Development of Annual Permit Procedure for Overweight Trucks on Indiana Highways

Overweight truck permitting in Indiana is presently done on a per trip basis. This study evaluated alternatives to each trip having to make a call to the INDOT permit office to gain a permit. The study was originally requested by the Indiana State Legislature under P.L. 122-1993 section 7 in response to delays in getting permits. The report’s six chapters are 1. Introduction and Summary 2. Review of Other States’ Permitting Systems 3. Framework for Policy Evaluation 4. Permits for Michigan Truck-Trains 5. Overweight and Overweight/Oversized Trucks 6. Implementation Suggestions – PLUS -- 7. Appendices. A Michigan Truck-Train is a special dual-trailer configuration permitted for only one short “Extra Heavy Duty Highway” in northern Indiana. The report presents a methodology for evaluating various possible alternatives and then does that evaluation. It suggests that the per-call basis is fundamentally the correct mechanism, but that the present implementation of per-call permitting needs some improvements. Some suggestions are offered for those improvements