The short version: a Alabama single-trip permit starts at $10 before bands, overweight and the transaction charge; an escort is first required at over 12' wide; and the load becomes a superload at over 300,000 lb. Everything below carries the Alabama document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
1. Alabama legal limits
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
| Measure | Legal limit |
|---|---|
| Width | 8'6"rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Height | 13'6"rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Semitrailer length | Not yet covered |
| Overall length | None published |
| Kingpin to rear axle | None published |
| Front overhang | 5'rev. 2021-11-14 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Rear overhang | 5'rev. 2021-11-14 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Gross weight | 80,000 lbrev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Single axle | 20,000 lbrev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Tandem axle | 34,000 lbrev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 |
2. When Alabama requires an escort
| Measurement | First escort trigger | First police escort trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Width | over 12'rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02 · varies by road class | None published |
| Height | over 15'6"rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 | None published |
| Length | over 90'rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02 | over 150'rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Rear overhang | over 5'rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 | None published |
| Gross weight | None published | None published |
Every escort rule on file, in full28 rules
- Over 12 ft up to 14 ft wide on a two-lane road — one front escort — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 12 ft up to 14 ft wide on a multi-lane highway — one rear escort — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 14 ft wide — one front and one rear escort on all roads — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 15 ft 6 in high — one front escort carrying a height indicator — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 90 ft up to 125 ft long — one rear escort — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 125 ft long — one front and one rear escort — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Rear overhang over 5 ft — one rear escort — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Front overhang of 10 ft or more — one front escort — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Over 150 ft long — front and rear law-enforcement escorts — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Superload — a minimum of two State Trooper or police escorts, position unpublished — superload at width 16 ft, height 16 ft, length 150 ft or weight 300,000 lb; two State Trooper escorts minimum; bucket truck over 16'5"; utility notification over 16'6"; detailed route survey for all superloads undated document · read 2026-09-02
- Over 16 ft 5 in high — a bucket truck is required, and over 16 ft 6 in utility notification may be too — superload at width 16 ft, height 16 ft, length 150 ft or weight 300,000 lb; two State Trooper escorts minimum; bucket truck over 16'5"; utility notification over 16'6"; detailed route survey for all superloads undated document · read 2026-09-02
- A house over 17 ft high — route survey and utility notification — "Houses greater than seventeen (17) feet in height require a route survey and utility notification." rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Between 8 ft and 8 ft 6 in wide — the statute and the administrative code disagree about whether a permit is needed on a narrow-laned road — 102 in width; 13 1/2 ft height; 28 1/2 ft doubles; 65 ft car hauler; 80 ft stinger-steered; overhang "a total of five feet beyond both the front and rear, inclusive"; Interstate axle and gross limits including the allowable load tolerance rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Truck tractor-semitrailer-trailer units — 28 ft each in the administrative code and 28 ft 6 in in the statute — "LEGAL WIDTH: Eight (8) feet wide on roads with less than twelve (12) foot lanes; eight (8) feet and six (6) inches on roads with at least twelve (12) foot lanes."; 40/57/28 ft lengths; 65 ft car haulers, 75 ft stinger-steered; "LEGAL OVERHANG (FRONT AND REAR): Five (5) feet." rev. 2021-11-14 · read 2026-09-02
- Stinger-steered automobile transporters — 75 ft in the administrative code and 80 ft in the statute — 102 in width; 13 1/2 ft height; 28 1/2 ft doubles; 65 ft car hauler; 80 ft stinger-steered; overhang "a total of five feet beyond both the front and rear, inclusive"; Interstate axle and gross limits including the allowable load tolerance rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Overhang at both ends, or over 5 ft at one end — the statute allows five feet in total and the administrative code reads as five feet at each end — 102 in width; 13 1/2 ft height; 28 1/2 ft doubles; 65 ft car hauler; 80 ft stinger-steered; overhang "a total of five feet beyond both the front and rear, inclusive"; Interstate axle and gross limits including the allowable load tolerance rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Gross weight exactly 80,000 lb — the fee sheet puts it inside the first overweight band and the administrative code starts that band a pound higher — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction" rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02
- Gross weight exactly 100,000 lb — ALDOT’s General table gives this load two different fees — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction" rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02
- Gross weight exactly 125,000 lb — ALDOT’s General table gives this load two different fees — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction" rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02
- Exactly 12 ft wide — the presentation starts the escort band above 12 ft and the administrative code starts it at 12 ft — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Exactly 90 ft long — the presentation starts the escort band above 90 ft and the administrative code starts it at 90 ft — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Exactly 125 ft long — the administrative code assigns this length to both escort configurations at once — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Boats, manufactured housing, portable buildings and modular homes — the fee row’s "12’ x 75’" does not say whether both dimensions or either triggers the higher fee — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction" rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02
- Alabama’s escort table is keyed on "Multi-lane Highways", which is not the same class as "divided" — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole" rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
- Non-Interstate weight limits — a computed table and a one-tenth tolerance, not a single number — 102 in width; 13 1/2 ft height; 28 1/2 ft doubles; 65 ft car hauler; 80 ft stinger-steered; overhang "a total of five feet beyond both the front and rear, inclusive"; Interstate axle and gross limits including the allowable load tolerance rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02
- ALDOT may require escorts beyond the published thresholds, and publishes no weight-based pilot-car trigger — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- Pilot-car operator certification — the rule requires a course Alabama may no longer run — "Drivers of escort vehicles must be a minimum of 18 years of age, have a valid driver’s license, and have completed a pilot/escort flagging course which equals or exceeds Alabama’s course within 12 months of Alabama’s course availability." rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02
- The $4 transaction fee is charged on card payments only — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction" rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02
3. Alabama single-trip permit fees
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single-trip base | $10rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Transaction / card | $4rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02 |
| Route analysis review | Not yet covered |
| Route with no bridges | Not yet covered |
Dimension bands
| Band | Fee |
|---|---|
| over legal length, height or width — flat dimensional charge | $10rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 |
4. How Alabama prices overweight
ALDOT prices the overweight component in four flat gross-weight steps with no mileage and no axle multiplier: "Weight Only 80,000 – 100,000 lbs. $10 100,001 – 125,000 lbs. $30 125,001 – 150,000 lbs. $60 Over 150,000 lbs. $100". The bands below hold what remains of each of those totals after the $10 permit base, which is what makes the base, the dimensional add-on and the increment sum back to ALDOT's printed figures.
5. Alabama'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 300,000 lbundated document · read 2026-09-02 |
| Width | over 16'undated document · read 2026-09-02 |
| Height | over 16'undated document · read 2026-09-02 |
| Length | over 150'undated document · read 2026-09-02 |
| Short axle spacing | Not yet covered |
6. Route survey and bridge review
The dimensions at which Alabama 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 |
7. Police escorts
Alabama Law Enforcement Agency publishes a rate. One officer costs at least $600 before mileage.
What the schedule does not price4 items
- Mileage at the current IRS rate, calculated from each officer's residence or office and back. The IRS rate is not a fixed published figure and the officers' origins are not known before ALEA assigns them.
- $12.00 subsistence for an escort over four hours; $12.75 per diem for 6–12 hours and $34.00 for 12 hours or more. Which applies depends on the hours actually worked.
- Cancellation: $200.00 more than 24 hours out, or $200.00 plus four hours' pay per assigned officer inside 24 hours.
- Billable time starts 30 minutes before the scheduled start and ends 30 minutes after completion, so the charged hours always exceed the moving hours.
8. When you can move it
Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for Alabama.
Alabama spring thaw restrictions →
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.
9. 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.
11. What this does not include
Named rather than gestured at, because each of these can exceed the permit itself. Every item is listed; open one for why it is excluded.
Line haul, fuel and driver time
This is a permit fee, not a freight rate.
Civilian pilot car rates
We hold no rate data, and the two commercial sites that publish market rates disagree by nearly a factor of two on the same service.
Route-survey engineering
The agency's review fee is shown where the state publishes one; the engineer's own fee is a private cost with no schedule.
Bonds and escrow
Set per move by the agency, and in at least one state the escort is billed at actual cost against it.
Utility coordination and line lifts
Arranged with each utility, priced by each utility.
Second-issuer permits
A toll, bridge or city authority inside the same state issues its own permit, and a state total that omits it is missing a whole permit.
12. Every source behind this page (9)
Every document behind Alabama9 sources
- Ala. Admin. Code ch. 450-3-1 — Escort vehicle operator requirements — Alabama Department of Transportation — "Drivers of escort vehicles must be a minimum of 18 years of age, have a valid driver’s license, and have completed a pilot/escort flagging course which equals or exceeds Alabama’s course within 12 months of Alabama’s course availability."
rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 - Ala. Admin. Code r. 450-3-1-.02 — Definitions (legal dimensions) — Alabama Department of Transportation — "LEGAL WIDTH: Eight (8) feet wide on roads with less than twelve (12) foot lanes; eight (8) feet and six (6) inches on roads with at least twelve (12) foot lanes."; 40/57/28 ft lengths; 65 ft car haulers, 75 ft stinger-steered; "LEGAL OVERHANG (FRONT AND REAR): Five (5) feet."
rev. 2021-11-14 · read 2026-09-02 - Ala. Admin. Code r. 450-3-1-.05 — Escorts — Alabama Department of Transportation — "Loads greater than 14 feet wide require one (1) front and one (1) rear escort on all roads."; height indicator over 15'6"; law-enforcement escorts over 150 ft; rear escort over 5 ft rear overhang; front escort at 10 ft or more front overhang
rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 - Ala. Admin. Code r. 450-3-1-.07 — House moves — Alabama Department of Transportation — "Houses greater than seventeen (17) feet in height require a route survey and utility notification."
rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 - Ala. Admin. Code r. 450-3-1-.10 — Permit fees — Alabama Department of Transportation — "From 80,001 pounds up to 100,000 pounds.........$10.00"; "Other oversized vehicles, loads, and equipment not herein specified.......................................$20.00"; "Other overweight loads not herein specified..$10.00"; "When the overweight vehicle or combination of vehicles and loads is over the maximum length, height, or width specified by law, an additional $10.00 is added to the fee."
rev. 2016-01-18 · read 2026-09-02 - Alabama Act 2025 (SB110, enrolled) — size and weight limits — Alabama Legislature — 102 in width; 13 1/2 ft height; 28 1/2 ft doubles; 65 ft car hauler; 80 ft stinger-steered; overhang "a total of five feet beyond both the front and rear, inclusive"; Interstate axle and gross limits including the allowable load tolerance
rev. 2025-10-01 · read 2026-09-02 - ALDOT — Alabama Superload Requirements (PDF, undated) — Alabama Department of Transportation — superload at width 16 ft, height 16 ft, length 150 ft or weight 300,000 lb; two State Trooper escorts minimum; bucket truck over 16'5"; utility notification over 16'6"; detailed route survey for all superloads
undated document · read 2026-09-02 - ALDOT — Permit Fees, March 11 2025 (PDF) — Alabama Department of Transportation — Weight Only and General W/H/L weight bands; "A fee of $4 will be added to each credit card transaction"
rev. 2025-03-11 · read 2026-09-02 - ALDOT — Rules and Regulations Presentation (PDF, post-harmonisation June 2017) — Alabama Department of Transportation — ">12’ – 14’ = 1 Front Escort on Two-lane Roads, or 1 Rear Escort on Multi-lane Highways."; ">90’ – 125’ = 1 Rear Escort"; ">125’ = 1 Front Escort and 1 Rear Escort"; ">15’6” = 1 Front Escort with Height Pole"
rev. 2017-06-01 · read 2026-09-02
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Alabama?
The single-trip base is $10, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Alabama require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 12', and it varies by road class — the figure shown is the lowest across classes.
What is a superload in Alabama?
Alabama's published gross-weight superload line is over 300,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.