Apportioned plates answer a question every interstate fleet hits in its first week: how do you register a truck that runs in fifteen states without buying fifteen registrations? The International Registration Plan (IRP) is the answer — a reciprocity agreement among 59 jurisdictions (the 48 contiguous states, the District of Columbia, and 10 Canadian provinces, per the California DMV IRP handbook) under which you register once, with your base jurisdiction, and the registration fees are divided among the jurisdictions where the fleet actually runs. One plate and one cab card per vehicle cover the entire map.
Who Must Run Apportioned Plates
A vehicle must be apportioned when it travels (or is intended to travel) in two or more member jurisdictions, is used to transport persons for hire or property, and meets any one of three thresholds:
- a power unit with a gross or registered weight over 26,000 lbs; or
- a power unit with three or more axles, regardless of weight; or
- use in a combination whose combined gross vehicle weight exceeds 26,000 lbs.
Lighter vehicles and two-axle units at or under 26,000 lbs may be apportioned at the registrant’s option — useful for fleets that want one renewal cycle across mixed equipment. Note the definition is nearly identical to IFTA’s qualified-motor-vehicle test, which is why the two credentials are usually set up together; the fuel permits guide covers the IFTA side.
How Apportionment Math Works
Each member jurisdiction sets its own full-year registration fee by weight class. Your fleet pays each jurisdiction the share of that fee matching the share of fleet miles run there during the reporting period. A fleet that ran 40% of its miles in its base state, 35% in two neighbor states, and 25% spread across the rest of the map pays each jurisdiction’s fee in those proportions — invoiced as one total by the base jurisdiction. Because every state’s fee schedule differs, there is no single “cost of apportioned plates”; the total depends on declared weight and where the miles landed. Verify current schedules with your base state’s IRP office.
First-year registrants have no mileage history, so the base jurisdiction bills the first registration off its Average Per Vehicle Distance (APVD) chart — a standardized distance estimate per jurisdiction. From the second year on, renewals use the fleet’s actual reported distance for the reporting period, which is why clean mileage records matter as much for IRP as they do for the IFTA quarterly return.
The Full Reciprocity Plan: One Cab Card, Every Jurisdiction
Since January 1, 2015, the Full Reciprocity Plan (FRP) makes every apportioned cab card valid in all member jurisdictions automatically. Before the FRP, carriers elected jurisdictions at renewal and paid trip-permit and “over 100%” fees to add states mid-year; under the FRP those are gone — fees simply true up to actual distance at the next renewal. The practical effect for a new fleet: an unexpected load into a state you have never run is already covered by your existing cab card. State program pages such as PennDOT’s apportioned registration program document the FRP mechanics.
Plates, Cab Cards, and Electronic Credentials
Each apportioned vehicle gets exactly one plate and one cab card. The cab card lists the registered weights and is the document enforcement checks at the scale. Since a January 1, 2019 amendment to the Plan, member jurisdictions must accept electronic cab-card images shown on a device, though the document — paper or electronic — must be valid, accurate, and readable. Charter buses lost their exemption from the Plan effective January 1, 2016, so interstate charter operations now apportion or run trip permits like any other carrier.
Registering: What the Base Jurisdiction Wants
Your base jurisdiction is the state where the fleet has an established place of business, accrues distance, and keeps (or can make available) its operational records. Expect the IRP application to require proof of that place of business, the USDOT number and taxpayer identification, titles for each vehicle, declared combined gross weights, and — depending on the state — proof of HVUT (IRS Form 2290) payment for vehicles at 55,000 lbs and above. Processing yields the apportioned plate, cab card, and an annual renewal cycle on the state’s schedule; record-keeping obligations mirror IFTA’s, and IRP audits examine the same distance records.
What IRP Does Not Cover
IRP is registration only. It does not file your fuel tax — that is IFTA’s quarterly return — and it does not touch the five state weight-distance programs (New York HUT, Kentucky KYU, New Mexico WDT, Oregon Weight-Mile, Connecticut HUF), each of which needs its own account on top of apportioned plates. The state trucking permits overview maps that full stack. And if a vehicle only occasionally meets the apportionable definition — a one-off interstate move, a seasonal lane — jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction trip permits remain the legal alternative to a full IRP account.