By Haul Handbook editorial team· Updated Oct 6, 2026
Iowa sells both temporary credentials over the same counter: a 10-dollar registration trip permit that stands in for apportioned registration for 72 hours, and a 20-dollar temporary fuel permit that stands in for an IFTA license for one trip or 72 hours. Both are bought through Iowa DOT Motor Carrier Services, and the registration permit must be in the truck before it enters Iowa.
The trip permit (registration side)
This credential answers for registration. Without it, a vehicle whose cab card does not list Iowa has no legal registration standing in the state.
- Fee
- $10 (Iowa Code 326.23 sets the trip permit fee at 10 dollars for up to 72 hours, and Iowa DOT's permit-types page lists the Registration Trip permit at the same 10 dollars. A truck stop that issues the permit under an Iowa DOT agreement may add its own disclosed issuance fee on top. The 2025-2026 Iowa Truck Information Guide, whose stated edition period has ended, prints 35 dollars; the statute sets the fee, so this page shows 10 dollars.)
- Who needs it
- A truck currently plated outside Iowa that needs to operate in Iowa without IRP plates: an alternative to IRP plating for an occasional trip into or through Iowa. It must be obtained and placed in the vehicle before entering Iowa.
The fuel permit (tax side)
This credential answers for the state's highway or fuel tax when there is no IFTA license (or, in the weight-distance states, no tax account) behind the truck.
- Valid for
- One trip or 72 hours, whichever comes first; upon departure from Iowa a new permit is required before re-entering
- Who needs it
- Vehicles from non-IFTA jurisdictions that do not hold an IFTA license. The alternative is entering Iowa with 30 gallons or less of motor vehicle fuel in the supply tanks, buying fuel as the vehicle travels through the state, and displaying evidence of adequate fuel purchases for law enforcement inspection. Carriers from any IFTA jurisdiction operating in Iowa without their IFTA credential purchase this permit instead.
Worth knowing
Iowa DOT's permit-types page prices the two non-oversize temporary credentials as Registration Trip (10 dollars, 72 hours, for vehicles without apportioned registration, not usable to satisfy IRP requirements for oversize/overweight loads) and Fuel Trip (20 dollars, one trip in a 72-hour period, for vehicles without an IFTA sticker). Iowa Code 326.23 fixes the registration trip permit fee at 10 dollars; the July 2025 to July 2026 Truck Information Guide printed 35 dollars, which does not match the statute. Unladen weight permits (10 dollars, 15 days, owner-operators between leases, no load, separate permit per tractor and per trailer) and commercial repair permits (no fee, 30 days, trips to and from a repair facility, no load) round out the temporary lineup.
Where these fit in the Iowa permit stack
Temporary permits are the exception path. The standing credentials they replace are IRP apportioned registration and the Iowa IFTA license. Oversize loads use a different permit family entirely, covered in Iowa oversize and overweight permits, and the full picture of every state permit lives in Iowa trucking permits.