Legal limits, escort triggers, permit fees, the superload line and the police escort position for Florida — every figure carrying the state document behind it.
8 source documents on fileoldest revision 2016-08-23last retrieved 2026-09-0219 escort rules in effect2 source conflictsFree · no account needed
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.
Legal limits
1. Florida legal limits
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
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.
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".
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
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.
Source conflicts
10. 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. 2018-04-24 · read 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
FDOT — Blanket Permit Movement Conditions, revised July 27 2026 (PDF) — Florida Department of Transportation — survey "must be performed by a qualified escort"; Florida Keys night-only movement over 10 ft wide; "follow the load on four lane highways" rev. 2026-07-27 · read 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
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. 2018-04-24 · read 2026-09-02
Fla. Admin. Code r. 14-26.00425 — Criteria and override authority (via Cornell LII) — Cornell Legal Information Institute, reproducing FAC 14-26 — "an applicant must include, with the permit application, a letter of essentiality from a government entity or the ultimate recipient of an essential service" rev. 2016-08-23 · read 2026-09-02
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. 2018-04-24 · read 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
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 2026-09-02
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.
