Texas keeps its temporary trip permits simple and its fuel permit separate. A laden commercial truck that is not registered or apportioned for Texas buys a 72-Hour Permit ($25) or a 144-Hour Permit ($50) from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, each plus a $4.75 processing and handling fee, online or at a county tax office, with a valid USDOT number. If the truck also lacks an IFTA license, the Texas Comptroller sells a $50 fuel trip permitgood for one entry and 20 days, capped at five entries a calendar year. A truck with apportioned plates and IFTA decals needs neither — but may still need an oversize/overweight permit or TxDMV operating authority, which are different credentials.
Who Needs a Texas Temporary Trip Permit
TxDMV’s temporary permits page limits the 72-Hour and 144-Hour Permits to commercial laden trucks, truck-tractors, trailers, semitrailers, or motor buses owned by residents of the United States, Mexico, or Canada. A valid USDOT number is required to buy either one. You also show proof of liability insurance meeting the Texas 30/60/25 minimums (trailers and semitrailers are exempt from the insurance requirement), and the vehicle needs a Texas Safety Inspection unless it displays current out-of-state plates or is mobile drilling or servicing equipment. The permits cannot be issued for salvage or nonrepairable vehicles, apprehended vehicles, or vehicles operated solely outside Texas.
In practice the buyer is an out-of-state carrier whose truck is not IRP apportioned — a straight truck plated only in its home state, a newly bought tractor waiting on plates, or a farm or intrastate fleet taking a one-off interstate load. If the cab card shows apportioned registration, the Full Reciprocity Plan already covers Texas and there is nothing to buy on the registration side.
72-Hour vs 144-Hour: Pick the Window, Not the Price
The 72-Hour Permit is $25 and the 144-Hour Permit is $50, both plus the non-refundable $4.75 processing and handling fee, and both are valid only in Texas for the stated duration. TxDMV sells them online, at county tax assessor-collector offices, and at TxDMV Regional Service Centers, by MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express online (or certified check or money order at a Regional Service Center). The 144-hour version is the one to buy when the delivery appointment is soft. A 72-hour permit that starts Monday morning is expired Thursday morning whether the trailer is empty or not, and a second permit bought from the shoulder costs more than the $25 difference in the first place.
The Permits That Do Not Fit a Loaded Truck
TxDMV’s page lists three other temporary permits that show up in the same search results and do not do the job. The One-Trip Permit ($5 plus $4.75) is for unladen vehicles only, covers 15 calendar days for one trip that starts or ends in Texas, and is sold only at county tax offices and Regional Service Centers — useful for repositioning an empty truck, useless with freight on board. The 30-Day Permit ($25 plus $4.75) covers passenger vehicles, motorcycles, private buses, and trailers or light commercial vehicles at 10,000 lbs or less. The Vehicle Transit Permit is free, five days, one trip, and limited to passenger vehicles up to 6,000 lbs and light trucks up to 10,000 lbs. None of the three registers a laden heavy truck.
The Comptroller’s Fuel Trip Permit Is a Separate Purchase
Registration is TxDMV; fuel tax is the Comptroller. Under the Comptroller’s trip permit rule, an operator entering Texas for commercial purposes with a qualified motor vehicle may purchase a trip permit in lieu of the required interstate trucker license or IFTA license if there are no more than five entries into the state during a calendar year. The fee is $50. The permit is valid for only one entry and only 20 days from the date of entry, and a round trip through Texas counts as two entries even if it finishes inside the 20 days — the Comptroller’s own example is Arkansas to Texas to New Mexico and back, which takes two permits.
The purchase is not a same-day transaction. You apply on Webfile, then mail a cashier’s check or money order payable to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to the Austin address on the page, and the receipt from that check or money order is the trip permit — it must be carried in the vehicle. Operating without a valid interstate trucker license, IFTA license, or trip permit exposes the operator to a penalty under the Motor Fuels Tax Code, Subchapter E. Plan the fuel permit days ahead of the registration permit, and if the truck will enter Texas more than five times this year, it needs IFTA, not permits.
When Apportioned Plates Make Trip Permits Unnecessary
Since the Full Reciprocity Plan took effect in 2015, an apportioned cab card is valid in every IRP jurisdiction, Texas included, so an apportioned truck never buys a 72-Hour or 144-Hour Permit. IFTA decals cover the fuel side the same way. The break-even is short in Texas: one round trip on temporary credentials is two 144-hour permits ($109.50) plus two fuel trip permits ($100), and the five-entry cap on fuel permits ends the option in the first quarter for any regular lane.
Overweight or Oversize? That Is a Different Permit
The 72-Hour and 144-Hour Permits are registration for a legally loaded truck. Anything over Texas legal weight or dimensions needs an oversize/overweight permit from the TxDMV Motor Carrier Division, priced by permit type and route, and enforced at the scale independently of the trip permit. Our OS/OW permits by state guide has the Texas row and the oversize permit cost by state page prices it. If the load is heavy or wide, get that permit first and the trip permit second; both have to be in the cab.
Intrastate Loads Need TxDMV Operating Authority
A trip permit lets a truck run in Texas; it does not license the carrier to haul for hire between two Texas points. Intrastate for-hire operation requires TxDMV motor carrier operating authority with insurance filed with the agency, which sits on top of federal MC authority the same way California’s Motor Carrier Permit does. The Texas state page covers that registration; the state trucking permits overview explains where it fits against IRP, IFTA, and the weight-distance states.
Cost Math and Filing
One entry for one non-apportioned, non-IFTA truck: $54.75 for a 144-Hour Permit and $50 for the fuel trip permit, $104.75 in state fees, both per vehicle. We file trip and fuel permits directly with TxDMV and the Comptroller for $75 flat per permit — start from the Texas page. The trip and fuel permits by state table shows what the neighboring states charge, and the Florida and California guides cover the two other states where the rules differ most from the Texas pattern.