide must be a State Highway Patrol escort. The Highway Patrol publishes no hourly or per-mile rate; G.S. §143B-1729 requires only "a fee covering the full cost to administer, plan, and carry out the escort".
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 North Carolina. 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.
N.C. Gen. Stat. §20-119 — Special permits for oversize/overweight vehicles — North Carolina General Assembly — "$12.00 for each dimension over lawful dimensions, including height, length, width, and weight up to 132,000 pounds"; $3.00 per 1,000 lb above that; the $100 engineering-study application fee undated document · read
NCDOT — 2024 EVO Handbook (PDF) — North Carolina Department of Transportation — superload triggers; height-pole specification; EVO course payment rev. · read
NCDOT — General Information and Instructions, Rev. 3/25 (PDF) — North Carolina Department of Transportation — "North Carolina requires escort/pilot vehicle drivers to be certified in accordance with 19A NCAC 02D."; 8-hour course, valid 4 years rev. · read
NCDOT — Oversize/Overweight Permit Handbook (PDF, undated) — North Carolina Department of Transportation — "Fee $12 - $48 (state fee)"; "Width 16 feet maximum"; 40 ft single vehicle / 60 ft combination; the 150 ft escort row; the steer-axle superload row undated document · read
NCDOT — Single Trip Publication (ST-1), Rev. 11/19 (PDF) — North Carolina Department of Transportation — "Permit is valid for 10 calendar days. Cost for permit is $12 per dimension over the legal limit."; "Width: 16' 11" maximum." rev. · read
NCDOT — Superload Publication (SL-6), Rev. 1/20 (PDF) — North Carolina Department of Transportation — "Width: 17' or greater"; "$3.00 per 1,000 lbs. over 132,000 lbs. gross weight."; "$100 non-refundable application fee"; 10 business days rev. · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in North Carolina?
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 North Carolina require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 12'.
What is a superload in North Carolina?
North Carolina's published gross-weight superload line is over 132,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
Do North Carolina's own documents contradict each other?
Yes, in 3 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.