State profile · Minnesota
Legal limits, escort triggers, permit fees, the superload line and the police escort position for Minnesota — every figure carrying the state document behind it.
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.
Anything over one of these needs a permit. Every value links to the document that sets it.
| Measure | Legal limit |
|---|---|
| Width | 8'6"rev. 2001 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Height | 13'6"undated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Semitrailer length | 53'undated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Overall length | 75'undated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Kingpin to rear axle | 43'undated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Front overhang | None published |
| Rear overhang | None published |
| Gross weight | 80,000 lbundated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Single axle | Sources disagree20,000 lb per subd. 1(1)-(4) and subd. 2 — versus — 18,000 lb per subd. 1(1)-(4) and subd. 2 |
| Tandem axle | 34,000 lbundated document · read 2026-09-05 |
| Measurement | First escort trigger | First police escort trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Width | None published | None published |
| Height | None published | None published |
| Length | over 110'rev. 2021 · read 2026-09-05 · varies by road class | None published |
| Rear overhang | None published | None published |
| Gross weight | None published | None published |
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single-trip base | $15rev. 2012 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Transaction / card | None publishedrev. 2022 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Route analysis review | Not yet covered |
| Route with no bridges | Not yet covered |
| Band | Fee |
|---|---|
| no seasonal width surcharge — width at or under 14 ft 6 in | $0rev. 2012 · read 2026-09-05 |
| seasonal width surcharge — over 14 ft 6 in while load restrictions are in effect | $120rev. 2012 · read 2026-09-05 |
| over 14 ft 6 in with no seasonal load restrictions in effect — no surcharge | $0rev. 2012 · read 2026-09-05 |
§ 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.
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. 2025-05-01 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Width | over 16'rev. 2025-05-01 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Height | over 16'rev. 2025-05-01 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Length | over 150'rev. 2025-05-01 · read 2026-09-05 |
| Short axle spacing | Not yet covered |
The dimensions at which Minnesota triggers a physical route inspection or an engineering review, and what the agency charges to review it.
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.
Minnesota spring thaw restrictions →
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.
The agency behind each figure above is linked from that figure. We publish no per-state permit-office phone number.
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.
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
Both are in effect and neither has been adopted.
Two schedules band the same load the same way and price it differently.
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.
This is a permit fee, not a freight rate.
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.
The agency's review fee is shown where the state publishes one; the engineer's own fee is a private cost with no schedule.
Set per move by the agency, and in at least one state the escort is billed at actual cost against it.
Arranged with each utility, priced by each utility.
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.
Need a pilot car for this lane? Browse the pilot car & escort directory.
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.
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.
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.
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.
