The Massachusetts answer
Legal limits
First escort trigger
- Width
- No trigger published
- Height
- No trigger published
- Length
- No trigger published
- Rear overhang
- No trigger published
- Gross weight
- No trigger published
What the paper costs
- Single-trip base
- $40 · caveat ↓rev. · read
- Transaction / card
- None published · caveat ↓rev. · read
- How overweight is priced
- Included in the base permit feerev. · read
- Superload above
- 130,000 lb and up · caveat ↓rev. · read
The short version: a Massachusetts single-trip permit starts at $40 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 130,000 lb. Everything below carries the Massachusetts document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
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.
2. Massachusetts 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"undated document · read M.G.L. c. 90, § 19: "No motor vehicle or trailer, the outside width of which is more than one hundred and two inches" — EXCLUSIVE ("more than"), so a load at exactly 102 in needs no Massachusetts permit. |
| Height | 13'6"undated document · read M.G.L. c. 90, § 19: "No vehicle shall exceed a height of thirteen feet six inches" — EXCLUSIVE ("shall exceed"). The corpus norm, and 13 ft 6 in is the statewide figure. IT IS NOT THE FIGURE FOR EVERY MASSACHUSETTS CROSSING: 700 CMR 7.07(4) Table 7 publishes "Callahan Tunnel 12 feet 6 inches" and "Sumner Tunnel 12 feet 6 inches" against "13 feet 6 inches" for the Turnpike and the Ted Williams Tunnel, so a 13 ft load is legal statewide and barred from two harbour crossings. That is a routing constraint, not a permit limit, and it is deliberately not encoded as a second height row — doing so would mis-state the statewide height and the resolver would read it as a conflict. |
| Semitrailer length | 53'undated document · read M.G.L. c. 90, § 19: "or in the case of a semi-trailer in a semi-trailer unit or trailer in a tractor-trailer unit, 53 feet" — EXCLUSIVE. THIS IS ALSO THE LIMIT THAT CARRIES MASSACHUSETTS'S OVERALL-LENGTH RULE, which is why `overallLengthIn` is absent. § 19 prints a 60 ft overall cap and then voids it in the same sentence: "The overall length of any vehicle and trailer combination or semi-trailer combination ... shall not exceed sixty feet ... PROVIDED, HOWEVER THAT NO OVERALL LENGTH LIMITATION SHALL APPLY TO SEMI-TRAILER UNITS OR TRACTOR-TRAILER UNITS WHEN THE TRAILER OR SEMI-TRAILER IN SUCH UNITS DOES NOT EXCEED 53 FEET, or to tandem units or B-train assembly units when the trailer or semi-trailer in such units does not exceed twenty-eight feet." An ordinary 53 ft van combination runs roughly 70-75 ft overall and the 60 ft figure does not bind it; holding 720 in would flag every one as over-length and invent the $40 fee with the requirement. No `ContextCondition` can confine a row to "the semitrailer does not exceed 53 feet", so the field is absent and the 60 ft figure lives here. OTHER § 19 LENGTHS, none of which is the tractor-semitrailer case: a truck or house trailer 40 ft, a semitrailer or trailer in a tandem unit 28 ft, and a house-trailer-and-tow-vehicle combination 65 ft overall. |
| Overall length | None published |
| Kingpin to rear axle | None published |
| Front overhang | None published |
| Rear overhang | None published |
| Gross weight | 80,000 lbrev. · read 700 CMR 8.04: a permit is required for "any motor vehicle, trailer, semi trailer, or semi trailer unit having THREE OR MORE AXLES which together with its load weighs more than 80,000 pounds" — EXCLUSIVE. THE TWO-AXLE FIGURE IS DIFFERENT AND IS NOT HELD AS A ROW: "any motor vehicle having TWO AXLES which vehicle together with its load weighs more than 46,000 pounds". Both appear in 700 CMR 8.04 and in M.G.L. c. 90 § 19, and 700 CMR 8.04 states the thresholds restate "the weight allowed by M.G.L. c. 90, § 19 or 19A and M.G.L. c. 85, §§ 30 and 30A". A second row at 46,000 lb would be read as a CONFLICT with this one and would send every Massachusetts quote to review, and the schema cannot confine a row by axle count — so a two-axle load over 46,000 lb must be checked by hand. |
| Single axle | 22,400 lbrev. · read 700 CMR 8.04 and M.G.L. c. 90 § 19: a permit is required for "a weight on any axle, measured on the ground, of more than 22,400 pounds" — EXCLUSIVE. NOT the federal 20,000 lb. A SECOND, SPACING-DEPENDENT PROVISO IS NOT EVALUATED: § 19 continues "or if the axles are spaced less than six feet apart, more than 18,000 pounds". That is a per-axle limit conditioned on spacing; `singleAxleLbs` is a flat figure and `axleSpacingWeightTables` holds a full spacing table rather than a single proviso, so the 18,000 lb figure is recorded here and not applied. |
| Tandem axle | 34,000 lbrev. · read 700 CMR 8.04 and M.G.L. c. 90 § 19: "two consecutive sets of tandem axles may carry a gross load of 34,000 pounds each providing the overall distance between the first and last axles of such consecutive sets of tandem axles is 36 feet or more" — the federal figure, and the corpus norm. WORTH NOTING AGAINST ITS NEIGHBOURS: Rhode Island and Vermont both run a 36,000 lb tandem, so a 35,000 lb tandem that is legal on either side of Massachusetts needs a Massachusetts permit. The 36 ft inter-set spacing proviso is a condition on the two-set allowance and is not evaluated. |
3. The Massachusetts escort ladder
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.
| When | What is required | Source |
|---|---|---|
| width over 16' or overall length over 135' | 1 police escort in front1 police escort behindCannot be reduced to a number: MASSACHUSETTS PUBLISHES THE POLICE ESCORT REQUIREMENT AND NOT ITS PRICE. 700 CMR 7.07(4)(d)7 requires TWO Massachusetts State Police vehicles over 16 ft wide or over 135 ft long, and neither 700 CMR 7.00 nor 700 CMR 8.00 states a trooper hourly rate, a minimum number of hours, a vehicle mileage rate or an administrative charge — both were read in full and no dollar figure is associated with an escort in either. mass.gov could not be reached (HTTP 403) for a MassDOT or State Police detail rate sheet. No rate is estimated: two State Police vehicles on a Massachusetts lane can cost more than every permit on this quote, and a guessed trooper rate would be the largest fabricated number on it. Confirm the detail rate with the Massachusetts State Police before this move is priced. NOTE ALSO THE SCOPE: 700 CMR 7.07 governs the Turnpike and the Metropolitan Highway System; 700 CMR 8.00, which governs general state highways, publishes no escort provision at all, so on a non-Turnpike route this requirement is MassDOT's to impose as a permit condition rather than a published threshold. |
PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR, same 403 story…rev. · read |
The first trigger in each dimension
| Measurement | First escort trigger | First police escort trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Width | None published | over 16'rev. · read |
| Height | None published | None published |
| Length | None published | over 135'rev. · read |
| Rear overhang | None published | None published |
| Gross weight | None published | None published |
The same rules restated in plain sentences2 rules
- Over 16 ft wide or over 135 ft long — two Massachusetts State Police vehicles (700 CMR 7.07(4)(d)7), additive to any required pilot car. Count published, positions not published, cost not published anywhere in 700 CMR 7.00 or 700 CMR 8.00. — PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR, same 403 story as 700 CMR 8.00; canonical (403ing) address https://www.mass.gov/doc/700-cmr-7-use-of-the-massachusetts-turnpike-and-the-metropolitan-highway-system/download. "1/31/14" page footer. Source of every published Massachusetts escort threshold — § 7.07(4)(d)1.-7. — of the Turnpike/MHS fee schedule at § 7.07(3) Table 5, and of the Table 7 tunnel heights. Read in full; no dollar figure is associated with an escort anywhere in it. SECONDARY corroboration of the § 7.07 text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/massachusetts/700-CMR-7-07 (Cornell LII), which agrees. rev. · read
- Any load past the lowest published Massachusetts pilot-car trigger (over 12 ft wide, over 80 ft long, or 10 ft or more of overhang, per 700 CMR 7.07(4)(d)1.-2.) — no pilot-car count is quoted, because 700 CMR 8.00 publishes no escort rule for state highways at all and the 700 CMR 7.07 thresholds carry a vehicle-configuration qualifier this schema cannot express. — PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR, same 403 story as 700 CMR 8.00; canonical (403ing) address https://www.mass.gov/doc/700-cmr-7-use-of-the-massachusetts-turnpike-and-the-metropolitan-highway-system/download. "1/31/14" page footer. Source of every published Massachusetts escort threshold — § 7.07(4)(d)1.-7. — of the Turnpike/MHS fee schedule at § 7.07(3) Table 5, and of the Table 7 tunnel heights. Read in full; no dollar figure is associated with an escort anywhere in it. SECONDARY corroboration of the § 7.07 text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/massachusetts/700-CMR-7-07 (Cornell LII), which agrees. rev. · read
4. Massachusetts single-trip permit fees
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Single-trip base | $40rev. · read 700 CMR 8.05(4) Table 1, verbatim row: "Irreducible Load Permit / Exceeding Any Legal Limit for Size and Weight Pursuant to 700 CMR 8.00 / $40.00 - Per Trip". Enabling sentence, 700 CMR 8.05(4): "Fees. An applicant must pay the fee that is specified in the application and in 700 CMR 8.06(4): Table 1. The Department specifies on the application the time and manner of payment." FLAT, AND NEITHER PER ROUTE NOR PER STRUCTURE NOR PER MILE — Table 1 is the complete fee schedule for 700 CMR 8.00 and holds no route, bridge, structure or mileage term; it was read in full and contains exactly four dollar figures ($400 annual irreducible, this $40 per trip, $300 single-trip superload, $50 per 1,000 lb reducible). The fee covers size AND weight jointly, in the row's own words, so an irreducible load that is both overwidth and overweight pays $40 once. The $400 annual equivalent — "Irreducible Load Permit / Exceeding Any Legal Limit for Size and Weight Pursuant to 700 CMR 8.00 / $400.00 - Annually" — is not a single-trip alternative and is not applied. The Turnpike/MHS schedule at 700 CMR 7.07(3) Table 5 prints the same $40 per trip under its own rule; that is a SEPARATE permit and is carried in `additionalAuthorities`, not folded in here. |
| Transaction / card | None publishedrev. · read AFFIRMATIVE ABSENCE. 700 CMR 8.05(4) Table 1 is the complete fee schedule for 700 CMR 8.00 and was read in full; the whole 14-page document (§§ 8.01-8.17) was searched and only four dollar figures appear in it — $400 annual irreducible, $40 per-trip irreducible, $300 single-trip superload and $50 per 1,000 lb reducible. There is no transaction fee, no processing fee, no issuance surcharge and no percentage service charge. The reading is a sourced ZERO rather than an empty array precisely because the fee section WAS reached and exhausted. For completeness, the Turnpike schedule at 700 CMR 7.07(3) Table 5 does carry additional permit CLASSES — "Tandem Trailer Permit $300.00 Application Fee / $75.00 for First Card / $25.00 for Each Additional Card", with the identical card structure for an Explosives Permit and for Special Fuel Hauling — and none of them is a processing fee on an OS/OW single trip. |
| Route analysis review | $0rev. · read AFFIRMATIVE ABSENCE. Table 1 — the complete 700 CMR 8.00 fee schedule, read in full — carries no route analysis fee and no bridge analysis fee, and the Turnpike's Table 5 carries none either. Massachusetts DOES require engineering work above the superload threshold ("Weight >130,000 pounds - Detailed Engineering Calculations Required") and it charges for it inside the $300 single-trip superload fee rather than as a separate analysis line, which is unusual and is the whole reason Massachusetts is priceable above 130,000 lb. |
| Route with no bridges | $0rev. · read AFFIRMATIVE ABSENCE. Massachusetts publishes no cheap-path discount for a bridgeless route and no structure-based charge of any kind — Table 1 holds no bridge, structure or route term. Sourced zero because Table 1 was read in full, not because the concept was assumed away: a per-structure charge is exactly what a reader expects of a dense-bridge state, and Maryland next door in this corpus actually levies one. |
Massachusetts has more than one permit issuer. A state total can be complete and still be missing a whole permit.
- MassDOT — Massachusetts Turnpike and Metropolitan Highway System (700 CMR 7.00) — A load using the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) or the Metropolitan Highway System — including the Ted Williams Tunnel and the South Boston Bypass Road, the Callahan Tunnel and the Sumner Tunnel — needs an irreducible load permit under 700 CMR 7.00 IN ADDITION TO the 700 CMR 8.00 state-highway permit. 700 CMR 7.07(4): "A vehicle that exceeds any of the applicable maximum dimensions specified in 700 CMR 7.07(4)(a)1., 2., or 3. requires an irreducible load permit for use of the Ted Williams Tunnel, including the South Boston Bypass Road." Note also that the Callahan and Sumner Tunnels cap height at 12 ft 6 in (700 CMR 7.07(4) Table 7), below the statewide 13 ft 6 in, so a 13 ft load cannot use them at all and must route elsewhere.. We do not hold this authority's fee schedule, so the leg goes to review rather than being quoted short. 700 CMR 7.00: Use of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Metropolitan Highway System
5. How Massachusetts prices overweight
Included in the base permit fee. 700 CMR 8.05(4) Table 1 charges one fee for both: "Irreducible Load Permit / Exceeding Any Legal Limit for Size AND Weight Pursuant to 700 CMR 8.00 / $40.00 - Per Trip". There is no additive weight component on a non-divisible single trip below the 130,000 lb superload threshold — no per-pound, per-ton or stepped term attaches to the irreducible per-trip permit. Table 1's one weight-scaled row is the REDUCIBLE-load rate ("$50.00 per every 1,000 pounds exceeding the Federal Bridge Formula"), and 700 CMR 8.05(1) issues reducible permits annually — "Permits will be issued on an annual basis unless otherwise indicated on the permit" — so it is not a single-trip product and is deliberately not encoded.
There is no weight schedule to print, and under this model there is not supposed to be one.
6. Massachusetts seasonal posting windows
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.
Massachusetts is not in the seasonal-restriction registry, so we hold no posting window for it and are not inventing one.
7. Massachusetts'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 130,000 lbrev. · read 700 CMR 8.05(4) Table 1: "Super Load / Weight >130,000 pounds - Detailed Engineering Calculations Required / $300.00 - Single Trip". EXCLUSIVE — "greater than" — so a load at exactly 130,000 lb is an ordinary irreducible permit. Identically stated in 700 CMR 7.07(3) Table 5 for the Turnpike and the MHS. UNLIKE EVERY OTHER SUPERLOAD THRESHOLD IN THIS CORPUS BUT VERMONT'S, THIS ONE IS PRICED: see `conditionalFees`. |
| Width | None published |
| Height | None published |
| Length | None published |
| Short axle spacing | Not yet covered |
8. Route survey and bridge review
The dimensions at which Massachusetts 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 |
9. Police escorts
Charges exist and no schedule is published. MASSACHUSETTS PUBLISHES ONE OF THE FIRMEST TRIGGERS IN THE CORPUS AND NO PRICE AT ALL. 700 CMR 7.07(7) was read in full: "State Police Escort. In addition to the requirements with respect to a pilot car as specified in 700 CMR 7.07(4)(d), an over-size vehicle, with its load, that is wider than 16 feet or longer than 135 feet must be escorted by two motor vehicles of the Massachusetts State Police. Any vehicle that, in the opinion of the Chief Engineer, may be incapable of operating at a minimum speed such that it may pose a danger to individuals, property, or the safe operation of a way, may be required to be accompanied by motor vehicles of the Massachusetts State Police." TWO troopers, mandatory, "must" — and 700 CMR 7.00 contains no escort charge anywhere. Its only police-related figures are the $500 and $100 PENALTIES in the 7.13 violation schedule, including "Failure to conform with requirements for pilot car, police escort, or warning sign — $500", which is a fine and not a fee. MassDOT's permit fees in the same regulation ($40.00 per trip irreducible, $50.00 per 1,000 lb reducible) do not include the escort. Note also that OLR Report 2016-R-0195 reports this trigger as "wider than 15 feet"; the regulation says 16, and the regulation governs.
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".
10. When you can move it
Holiday, curfew and night-travel windows are not yet encoded for Massachusetts. 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.
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.
12. 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.
Need a pilot car for this lane? Browse the pilot car & escort directory.
13. Every source behind this page (4)
Every document behind Massachusetts4 sources
- 700 CMR 7.00: Use of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Metropolitan Highway System — Massachusetts Department of Transportation — PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR, same 403 story as 700 CMR 8.00; canonical (403ing) address https://www.mass.gov/doc/700-cmr-7-use-of-the-massachusetts-turnpike-and-the-metropolitan-highway-system/download. "1/31/14" page footer. Source of every published Massachusetts escort threshold — § 7.07(4)(d)1.-7. — of the Turnpike/MHS fee schedule at § 7.07(3) Table 5, and of the Table 7 tunnel heights. Read in full; no dollar figure is associated with an escort anywhere in it. SECONDARY corroboration of the § 7.07 text: https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/massachusetts/700-CMR-7-07 (Cornell LII), which agrees.
rev. · read - 700 CMR 8.00: Permitting, Operation, and Transport of Overdimensional Loads and Certain Vehicle Trailer Combinations on Certain Massachusetts Department of Transportation Roadways — Massachusetts Department of Transportation — PRIMARY CONTENT FROM A MIRROR. mass.gov returns HTTP 403 to all automated retrieval — WebFetch and curl alike, on both the /doc/.../download and /files/documents/... paths — so this official MassDOT PDF was obtained from the Internet Archive mirror and `url` points there so the row is re-checkable. The canonical (403ing) address is https://www.mass.gov/doc/700-cmr-8-permitting-operation-and-transport-of-overdimensional-loads-and-certain-vehicle-trailer-combinations-on-certain-massachusetts-department-of-transportation-roadways/download. What came back is the Commonwealth's own document: MassDOT letterhead, "700 CMR - 50.xx" page numbering, "1/31/14" page footer. 14 pages, §§ 8.01-8.17, read in full. § 8.05(4) Table 1 is the complete fee schedule; § 8.04 states the permit weight thresholds; the words "escort" and "police" appear nowhere in the document.
rev. · read - M.G.L. c. 90, § 19 — Dimensions and weights of motor vehicles, trucks and trailers — The 194th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — PRIMARY, from the General Court's own statute host, retrieved and read in full. Source of the 102 in width, the 13 ft 6 in height, the 53 ft semitrailer, the 60 ft overall cap and the proviso that voids it, and the 46,000 / 80,000 / 22,400 / 18,000 / 34,000 lb weight figures. The page carries NO enactment or revision date — only the live site date — so `revisedOn` is null. It is also the source of two affirmative absences: no kingpin-to-rearmost-axle limit and no general front or rear overhang cap.
undated document · read - M.G.L. c. 90, § 19A — weights of motor vehicles — The 194th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — PRIMARY. Independently prints the same 46,000 / 80,000 / 22,400 / 18,000 / 34,000 lb figures as § 19, which is the cross-check on the weight rows. Carries no date of its own.
undated document · read
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Massachusetts?
The single-trip base is $40, before the dimension bands, the overweight component and the transaction charge. The base alone is rarely what is paid.
When does Massachusetts require a pilot car?
Massachusetts 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.
What is a superload in Massachusetts?
Massachusetts's published gross-weight superload line is over 130,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.