What is IRP registration, and how do apportioned plates work?
IRP — the International Registration Plan — is a reciprocal agreement among 59 jurisdictions: the 48 contiguous US states, Washington DC and 10 Canadian provinces. It lets you register a commercial power unit once, in your base jurisdiction, and run it legally in all of them, with each jurisdiction's registration fee charged in proportion to the miles your fleet ran there. You need it if the vehicle crosses state lines to haul property, or passengers for hire, and either weighs over 26,000 lbs — alone or in combination — or has three or more axles regardless of weight. What you get is one apportioned plate and a cab card that lists every member jurisdiction and the weight you are registered for in each, and the cab card has to be in the vehicle. Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada's three territories are not members.
Apportioned plate, base plate, or trip permits?
Apportioned plates are not compulsory. They are one of three ways to be legal in a state you are not based in, and which one is right depends on how often you actually go there.
| Aspect | Apportioned plate | Base plate | Trip permit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where you can legally run | Every member jurisdiction — 48 states, Washington DC and 10 Canadian provinces | Your own state only | One jurisdiction, for the days the permit covers |
| What it costs | Each jurisdiction's full annual fee, times your share of the miles run there | One state's flat weight-class fee | Roughly $25–$45 per entry, per state, for 72 hours to 10 days |
| What you carry | The apportioned plate, plus a cab card listing every member jurisdiction | The plate and your ordinary state registration | Your base-state plate plus the permit, bought before you cross the line |
| Weight you declare | One per jurisdiction — the cab card shows what you are registered for in each | One, for your own state | Set by the permit |
| Records you must keep | Per-jurisdiction distance for every trip, kept three years past the close of the registration year and open to audit | Nothing comparable | The permits themselves |
| Renewal | Annual, and every truck in the fleet shares one expiration date | Your state's cycle — often multi-year | Nothing to renew; you buy the next one |
| Who it fits | Anything crossing state lines on a regular basis | A truck that never leaves its own state | A handful of out-of-state trips a year |
How to get apportioned plates
Check all four things that make a vehicle apportionable
The Plan's definition has to be met on four counts at once: it is a power unit, not a trailer or an automobile; it is used, or intended for use, in two or more member jurisdictions; it carries property, or passengers for hire; and it either has two axles and a gross or registered gross weight over 26,000 lbs, or three or more axles regardless of weight, or runs in a combination whose gross weight exceeds 26,000 lbs. Miss any one of the four and IRP does not apply. At 26,000 lbs or less on two axles you may still apportion by choice — and it is often the cheaper route if you also run intrastate in a second state, because the alternative is registering in both.
Settle your base jurisdiction before anything else
The three-part test in Plan § 305(a) is conjunctive: your base jurisdiction is a member jurisdiction where you have an established place of business, where the fleet accrues distance, and where the records are kept or can be made available. All three, not the best two. Only where more than one jurisdiction independently satisfies all three do you get to choose between them — and the Plan's own commentary says it is 'not the intent of this section to permit a Registrant to manipulate the selection of a Base Jurisdiction'. Your base state is worked out from facts, not picked from a price list.
Meet the place-of-business rules that changed on October 1, 2025
This is where new accounts get denied, and most published guidance is still quoting the old text. Since October 1, 2025 an established place of business means a physical structure in the base jurisdiction that you own or lease on a term of no less than 12 months, with clear company signage and posted hours of operation, open for business, and staffed a minimum of 20 hours a week by one or more people you employ permanently — expressly not an independent contractor — doing the general management of the trucking business, not just credentialing, reporting and answering the phone. Virtual and shared office space does not qualify. If you have no established place of business anywhere, residence is the fallback: a resident driver's license or state ID, plus two of seven listed proofs.
Assemble what the base state will ask for
An active USDOT number, and operating authority if you haul for hire; the vehicle title, or title plus lease if the truck is leased on; proof of the established place of business or residence; insurance at the federal minimums; your FEIN; and, for anything with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 lbs or more, the stamped Schedule 1 from IRS Form 2290. That last one is the usual hold-up — states are required to see proof that the heavy vehicle use tax was paid before they will register the vehicle. Most carriers open the IFTA account in the same pass, since the thresholds are close enough that qualifying for one usually means qualifying for the other.
File, get billed on your mileage share, and take the plate and cab card
Your fee in each jurisdiction is the apportionment percentage — distance there divided by total distance — multiplied by that jurisdiction's own full annual registration fee, and the invoice is the sum across all of them. The mileage comes from the reporting period: the twelve months ending June 30 of the year before the registration year. A brand-new fleet with no distance in that window is billed on the base jurisdiction's average per-vehicle distance instead, published from its own prior-year data. The base state collects the whole invoice and distributes the other jurisdictions' shares. Most states issue a temporary credential so you can run while the plate is produced.
Keep the distance records, then renew every year
Records have to be good enough for the base jurisdiction to verify every mile you reported, and you keep them for three years after the close of the registration year they support. Every jurisdiction audits an average of three percent of the fleets it renews each year. If no records are produced within 30 calendar days of a written request, the assessment is 20 percent of that year's apportionable fees for a first offense, 50 percent for a second and 100 percent for a third — and it is distributed pro rata to the other jurisdictions you were registered in, so it is not a fine your base state simply keeps.
What is different in your base jurisdiction?
IRP is one agreement, but the jurisdiction you are based in stacks its own rules on top: a distance tax the apportioned fee does not cover, a separate programme for trailers, or published guidance that has not caught up with the 2025 amendments. Pick yours below. Where nothing is listed, nothing beyond the standard process applies — and we file it the same way.
Canadian provinces
Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico and Canada’s three territories are not IRP members. You cannot be based in one under the Plan, and running there is a separate arrangement.
Texas
- Trailers do not go through IRP here. They register under a separate programme — Token Trailer — on its own cycle.
- Its own published IRP guidance still shows the pre-October-2025 established-place-of-business rules. The Plan changed; this state’s page has not caught up. Do not use it to check whether you qualify.
Common questions
Can I base my plates in a cheaper state?
No, and the arithmetic is the reason. Your fee in each jurisdiction is that jurisdiction's own full annual fee multiplied by the share of miles you ran there — so moving your base changes who collects the money and distributes it, not what the fleet owes. The same truck at the same weight running the same lanes produces the same invoice from any lawful base. What the base state does change is its own one-time and administrative fees, and any tax it charges on its own account. The choice is not free anyway: you have to genuinely satisfy all three parts of the base-jurisdiction test in the state you name.
Can I use a mailbox, a virtual office or a shared desk as my base address?
No. Since October 1, 2025 the Plan says so in as many words — virtual and shared office space does not qualify as an established place of business — and a P.O. box was never acceptable. The building has to be owned or on a lease of at least 12 months, with company signage and posted hours, open for business and staffed at least 20 hours a week by a permanent employee. A desk in a shared suite fails on the shared-office rule however well you meet the rest. The one carve-out: several businesses run from one location by the same owner are not a shared office, provided everything else is met.
Does my cab card have to list the states I plan to run in?
It already lists all of them. Since the Full Reciprocity Plan took effect on January 1, 2015, every cab card shows every member jurisdiction and the weight you are registered for in each — no declaring states in advance, no adding a jurisdiction mid-year, no over-100-percent fees, and no trip permit for a member jurisdiction you did not think to list. The card must be in the vehicle, and jurisdictions have to accept the paper original, a legible copy, or a legible electronic image, so a clear photo on the driver's phone is enough at roadside.
Do my trailers need apportioned plates too?
No. The Plan does not apportion trailing equipment — a trailer is not a power unit — and a properly registered trailer gets reciprocity in member jurisdictions. Trailers register under whatever separate program your state runs instead: Texas token trailer plates, California's Permanent Trailer Identification, Florida's county tax collectors, Illinois flat-weight trailer plates. It is a different filing on a different cycle, not part of your IRP account.
My truck is over 26,000 lbs but never leaves my state. What do I need?
Not IRP — and you could not use it if you wanted to, because states are explicit that a vehicle operated solely within the state does not qualify for apportioned registration. You register under your state's ordinary rules. The reverse is worth knowing too: an apportioned plate covers intrastate movement in every member jurisdiction, so once you are apportioned you are not buying a second registration to make a delivery inside another state — though you may still need that state's operating authority.
How far back do the miles I report go?
The reporting period is the twelve months ending June 30 of the year before your registration year — so a 2027 registration is billed on July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 mileage. Every mile in it counts: loaded, empty, deadhead and bobtail, between jurisdictions and inside them. A fleet that accrued no distance in that window is billed on the base jurisdiction's average per-vehicle distance, which the jurisdiction publishes from its own prior-year figures — it is not an estimate you submit.
Sources
- IRP, Inc. — The Plan (effective October 1, 2025) — the current edition — base jurisdiction under § 305, apportionment under § 400, and the amended Established Place of Business rules
- 49 U.S.C. § 31704 — the federal hook — a non-participating state may not restrict a vehicle registered under the Plan by a member state
- IRS — Instructions for Form 2290 — the 55,000 lb threshold and the stamped Schedule 1 a state must see before it will register the vehicle
This guide is general information about US federal and state transportation regulation — it is not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not make you our client. Rules change, and how one applies depends on your own operation: check anything you intend to rely on against the primary source above, or call us and we will check it with you.