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 the answers up: four definitive 'No's, one 'Absolutely not,' and just one 'Doubtful.' Offering one of the nos was Alex Jensen, in permits 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 road-maintenance assessments have 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 characteristitcs ... the geography, the road conditions, bridge conditions, it's all different." Unless the federal government were to mandate some unforeseen, next-to-impossible on-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 AmazonPrime us a new structure," truckers and state permits officials are stuck with what they've got. The six officials were in conversation with ATS's Joanna Jungels (serving as moderator) at the SC&RA symposium, with plenty in the way of audience Q&A, too, where the back-and-forth really heated up with actionable intelligence. The full panel is featured in this week's edition of Overdrive Radio, offering insights and intelligence from these four additional state reps from an alphabet soup of agencies in addition to DMVs and DOTs: **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 **Indiana -- Judy Williams with Indiana'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. 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, with cutting off auto-issue access a common first step. Yet, noted 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 needed other 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," Jensen noted. Catch Overdrive's most-recent "Niche Hauls" series installment on the heavy-oversize niche (from 2025) via this link: https://overdriveonline.com/tag/niche-hauls
