The answers to the question in the title here came rapid-fire, and with certainty, from reps of six different state agencies with oversize and overweight permits responsibilities, amid much laughter from the assembled at the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association's transport symposium last month.
To tally them up: four definitive Nos, one Absolutely not, and just one Doubtful.
Offering one of the Nos was Alex Jensen, with the Iowa Department of Transportation, who expanded on his and others' reasoning. Just as no two overdimensional loads are much alike, different states have different priorities, rules and infrastructures, as Overdrive's reporting around your Highway Report Card state highway assessments has also made clear in recent months.
"All of our bridges are built to different standards, different ages. We have different engineers, different pavement," Jensen said. "Even the characteristics ... the geography, the road conditions, bridge conditions, it's all different."
Unless the federal government mandates some unforeseen, next-to-impossible one-size-fits-all system, he added, the 50-state-by-state permitting regime is probably here to stay.
"I know it sucks, but it's just the way it is, unfortunately," Jensen said.
Quipped Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles' Brandi Thorpe, "Unless we can get Jeff Bezos to Amazon-Prime us a new structure," truckers and state permits officials are stuck with what they've got.
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Pictured from right, Alex Jensen, Joanna Jungels and Brandi Thorpe, then the four other state reps: from Wyoming, Port of Entry Operations Manager Troy McAlpine with the Wyoming Highway Patrol; Louisiana Permit Office Manager Julie Gautreau with the state DOT; Oklahoma Deputy General Counsel Mitch Surrett, also with his state's DOT; and Indiana's Judy Williams, with the state's Department of Revenue.
You’ll hear a lot about increasingly super-complicated moves of superloads, still requiring lots of manual route planning, yet also how technology has enabled effective auto-issue in most states today at a very high rate.
[Related: Oversize/overweight permitting and 'harmonization': State of the states, and technology]
For the oversize and overweight haulers out there, keep tuned through to the end of this one for the Q&A with the audience for much in the way of how preventing big permitting delays can depend mightily on communication. That is, what you can do before you file to ensure you get the best result from the permits office -- and after, too, en route when a breakdown happens or details about the run change after load.
Learn, too, each state's approach to punitive actions for bridge strikers or construction-zone scofflaws. An audience member asked whether the states had a three-strikes or other cut-and-dried rule that might get a carrier banned from permit-issuance in the state.
Most approached such on a case-by-case basis. (Cutting off auto-issue access was a common first step noted.)
Yet, said Jensen, "hit a bridge, running without permits, kill a construction worker ... we'll go through the administrative suspension procedures if we need to, but I can count on one hand the number of times it's ever gotten that serious."
More often, steps precede it, including more law enforcement escorts required on otherwise non-escort-necessary loads, if you need incentive to avoid drastic mistakes. "They do a full Level 2 inspection before you get moving, and they might find things you don't necessarily want them to find," he noted.
Much more where that came from in the episode, embedded above and below.
Catch Overdrive's most-recent "Niche Hauls" series installment on the heavy-oversize niche via this link, as mentioned in the podcast.
[Related: Finding your niche haul: The tradeoffs and triumphs of freight specialization]
