By Evan Reid, Founder of Haul Handbook · Updated Jul 30, 2026
New Jersey legal limits (no permit needed at or under these)
- Width
- 8.5 ft102 inches (8 feet 6 inches) on the National Highway Network and the New Jersey 102-inch Truck Route Network; 96 inches (8 feet) on all other highways. The route designations are published by NJDOT and the network hierarchy is set by N.J.A.C. 16:32.
- Length: tractor_semitrailer_overall
- no maximum, provided the trailer or semitrailer length complies with N.J.S.A. 39:3-84.a(4)
- Length: trailer_or_semitrailer_note
- 53 feet on all highways when overall width does not exceed 8 feet, and 53 feet on the National Highway Network and the New Jersey 102-inch Truck Route Network when overall width is 8 feet 6 inches. On a trailer longer than 48 feet and up to 53 feet the kingpin to rear axle center distance cannot exceed 41 feet.
- Axle limits lb: note
- A single axle is an axle whose center is more than 96 inches from the center of the next axle; all wheels whose axle centers are spaced less than 40 inches apart count as one axle. A tandem axle is defined in N.J.S.A. 39:3-84 as a combination of consecutive axles, consisting of only two axles, where the distance between axle centers is 40 inches or more but no more than 96 inches. Weight on any group of two or more consecutive axles is set by the Federal Bridge Formula, which can force axle weights below 34,000 pounds and a gross below 80,000 pounds.
- Off interstate limits
- New Jersey applies the same statutory dimensional and weight limits on and off the Interstate system; what changes off the National Highway Network is width, which drops from 102 inches to 96 inches on roads outside the National Network and the New Jersey 102-inch Truck Route Network. The Federal Bridge Formula table in N.J.S.A. 39:3-84.b(5) is written for highways that are part of the National Interstate System.
- Rear overhang rule
- For trailers and semitrailers, rear overhang measured from the center of the rear tandem axles to the rear of the semitrailer cannot exceed 35 percent of the semitrailer's wheelbase. For all other vehicles, so long as the vehicle and load comply with legal length limits, there is no maximum load overhang.
- Statutory attribution
- The statute itself sets the maximum outside width at 102 inches, with the Commissioner of Transportation able to require no more than 96 inches on specified roads; maximum height at 13 feet 6 inches; single-axle weight at 22,400 pounds; tandem axle weight at 34,000 pounds; and maximum total gross weight at 80,000 pounds. NJDOT's guidebook maps the rest of the table to subsections: truck and combination length to 39:3-84.a(3) and (4), saddlemount combinations to 39:3-84.a(5), tandem trailer combinations to 39:3-84.a(6), automobile transporters to 39:3-84.a(10) and N.J.A.C. 13:20-38, the bridge formula table to 39:3-84.b(5), and gross vehicle weight to 39:3-84.4.
Axle weight limits
Gross weight is one ceiling; each axle group carries its own limit, and a load can be legal on gross weight yet overweight on an axle. Exceeding any of these needs an overweight permit.
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Permit fees
- Single trip
- $10 (The base fee is $10.00 for a permit that is either oversize or overweight, and $20.00 when the vehicle is both, in which case the excess size and excess weight fees also apply. Every permit transaction adds a $12.00 transaction fee plus a service charge of 5 percent of the total permit fee; a single-trip permit for a vehicle that is both oversize and overweight is charged that transaction fee once. A single-trip permit is valid for five days, and a one-day extension may be granted for hazardous road conditions or a vehicle breakdown if the request reaches the MVC before the permit expires.)
- Annual eligibility
- The only true annual permit is the ocean borne containerized cargo multiple-trip permit. It covers a tractor semitrailer combination carrying sealed containers of the type used in international ocean-going commerce bearing a U.S. Customs, other government agency, or shipper seal. Combined gross vehicle weight including the load cannot exceed 90,000 pounds, tandem axle weight cannot exceed 38,000 pounds, and a tri-axle trailer configuration cannot exceed 56,400 pounds. Moves must be of legal dimension; the permit is not valid for oversize or overdimensional loads. The original permit with the raised State seal must be in the vehicle, photocopies are not accepted, and travel is barred on structures identified as restricted on the permit.
Single-trip permit fee schedule
A single-trip permit stacks a base fee with a weight-tiered maintenance fee, and the heaviest loads add a supervision fee.
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To price a specific load, try the oversize permit cost estimator, or compare every state on the national oversize permit table.
To see how these fees combine on real loads, walk through New Jersey oversize permit cost worked examples.
Escort thresholds
What the escort itself has to be
Hitting the threshold is only half of it. The escort vehicle, its equipment, its driver's certification and where it rides are all regulated, and the carrier is the one holding the permit when they are not met.
- How far ahead or behind the escort rides
- The preceding escort holds a distance of 200 feet minimum to 500 feet maximum from the lead vehicle of the escorted combination. The following escort holds 100 feet minimum to 250 feet maximum from the rearmost vehicle.
- Escort driver certification
- New Jersey assigns only private escorts and has no escort certification requirement or certification process, and no limitation on the size or type of escort vehicle. Carriers schedule and pay for their own escorts on every move.
- Height
- Height over 14 feet including the load does not add an escort. Instead N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.12(d) applies N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, and NJDOT states the permittee must notify every public utility company, NJDOT, and the county and municipal traffic engineering departments controlling overhead wires, cables, signal lights, and bridges along the permitted route before the move. The permit is void if those notifications are not made or the recommendations are not followed. The statute itself is narrower than NJDOT's instruction: N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, headed Height; overhead wires, bars the over-14-foot move on a road carrying overhead wires of a street railway, traction company, or electric light or power company unless employees of that company are present to superintend the movement of the wires or make immediate repairs. Follow NJDOT's broader notification list, which is the condition NJDOT enforces on the permit.
- Signs the escort displays
- Warning signs must be at least 6 feet wide by 1 foot high with WIDE LOAD or OVERSIZE LOAD in black letters at least 10 inches high on a yellow background. With no escorts, signs go on the front and rear of the oversize combination. With one escort, a sign goes on the rear of the rearmost escorted vehicle plus the front of a preceding escort, or on the front of the lead escorted vehicle plus the rear of a following escort. With two escorts, one sign on the front of the preceding escort and one on the rear of the following escort.
- Flags and lamps
- Warning flags are red and at least 18 inches square, displayed on the two front corners of a preceding escort, the two rear corners of a following escort, and the four corners of an oversize vehicle or of a projecting load. Low beam headlamps and red taillamps must be lit on all escort vehicles, the towing vehicle, and the towed vehicle.
Escort rules beyond the thresholds
Knowing when you need an escort is half of it. These are the New Jersey rules on who may run one, what the vehicle has to carry, and how the move is conducted.
- Spacing
- The preceding escort holds a distance of 200 feet minimum to 500 feet maximum from the lead vehicle of the escorted combination. The following escort holds 100 feet minimum to 250 feet maximum from the rearmost vehicle.
- Certification
- New Jersey assigns only private escorts and has no escort certification requirement or certification process, and no limitation on the size or type of escort vehicle. Carriers schedule and pay for their own escorts on every move.
- Height
- Height over 14 feet including the load does not add an escort. Instead N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.12(d) applies N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, and NJDOT states the permittee must notify every public utility company, NJDOT, and the county and municipal traffic engineering departments controlling overhead wires, cables, signal lights, and bridges along the permitted route before the move. The permit is void if those notifications are not made or the recommendations are not followed. The statute itself is narrower than NJDOT's instruction: N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, headed Height; overhead wires, bars the over-14-foot move on a road carrying overhead wires of a street railway, traction company, or electric light or power company unless employees of that company are present to superintend the movement of the wires or make immediate repairs. Follow NJDOT's broader notification list, which is the condition NJDOT enforces on the permit.
- Signage
- Warning signs must be at least 6 feet wide by 1 foot high with WIDE LOAD or OVERSIZE LOAD in black letters at least 10 inches high on a yellow background. With no escorts, signs go on the front and rear of the oversize combination. With one escort, a sign goes on the rear of the rearmost escorted vehicle plus the front of a preceding escort, or on the front of the lead escorted vehicle plus the rear of a following escort. With two escorts, one sign on the front of the preceding escort and one on the rear of the following escort.
- Flags and lamps
- Warning flags are red and at least 18 inches square, displayed on the two front corners of a preceding escort, the two rear corners of a following escort, and the four corners of an oversize vehicle or of a projecting load. Low beam headlamps and red taillamps must be lit on all escort vehicles, the towing vehicle, and the towed vehicle.
Travel restrictions
- Daylight only
- Oversize permits only. An oversize permit is not valid during the nighttime hours of sunset to sunrise. The Chief Administrator may grant a written waiver of the night or holiday restriction where traffic congestion would be reduced, where the applicant can justify a business hardship, or in an emergency, and the waiver request must accompany the permit application. Overweight permits for loads within legal dimensions are valid 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Curfews
- New Jersey publishes no statewide curfew list. Instead N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.4 reserves the Commission's right to designate routes of travel, speed limits, and the exact day and time of operation, or to impose any other restriction needed to minimize traffic delays or safety hazards, and those restrictions are printed on the individual permit.
- Weekend / holiday
- An oversize permit is not valid on New Year's Day, Memorial Day and the Friday before Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and the Friday before Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. A holiday falling on a Sunday moves the restriction to the following Monday; a holiday falling on a Saturday moves it to the preceding Friday.
- Wind / weather
- No wind rule. On the oversize side N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.11 is unconditional: the permit is not valid when daylight visibility is limited to less than 500 feet, when hazardous road conditions exist, on any highway where the clear space left for passing traffic (roadway plus improved shoulder) is less than ten feet, or, during hours when lighted lamps are required, for a vehicle that cannot be operated safely at 40 miles per hour. On the overweight side NJDOT's guidebook states the same visibility and hazardous-conditions bars flatly, but the rule text at N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.10(b) attaches them to a single sentence about a permitted overweight vehicle that is incapable of being operated safely at a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour. Read the guidebook as the operating instruction and assume the bars apply; the rule is the narrower of the two only on its face.
More New Jersey permit rules
- Permit required note
- A single-trip permit is required for each one-way trip of an oversize or overweight vehicle that exceeds the dimension or weight provisions of N.J.S.A. 39:3-84. If the vehicle is both oversize and overweight, one single-trip permit is issued for each one-way trip. The load must be non-divisible; New Jersey will not permit a divisible load such as sand, gravel, garbage, mulch, fuel, or stone. The one exception is sealed international ocean-going containers bearing a U.S. Customs, government agency, or shipper seal, which move under the annual ocean borne container permit.
- Single trip fee note
- The base fee is $10.00 for a permit that is either oversize or overweight, and $20.00 when the vehicle is both, in which case the excess size and excess weight fees also apply. Every permit transaction adds a $12.00 transaction fee plus a service charge of 5 percent of the total permit fee; a single-trip permit for a vehicle that is both oversize and overweight is charged that transaction fee once. A single-trip permit is valid for five days, and a one-day extension may be granted for hazardous road conditions or a vehicle breakdown if the request reaches the MVC before the permit expires.
- Annual permit eligibility
- The only true annual permit is the ocean borne containerized cargo multiple-trip permit. It covers a tractor semitrailer combination carrying sealed containers of the type used in international ocean-going commerce bearing a U.S. Customs, other government agency, or shipper seal. Combined gross vehicle weight including the load cannot exceed 90,000 pounds, tandem axle weight cannot exceed 38,000 pounds, and a tri-axle trailer configuration cannot exceed 56,400 pounds. Moves must be of legal dimension; the permit is not valid for oversize or overdimensional loads. The original permit with the raised State seal must be in the vehicle, photocopies are not accepted, and travel is barred on structures identified as restricted on the permit.
- Annual permit details: note
- Renewal is the permit holder's responsibility; the MVC does not mail renewal forms. A combination exceeding these weights must use a single-trip permit instead.
- Escort thresholds note
- The thresholds and escort placement above are the text of N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.12. The NJDOT Commercial Vehicle Size and Weight Guidebook prints the same thresholds as a front-and-rear placement table for multilane versus two-lane highways, and NJDOT notes the requirements are stated on the permit itself.
- Escort notes: spacing
- The preceding escort holds a distance of 200 feet minimum to 500 feet maximum from the lead vehicle of the escorted combination. The following escort holds 100 feet minimum to 250 feet maximum from the rearmost vehicle.
- Escort notes: certification
- New Jersey assigns only private escorts and has no escort certification requirement or certification process, and no limitation on the size or type of escort vehicle. Carriers schedule and pay for their own escorts on every move.
- Escort notes: height
- Height over 14 feet including the load does not add an escort. Instead N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.12(d) applies N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, and NJDOT states the permittee must notify every public utility company, NJDOT, and the county and municipal traffic engineering departments controlling overhead wires, cables, signal lights, and bridges along the permitted route before the move. The permit is void if those notifications are not made or the recommendations are not followed. The statute itself is narrower than NJDOT's instruction: N.J.S.A. 39:4-28, headed Height; overhead wires, bars the over-14-foot move on a road carrying overhead wires of a street railway, traction company, or electric light or power company unless employees of that company are present to superintend the movement of the wires or make immediate repairs. Follow NJDOT's broader notification list, which is the condition NJDOT enforces on the permit.
- Escort notes: signage
- Warning signs must be at least 6 feet wide by 1 foot high with WIDE LOAD or OVERSIZE LOAD in black letters at least 10 inches high on a yellow background. With no escorts, signs go on the front and rear of the oversize combination. With one escort, a sign goes on the rear of the rearmost escorted vehicle plus the front of a preceding escort, or on the front of the lead escorted vehicle plus the rear of a following escort. With two escorts, one sign on the front of the preceding escort and one on the rear of the following escort.
- Escort notes: flags and lamps
- Warning flags are red and at least 18 inches square, displayed on the two front corners of a preceding escort, the two rear corners of a following escort, and the four corners of an oversize vehicle or of a projecting load. Low beam headlamps and red taillamps must be lit on all escort vehicles, the towing vehicle, and the towed vehicle.
- Toll road note
- A New Jersey permit is not valid on any toll road without the express approval of the tolling authority. NJDOT does not issue permits on behalf of the South Jersey Transportation Authority for the Atlantic City Expressway or the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. Single-trip permit applications must state where the vehicle enters and leaves the state highway system, including the Interstates, the Turnpike, the Parkway south of Exit 105, and the Expressway.
- Superload note
- New Jersey publishes no superload weight or dimension class. SUPERLOAD is the name of the NJDOT online permitting system, not a load category, and the NJDOT Superload Program issues ordinary oversize and overweight permits plus ocean borne container permits. Heavy or wide moves are controlled through route review rather than a threshold: a single-trip application is rejected where the load and axle configuration overstress the structures on the proposed route, and the applicant either shifts weight, changes axle spacing, or takes a different route with help from the NJDOT Bureau of Structural Engineering.
- Permit insurance: note
- A permit application is not accepted without proof of these limits, and the policy must provide 10-day prior notice to the MVC on cancellation or termination. The certificate must show the insured's name and address, policy number, expiration date, the coverages, the vehicles covered, the ten-day cancellation clause, and the agent's signature. The insurance filing is not required for an oversize permit issued for a private utility trailer or a house-type trailer or semitrailer; N.J.A.C. 13:18-1.8 falls those back on the Compulsory Motor Vehicle Insurance Law, N.J.S.A. 39:6B-1 et seq., and the Security-Responsibility Law, N.J.S.A. 39:6-23 et seq. NJDOT's guidebook names only the Security-Responsibility Law for that exception; the rule text names both.
- Overweight permit conditions: registration
- An overweight permit is not valid for a vehicle registered or required to be registered in New Jersey unless the vehicle is registered at the maximum registration weight allowed under N.J.S.A. 39:3-20, the commercial motor vehicle registration and fee statute. A carrier that registered light to save on the Code 11 fee cannot buy its way over the limit with a permit.
- Overweight permit conditions: tire load
- An overweight permit is not valid when the gross weight including the load exceeds 800 pounds per inch of tire width on all wheels, or when the load puts more than 800 pounds per inch of tire width on any one wheel.
- Overweight permit conditions: liability for damage
- Anyone driving a vehicle over the statutory weight limits is liable for all damage the highway or highway structure sustains, recoverable in a civil action by the authority controlling the road. Operating within a special permit is not a defense where the damage is to highways or structures posted below the statutory limits, and where the driver is not the owner both are jointly and severally liable.
| Name | Validity | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Single-trip oversize and/or overweight permit | Five days, one one-way trip | Route specific and reviewed against the structures on the proposed route. Applications are rejected where the load and axle configuration overstress a structure, and the rejection names the overstressed structures. |
| Code 23 special oversize trailer permit | Life of the trailer, as long as the Code 23 registration stays valid | For a trailer over 8 feet and not more than 10 feet wide, in a combination over 55 feet and not more than 70 feet overall, with combined vehicle and cargo weight not over 80,000 pounds GVW or any other limit in N.J.S.A. 39:3-84.b. It is trailer specific and valid statewide, and it also covers the overdimensional permit requirement when used alongside a Code 23 route-specific permit within those limits. There is no base fee, only the $12.60 transaction charge. The trailer must first hold a Code 23 registration from the MVC under N.J.S.A. 39:4-26, which the MVC prices at $209.50 and NJDOT's guidebook states is $209.50 per year. |
| Code 23 overweight and oversize route-specific permit | 30 days, route specific, valid for each one-way trip | For heavy construction or road building machinery on a Code 23 registered trailer, limited to a single piece of equipment. Subject to the $12.60 transaction charge and no excess weight fees. Excess size fees still apply if the combination exceeds 10 feet wide or 70 feet overall, if the carrier has no Code 23 special oversize trailer permit, or if the load overhangs the trailer. |
| Annual ocean borne container permit | Not exceeding 365 days | Legal dimensions only, up to 90,000 pounds gross. |
The New Jersey permit office
- Agency
- New Jersey Department of Transportation, issuing on behalf of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission
- System
- SUPERLOAD, the NJDOT online permitting system, reached through the NJDOT GotPermits Permitting System
- [email protected]
- Note
- NJDOT issues permits for all oversize vehicles, overweight vehicles, Code 23 registered trailers, and annual ocean borne container permits. Applications for permits are obtained on the Department's website at nj.gotpermits.com. The Bureau of Structural Engineering helps applicants pick an acceptable alternative route when a proposed route overstresses a structure.
Legal limits before you need a permit
Width is the New Jersey trap. The wider allowance applies on the national network and on the state's designated truck route network; everywhere else the limit drops, which makes an ordinary wide trailer oversize on an unlisted local road. The network hierarchy is set by its own rule chapter, which ranks the national network first, a state access network second, and treats every other local road as terminal access only.
Height is uniform statewide. Length depends on configuration, from a single truck through combinations and automobile transporters, with a separate kingpin to rear axle rule on the longest trailers. Weight runs on a single axle limit, a tandem limit, a gross limit, and the federal bridge formula, and the formula can force you below the flat numbers.
Every figure comes from the dimensional and weight statute, and the sourced table on this page prints each one with the subsection it belongs to.
Single-trip permits and how the fee stacks
One permit covers one one-way trip, and it runs for a handful of days with a possible one-day extension for hazardous road conditions or a breakdown, requested before the permit expires. A vehicle that is both oversize and overweight gets one permit at the higher base fee, and the excess charges apply on top of it.
The stack is what surprises people. A base fee sets the floor, per-foot charges apply past a published width line and past published length lines, and excess weight is charged per increment over the axle or gross limit, whichever is greater. Every transaction then adds a flat charge plus a percentage service charge, which is why the guidebook prints round totals rather than the rule's component figures. The sourced schedule on this page carries each component.
Escort requirements
Escorts phase in by width and by length, with a second step in each dimension that takes an escort front and rear. Placement depends on the road: below four lanes the single escort leads, at four lanes or more it follows. A move running at night under a written waiver picks up an extra escort, and the guidebook states a flat count for that case which is higher than the rule's incremental wording reads on its face. Plan on the guidebook number and confirm the count printed on your permit.
Height works differently here. Passing the height line adds no escort. Instead the permittee has to notify every utility company and every county and municipal traffic engineering department controlling overhead wires, cables, signals, and bridges along the route, and the permit is void if those notifications are not made or the recommendations are not followed.
New Jersey assigns only private escorts, sets no certification requirement, and limits neither the size nor the type of escort vehicle. Spacing, warning signs, flags, and lamps all have published specifications on this page.
When a permitted load can move
The night rule splits by permit type. An oversize permit is not valid between sunset and sunrise, and the Chief Administrator may waive that in writing where it would cut congestion, where the applicant shows a business hardship, or in an emergency, with the waiver request filed alongside the application. An overweight permit for a load inside legal dimensions is valid around the clock.
Holidays close the oversize side on the major ones, with two of them extended back to the preceding Friday and one to the preceding Wednesday. A holiday falling on a weekend shifts the restriction to the adjacent weekday.
Two honest gaps. New Jersey publishes no statewide curfew list, only the conditions printed on the individual permit. It publishes no wind rule either. What it does publish is unconditional on the oversize side: no move when daylight visibility drops below a published distance, none in hazardous road conditions, none where the clear space left for passing traffic is under a published width, and none after dark by a vehicle that cannot hold a published speed.
There is no superload class
The name misleads. New Jersey's permitting system is called SUPERLOAD, but that is software, not a load category, and the state publishes no superload weight or dimension threshold. The program issues ordinary oversize and overweight permits and the annual container permit.
Heavy and wide moves are controlled by review of the route instead. A single-trip application is rejected where the load and axle configuration overstress a structure on the proposed route, and the applicant then shifts weight, changes axle spacing, or takes a different road with help from the structural engineering bureau. An overweight permit is also void if the vehicle is not already registered at the maximum weight the registration statute allows, and void if the load exceeds the published tire loading, so a light registration cannot be bought out of with a permit.
How to read this page
A value reading "Not confirmed" means we could not verify the figure on an official agency page at review time, so it stays open rather than guessed. Superload moves above the standard permit thresholds get individual review by the state; contact the permit office named on this page. For the rest of the New Jersey permit stack, see New Jersey trucking permits.
Frequently asked questions
What can I haul in New Jersey without an oversize permit?
- Anything inside the statutory limits for width, height, length by configuration, axle weight, and gross weight. Width is the one that changes underneath you: the wider allowance applies on the designated truck route networks and drops elsewhere. The sourced limits table on this page carries each figure.
How much does a New Jersey single-trip permit cost?
- It stacks rather than sitting at one price: a base fee, per-foot charges past the published width and length lines, a per-increment charge on excess weight, then a flat transaction fee and a percentage service charge on the total. The sourced fee schedule on this page lists every component.
When does an oversize load need an escort in New Jersey?
- Once it passes the published width or length line, with a second step in each dimension that takes an escort front and rear. Night movement under a waiver adds another. Height adds no escort at all; it adds a notification duty to every utility and traffic engineering office along the route. The sourced table carries each threshold.
What counts as a superload in New Jersey?
- Nothing does. The state publishes no superload class or threshold, and SUPERLOAD is the name of the permitting system rather than a category of load. Heavy moves are handled by structure review of the route you propose, and a rejected route names the structures that failed.
Can an oversize load move at night in New Jersey?
- Only under a written waiver. An oversize permit is not valid from sunset to sunrise, and the waiver request has to accompany the permit application. An overweight permit for a load inside legal dimensions is valid at any hour. Night movement under a waiver also raises the escort count.
Haul Handbook publishes educational information about trucking registration and compliance requirements. This is not legal, financial, or tax advice. Rules, fees, and deadlines change; confirm with the agency before you file or pay.