The short version: a Washington single-trip permit starts at $0 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at over 11' wide; and the load becomes a superload at over 200,000 lb. Everything below carries the Washington 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 RCW 46.44.010 states the limit as "eight and one-half feet"; normalised to inches. A width-exclusive safety device identified under RCW 46.44.101 may extend up to three inches beyond the body, and a motor home, travel trailer or camper may carry appurtenances four inches beyond the body or six for an awning (RCW 46.44.013) — none of which is applied, because a quote does not collect the device or the body style.
Height
14'rev. · read Unlike Missouri and Oklahoma, Washington sets ONE height for every public highway — there is no county-road or non-designated-route step down to 13 ft 6 in. The exemption is for emergency vehicles and public-utility repair equipment only.
Semitrailer length
53'rev. · read RCW 46.44.030(2)(a) regulates the trailing unit, not the combination: "a semitrailer length in excess of 53 feet". A tractor and two trailers is capped at 61 ft of combined trailer length, and unladen inventory trailers under 26,000 lb may reach 82 ft overall under (2)(b).
Overall length
None published
Kingpin to rear axle
None published
Front overhang
3'rev. · read Measured beyond the front wheels, or beyond the front bumper where one is fitted.
Rear overhang
15'rev. · read Measured from the CENTER OF THE LAST AXLE, not from the rear of the deck — the same datum WAC 468-38-100(1)(d) and (g) use for their escort triggers, so the legal limit and the escort thresholds are on the same measurement.
Gross weight
80,000 lbrev. · read RCW 46.44.041 states no flat gross cap. Its table is generated by W = 500((LN/(N-1)) + 12N + 36), rounded to the nearest 500 lb, and RISES TO 105,500 lb for five to nine axles at 86 ft or more of extreme spacing. 80,000 lb is what the same formula gives for the ordinary five-axle tractor-semitrailer at 51 ft, and what federal law allows for regular Interstate operation. A load that is legal in Washington at 95,000 lb on a long spread is therefore shown here as overweight; that is conservative in the customer's favour on the permit question and NOT conservative on the fee, which is why `wa-excess-base-is-configuration-dependent` sends any overweight Washington move to review. RCW 46.44.041 separately allows up to 80,000 lb, off the Interstate, for loads legally haulable in a bordering sales-tax state moving to a port district within four miles of that border.
Single axle
20,000 lbrev. · read RCW 46.44.042 additionally caps any tire at 600 lb per inch of tire width, requires four or more tires on an axle carrying over 10,000 lb, and derates a two-tire axle to 500 lb per inch — none of which is applied here, because a quote does not collect tire width or count. That section does not apply to a nonreducible load moving under an oversize or overweight permit.
Tandem axle
34,000 lbrev. · read The statutory table gives 34,000 lb for two axles spaced from 4 ft up to and including 8 ft, and two consecutive tandem sets may each carry 34,000 lb when the first and last axles of the sets are 36 ft or more apart. Where inches are involved the statute rounds the spacing: "Under six inches take lower, six inches or over take higher."
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.
1 certified escort1 in frontHeight pole requiredAdvisory: WAC 468-38-100(10)(f) and (14): the pole must be nonconductive and nondestructive with a flexible upper portion, must extend between three and six inches above the load, and must be mounted on the front of the lead pilot/escort vehicle. It may be waived only by an alternative authorisation stated on the special permit.
the road is “two lane” and trailer length over 105' or rear overhang over 1/3 of trailer length
1 certified escort1 behindAdvisory: WAC 468-38-100(3) allows a riding certified flagperson to substitute for this rear pilot/escort vehicle when the special permit authorises it. The quote assumes a pilot car, which is the more expensive of the two.
the road is “divided” or “interstate” or “multilane undivided” and trailer length over 125'
1 certified escort1 behindAdvisory: WAC 468-38-100(3) allows a riding certified flagperson to substitute for this rear pilot/escort vehicle when the special permit authorises it.
$0rev. · read RCW 46.44.0941 lists a flat fee per permit type and no separate issuance or processing charge on top of it. The whole single-trip oversize charge is the $10.00 row, held in `oversizeFeeBands` so that RCW 46.44.096's no-double-charging rule can reach it.
Transaction / card
None publishedundated document · read Self-issued through eSNOOPI Pro at no surcharge. RCW 46.44.096 lets an appointed agent "retain three dollars and fifty cents for each permit sold" — a share of the fee, not an addition to it.
Route analysis review
Not yet covered
Route with no bridges
Not yet covered
Dimension bands
Band
Fee
single-trip permit, any overlegal dimension
$10rev. · read "All overlegal loads, except overweight, single\n\ntrip. . . .$ 10.00" — the first and only single-trip row of the RCW 46.44.0941 table. WSDOT prints the permit's validity as three days.
Priced by the mile. RCW 46.44.0941's Overweight Fee Schedule is a per-mile rate stepped by excess weight over legal capacity — $0.07 a mile at the bottom, $4.25 at 100,000 lb of excess, then $4.25 plus 50 cents for each further 5,000 lb increment or portion thereof. RCW 46.44.096 measures the mileage from the department's planning survey records and takes the excess as "gross loadings in excess of loadings authorized by law or axle loadings in excess of loadings authorized by law, whichever is the greater". A $14.00 minimum applies to any overweight permit, and the computed amount is carried to the next full dollar at 50 cents and reduced to it at 49.
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 – 89,999 lb
any
$0.07 per mileminimum $14the result is rounded to the nearest 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.
Seasonal posting
Programme
A statewide seasonal programmeWashington is one of the 21 states this engine already prices permits for, so a restriction here can change a quote we issue. The feed is a typed JSON API and carries a start and end date per restriction.
Posting window we watch
02-01 → 05-15WSDOT posts seasonal load restrictions on state highways during the spring thaw and publishes them alongside its other commercial-vehicle restrictions in the Traveler Information API.
Above one of these, the state stops issuing over the counter and prices the move after an engineering review.
Trigger
Threshold
Gross weight
over 200,000 lbrev. · read "A superload is any nondivisible load that exceeds two hundred thousand pounds". "Exceeds" — 200,000 lb exactly is still an ordinary permit. RCW 46.44.091(5) requires the application at least thirty calendar days ahead.
Width
over 16'rev. · read A dimensional superload application must be filed at least seven calendar days before the move.
The dimensions at which Washington 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
over 14'rev. · read The prerun is performed and paid for by the applicant, so it is not a state charge and is not in the permit total.
Length
Not yet covered
Police escorts
9. Police escorts
Charges exist and no schedule is published. Neither the Washington State Patrol nor WSDOT publishes an application fee, hourly rate, mileage rate, minimum hours, per diem or cancellation charge in the RCW, the WAC or their own FAQs. WSP's own answer to "When is an escort car required?" is "Please contact WSDOT".
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 Washington. 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.
A 999-pound band where neither document sets a fee
The statute prices "95,000-99,999 pounds . . . . $ 3.87" while WSDOT's own schedule bands the same step as "95,000-99,000". Between 179,001 lb and 179,999 lb the two documents do not cover the same ground, so no fee is quoted. Reading the statute's figure into the schedule's gap would resolve, in favour of one document, a defect that consists precisely of the two not ending the band in the same place.
RCW 46.44.010 — Maximum width — Washington State Legislature — "The total outside width of any vehicle or load thereon must not exceed eight and one-half feet"; width-exclusive safety devices may add up to three inches rev. · read
RCW 46.44.020 — Maximum height — Washington State Legislature — "It is unlawful for any vehicle unladen or with load to exceed a height of fourteen feet" rev. · read
RCW 46.44.030 — Maximum length — Washington State Legislature — "a semitrailer length in excess of 53 feet"; single vehicle 40 ft; two trailing units 61 ft; truck-and-trailer 75 ft overall rev. · read
RCW 46.44.034 — Front and rear protrusions — Washington State Legislature — (1) three feet beyond the front wheels; (2) fifteen feet beyond the center of the last axle rev. · read
RCW 46.44.041 — Maximum gross weights, axle group table — Washington State Legislature — single axle 20,000 lb; two consecutive tandem sets 34,000 lb each at 36 ft or more; W = 500((LN/N-1)+12N+36); table caps at 105,500 lb for 5–9 axles at 86 ft or more rev. · read
RCW 46.44.092 — Maximum widths a special permit may authorise — Washington State Legislature — "On two-lane highways, fourteen feet; ... where a physical barrier serving as a median divider separates opposing traffic lanes, twenty feet; ... without a physical barrier ..., thirty-two feet." rev. · read
RCW 46.44.096 — Determining fees; agents — Washington State Legislature — "whichever is the greater"; "Loads which are overweight and oversize shall be charged the fee for the overweight permit without additional fees being assessed for the oversize features."; agents may retain $3.50 rev. · read
WAC 468-38-100 — Pilot/escort vehicle requirements — Washington State Department of Transportation — (1)(a)–(k) escort triggers; (10)(f) and (14) the height pole; (3) flagperson substitution; (4)(d) operator certification; (16) insurance rev. · read
WAC 468-38-405 — Superloads — Washington State Department of Transportation — (1) superload criteria; (2) lead times; (4) applicant cost-sharing in department analysis; (6) additional pilot/escort or law-enforcement vehicles rev. · read
WSDOT — Permit types and fees — Washington State Department of Transportation — "Single Trip OSOW - A single trip, 3-day, oversize and/or overweight route specific permit."; manufactured housing "$30.00 for 30-days $360.00 per year" undated document · read
WSDOT — Pilot and escort vehicles — Washington State Department of Transportation — inbound recognition of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia certifications undated document · read
WSDOT — Self-issue a permit (eSNOOPI Pro) — Washington State Department of Transportation — "There are no additional charges for self-issuing. The cost of the overweight permit is the same as purchasing the permit from a WSDOT office."; the portal displays the first band as "1-9,999" and the top band as "95,000-99,000" undated document · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Washington?
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 Washington require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 11', and it varies by road class — the figure shown is the lowest across classes.
What is a superload in Washington?
Washington's published gross-weight superload line is over 200,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
Do Washington's own documents contradict each other?
Yes, in 1 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.