The short version: a Georgia 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 over 180,000 lb. Everything below carries the Georgia document it came from, that document's own revision date, and the date we read it.
Corridor
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.
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 Published as 8 ft 6 in. Statutory exceptions exist for specified agricultural, forestry and port-facility movements.
Height
13'6"undated document · read The selected-statutes document separately allows automobile carriers up to 14 ft on Interstate highways and reasonable-access routes; a quote does not identify the commodity, so the general limit is used.
Semitrailer length
53'undated document · read "The standard trailer unit in Georgia is 53 feet."
Overall length
100'undated document · read "Length 100 ft. (including overhang)". Equipment-specific and NHS/Interstate exceptions exist. Because overhang is inside this measurement, Georgia publishes no separate overhang limit and no independent overhang escort trigger — which is why the overhang fields below are absent.
Kingpin to rear axle
None published
Front overhang
None published
Rear overhang
None published
Gross weight
80,000 lbundated document · read "Weight 80,000 lbs. gross weight". The federal bridge formula applies to all weight limitations and both inner and outer bridge limits are enforced, so the usable gross can be lower.
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
the road is “divided” and width from 12' (exclusive) to 14'8"
the road is “interstate” and width from 12' (exclusive) to 14'8"
1 certified escort1 behindCannot be reduced to a number: On a limited-access highway at this width Georgia requires "a Rear Escort/Amber Lights only", and does not define the slash. One rear escort is counted; if amber lights on the load satisfy it, no escort vehicle is needed at all and this quote carries one it does not owe.
the road is “two lane” and width from 12' (exclusive) to 14'8"
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behindCannot be reduced to a number: Georgia requires "a Vehicle Front Escort and a Rear Escort/Amber Lights" for this width on a two-lane road, and does not define the slash. Two escorts are counted here — the costlier reading — but if the rear requirement is satisfied by amber lights on the load, only one escort is needed and the quote is one pilot car high.
2 certified escorts1 in front1 behindCannot be reduced to a number: Georgia's two official sources disagree about a load over 16 ft wide. Rule 672-2 says "the Department shall determine escort requirements on a case by case basis and may require a vehicle Police Escort with operating blue lights displaying their jurisdiction". The Pilot/Escort Handbook says instead that all loads more than 16 feet wide "are required to be accompanied by two escort vehicles, one in the front and one in the rear, on all roads and highways". Two civilian escorts are counted because that is the only number either source gives; a police escort may be required on top of them and Georgia publishes no hourly, per-mile, minimum-call or administrative police-escort rate anywhere, so no police cost is included and none can be estimated.
1 certified escort1 behindCannot be reduced to a number: Georgia requires "a rear escort/amber light" for a permitted load over 75 ft and up to 100 ft long, and publishes no definition of the slash. On one reading that is a rear pilot car; on the other it is an amber light mounted on the load and no escort vehicle at all. One rear escort is counted here because under-counting a pilot car is the more expensive mistake to make, but the requirement must be read off the issued permit before it is billed.
$0undated document · read The permit-type list prints one flat amount per type and nothing beside it. The only additions Georgia publishes are the flat $7.00 credit-card charge and the $1.00 fax charge.
Transaction / card
$7rev. · read "CREDIT CARD USE IS ACCEPTED BY THE OVERSIZE PERMIT UNIT AND IS OFFERED AS AN OPTION OF CONVENIENCE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. THE CHARGE FOR THIS SERVICE IS $7.00", charged by VitalChek Network. It is additive and flat, and it applies only when a card is used. Georgia publishes no percentage-based surcharge anywhere in the reviewed sources, so the percentage is recorded as zero rather than left unknown. The undated $1.00 fax charge is not included — see the field comment.
Route analysis review
Not yet covered
Route with no bridges
Not yet covered
Dimension bands
Band
Fee
Standard Single — width and height 16 ft or under
$30undated document · read "Standard Single - $30.00 • Width & Height Limit of 16' • Weight Limit of 150,000 lbs." The weight half of the same row is carried by `overweightBands`, and `combinedFeeRule` keeps a load that is both from paying twice.
Superload Single — over 16 ft wide
$125undated document · read "Superload Single - $125.00 • Width & Height greater than 16'". Rule 672-2-.01 states the trigger as a disjunction: "A non-divisible load exceeding a width or height of 16'". Approval may take up to three days. Axle weights and spacings are not required for a dimensions-only superload.
Superload Single — over 16 ft high, width 16 ft or under
$125undated document · read The height half of the same disjunction, written as its own band so that at most one band can ever match.
Graduated weight bands. Rule 672-2-.01 defines the same bands as permit categories rather than as a formula, and adds that axle weights and spacings become required once the gross weight exceeds 150,000 lb.
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.
Georgia is not in the seasonal-restriction registry, so we hold no posting window for it and are not inventing one.
Superload
7. Georgia'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 180,000 lbrev. · read "Superload Plus: A non-divisible load exceeding a gross vehicle weight of 180,000 pounds", which "requires axle weights and spacings for a complete bridge analysis". Actual axle spacings must be accurate or longer than those on the permit; shorter spacings void it.
The dimensions at which Georgia 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
Police escorts
9. Police escorts
Charges exist and no schedule is published. Georgia requires police escorts for a house move and a minimum of two for a Mega Load, and publishes no hourly, per-mile, minimum-call or administrative rate for either.
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 Georgia. 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.
Who issues it
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.
Source conflicts
12. Where the sources disagree
Two official documents, both in effect, giving different answers. Neither has been adopted.
legal single-axle weight
20,340 lbGeorgia DPS/MCCD — Oversize Permit Laws (undated) — width 8'6"; height 13'6"; length 100 ft including overhang; 53 ft standard trailer; 80,000 lb gross; "Legal axle weight is 20,340 pounds."; federal bridge formula undated document · read
20,000 lbGeorgia — Pilot/Escort Student Workbook (PDF, undated) — height-pole specification; four-year certificate validity; "Weight is greater than 80,000 lbs. (20,000 lbs. single axle, 34,000 lbs. tandem axle)"; the two-escort reading above 16 ft; the "in excess of 15'6"" and "15' or greater in larger cities" height-sensor readings undated document · read
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. Rule 672-2-.01 — superload definitions (last amended 2012-10-16) — Georgia Secretary of State, Rules and Regulations — "a gross vehicle weight exceeding 150,001 pounds up to a gross vehicle weight of 180,000 pounds"; "Superload Plus: A non-divisible load exceeding a gross vehicle weight of 180,000 pounds"; the axle-data requirement above 150,000 lb rev. · read
GDOT — Oversize Permits: Superload Plus and Mega Load permit types — Georgia Department of Transportation — Superload Plus $500: weight over 180,000 lb, requires bridge analysis. Mega Load $500: weight 300,000 lb and above, requires outside engineering. undated document · read
Georgia — Pilot/Escort Student Workbook (PDF, undated) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — height-pole specification; four-year certificate validity; "Weight is greater than 80,000 lbs. (20,000 lbs. single axle, 34,000 lbs. tandem axle)"; the two-escort reading above 16 ft; the "in excess of 15'6"" and "15' or greater in larger cities" height-sensor readings undated document · read
Georgia DPS/MCCD — Mega Load requirements (PDF, September 2016) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — "GDOT defines 'Mega Load' as all loads with a gross weight exceeding 300,000 lbs."; minimum two police escorts; the field-survey contents rev. · read
Georgia DPS/MCCD — Oversize Permit Laws (undated) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — width 8'6"; height 13'6"; length 100 ft including overhang; 53 ft standard trailer; 80,000 lb gross; "Legal axle weight is 20,340 pounds."; federal bridge formula undated document · read
Georgia DPS/MCCD — Permit Guidelines (undated, retains legacy fax-process language) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — "$1.00 will be added to include the cost of faxing the permit to you."; "Any loads with dimensions greater than 12 feet wide, 13'6" high, 100 feet in length or 100,000 lbs., needs routes." undated document · read
Georgia DPS/MCCD — Permit Types and Escort Requirements (undated) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — Standard Single $30; Superload Single $125; Superload Plus $500; Mega Load $500; the length escort rows; house-move police escorts undated document · read
Georgia DPS/MCCD — Selected statutes, O.C.G.A. Title 32 extract (PDF) — Georgia Department of Public Safety, Motor Carrier Compliance Division — tandem 40,680 lb on non-national highways; 34,000 lb on national highways; the under-73,280 lb / not-over-55 ft exception rev. · read
Common questions
Questions
How much is an oversize permit in Georgia?
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 Georgia require a pilot car?
The first width trigger is over 12', and it varies by road class — the figure shown is the lowest across classes.
What is a superload in Georgia?
Georgia's published gross-weight superload line is over 180,000 lb. It is not 80,000 lb; that is the federal legal gross limit, not a superload threshold.
Do Georgia'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.