IRP Apportioned Plates

2026-09-047 min

One registration, issued by your base jurisdiction, valid in every member jurisdiction you declare. The fee is not one fee — it is each jurisdiction's own registration fee, charged in proportion to the miles you ran there.

Low-poly render of the rear of a trailer with a blank plate panel — One plate, many jurisdictions, one very specific mileage record.

Why apportioned

Before the plan, a truck running six states carried six registrations. IRP replaced that with one plate and one cab card, issued by the jurisdiction where the fleet is based, recognised everywhere in the plan. The truck is registered once; the money is divided.

You need it if the vehicle is used in two or more member jurisdictions and is over 26,000 lb gross weight, or has three or more axles regardless of weight, or is used in combination over 26,000 lb. Under those thresholds you may still qualify voluntarily, and for a truck crossing a line weekly it is usually cheaper than trip permits.

How the fee is built

Three inputs: the jurisdictions you declare, the registered gross weight in each, and your distance percentage in each. Take each jurisdiction's own full-year registration fee for that weight, multiply by your share of miles run there, and sum. That is your apportioned fee.

Jurisdiction	Miles	Share	Effect on the fee
Base state	48,000	60%	60% of that state's fee
Neighbour A	20,000	25%	25% of A's fee
Neighbour B	12,000	15%	15% of B's fee

Because each jurisdiction sets its own fee schedule, two carriers with identical mileage can pay very different totals depending on which states they run. There is no single national rate to quote, and any page that gives you one is guessing.

The cab card

The plate is only half of it. The cab card lists every jurisdiction the vehicle is registered in and the weight it is registered for in each, and it has to be in the vehicle. A truck with an apportioned plate and no cab card is, from the officer's side of the window, an unregistered truck.

Adding a jurisdiction mid-year is a supplement, not a new registration, and the new cab card has to reach the truck before it runs there. Plan the route before you plan the paperwork and you will be buying trip permits at the border instead.

The first year problem

A new carrier has no mileage history, so the first year is estimated against the plan's average per-jurisdiction distance chart rather than your own numbers. The second year is settled on what you actually ran — which means a carrier who over-ran an expensive jurisdiction gets a larger bill in year two than year one, from the same trucks.

Keep the distance records from the first mile. They are the same records IFTA needs, so there is exactly one job here, not two.