How does IRP apportioned registration work?

Chapter 01

What is IRP, and do my trucks need apportioned plates?

IRP is the International Registration Plan, an agreement among States and provinces about truck plates. One State registers your truck for all of them, and your fees are split by the miles you run in each. A truck needs apportioned plates when it hauls freight in two or more member States. It must also have three or more axles, or weigh more than 26,000 pounds alone or with its trailer (the Plan). A truck that never leaves its home State does not need them.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run two trucks out of Dallas, Texas. Both are tractors with three axles. They carry regular Texas plates, and you haul only inside Texas. In January 2027 a shipper offers you steady loads to Oklahoma and Louisiana. The first load will cross a State line, and your regular plates do not cover that. You need apportioned plates. Most owners call them IRP plates, and it is the same thing.

Check the test against your own trucks. The Plan calls a truck that must go on IRP an apportionable vehicle. It must be a power unit, meaning a truck or a tractor, not a trailer. It must be used, or meant to be used, in two or more member jurisdictions. That is the Plan’s word for the States and provinces that belong to it. And it must pass one of three tests. It has two axles and a gross weight over 26,000 pounds. Or it has three or more axles, at any weight. Or it pulls a trailer, and the pair weighs over 26,000 pounds (the Plan’s definitions). Your tractors have three axles, so their weight does not even matter.

The rule covers smaller trucks too. A pickup pulling a hotshot trailer qualifies once their combined weight exceeds 26,000 pounds. A box truck with two axles, rated at 26,000 pounds and pulling nothing, does not qualify. It may still join IRP by choice. Motor homes for personal travel, trucks with restricted plates and government trucks are left out (the Plan). Your trailers do not get apportioned plates at all. A trailer properly registered in any State is accepted in every member State, and so is any trailer pulled by a truck on IRP.

Who belongs? Every State except Alaska and Hawaii, plus the District of Columbia and ten Canadian provinces. That makes 59 members in all (the Plan’s member list).

What if you skip IRP? Then each State you enter wants a trip permit, bought before the truck crosses its line. The Plan lets each State sell its own permit in its own way (the Plan). New York’s trip permit, for example, lasts 72 hours (New York’s IRP manual). For an occasional load, permits can work. For weekly runs, a permit for every State on every trip is a lot of cost and paperwork. That is why Texas describes IRP as a way to cross State lines “without purchasing individual trip permits in each state” (Texas DMV).

Know what IRP does not cover. It is registration and nothing else. It does not give you operating authority. It does not replace IFTA, the separate license for fuel taxes (New York’s manual). Owners often say IFTA and IRP in one breath, because the same trucks usually need both. IFTA uses the same test of three axles or more than 26,000 pounds (the Texas IRP packet). But they are two accounts with two sets of reports, and IFTA has its own guide. IRP does not pay the federal tax on heavy trucks, filed on Form 2290. Nor does it pay the mileage taxes a few States charge. The Plan says plainly that it does not waive “any fees or taxes” a State charges for owning or running trucks (the Plan). Those taxes are explained in our guide to weight distance taxes. So the next question is where to open your IRP account.

Chapter 02

Where do I open an IRP account, and what do I need?

You open it in your base State. That is a member State where you have an established place of business and where your trucks run some miles. Your records must be kept there or be available there (the Plan). Since October 1, 2025, you must own that office or lease it for at least 12 months. It must show your sign and hours and be staffed at least 20 hours a week by your own employee. If you have no such office anywhere, your base State is where you live. Then you apply, usually online, with titles, insurance and tax papers.

Back to your two trucks. You run the business from a room in your house in Dallas. Your spouse does the paperwork in the evenings, and there is no sign on the door. Is that an established place of business? Read the new definition closely. It must be a building in that State that you own or lease, and a lease must run at least 12 months. It needs a clear company sign and posted hours. It must be open and staffed at least 20 hours a week by someone you employ on a permanent basis, not an independent contractor. That person must manage the trucking business itself, not just do filings and answer the phone. Shared offices and virtual offices do not count (the Plan). North Carolina’s checklist repeats these words. It asks for three proofs, all with one name and one street address. Examples are a mortgage statement or a lease of 12 months or more, a utility bill and a property tax bill (North Carolina DMV).

Your home office fails that test. That is common for a small fleet, and the Plan provides another option. If you have no established place of business in any State, you base where you live. You show a driver’s license or State ID from that State. Then you show at least two proofs from a list, all with the same address (the Plan). The list includes federal tax returns filed from that address and State income tax paid there. It also includes property taxes paid there, utility bills in your name, and a vehicle titled or registered there in your name. If your company is a corporation, the owner living there also counts. Texas says every paper must show the same physical address (the Texas IRP packet). A post office box does not work (New York’s manual).

The other two parts of the test are easy for you. Your trucks run miles in Texas, and your records sit in your home office. Only the fleet as a whole has to run miles in the base State. Each single truck does not (the Plan’s notes).

Now gather the papers. In Texas, a new account needs proof of residence or of an office, and the Texas title of each truck. It also needs proof of insurance, and your USDOT number and federal tax ID (the Texas IRP packet). Texas says “Non-Trucking and Bobtail Insurance Are Not Acceptable” for this. It also wants your Unified Carrier Registration, or UCR, to be current, a rule it has used since March 2022 (Texas DMV). And you sign a form called MCD-467, which says you know the IRP record rules.

One paper trips up many owners. For any truck registered at 55,000 pounds or more, you must show that the federal heavy vehicle tax is paid (IRS). The proof is Schedule 1 of Form 2290, stamped by the IRS or watermarked when you file online. Federal rules make your base State check it before it issues apportioned plates. The other members do not check it again (the federal rule). Your tractors will run at 80,000 pounds, so you need that proof for both. Our guide to Form 2290 explains how to get it.

Texas will also ask who the carrier responsible for safety is, truck by truck. That is the company whose USDOT number the truck runs under. For you, it is your own company. If you lease a truck onto another carrier, it is theirs, and you send a copy of the lease. This matters because the plates are tied to safety. If FMCSA orders that carrier out of service, Texas must refuse or cancel the registration (the Texas IRP packet). So keep your USDOT record current, as our guide to the MCS-150 update explains. If you do not have your own USDOT number and authority yet, start with operating authority.

For each truck, you also list the unit number, the year and make, the axles, the empty weight and the fuel type. You add the gross weight you want to register, and the purchase price and date (the Texas IRP packet). In Texas, every new account is opened online, in a system called TxFLEET, under “Apply for Motor Carrier Account” (Texas DMV). Texas says a transaction can take up to 72 hours. Say you apply on Monday, February 1, 2027. Now the bill comes.

Chapter 03

How are IRP fees split, and what does the cab card show?

Your base State bills you once, for all members, and passes each member its share. Each share is that member’s full yearly fee for your truck, times that member’s part of your fleet’s miles (the Plan). In your first year you have no IRP miles, so the State uses its own table of average miles per truck. When you pay, you get one plate and one cab card for each truck. The cab card lists every member, the weight you paid for in each, the truck’s VIN and the end date.

Start with the math, in plain numbers. New York’s manual gives a simple example. A truck runs 25,000 miles in each of four States, so each State has 25% of the miles. Each State then gets a quarter of its own full fee. The four full fees add up to $5,918.50, and the truck pays $1,479.63 (New York’s manual). Those are sample numbers, not today’s fees. Your real bill depends on each State’s fee list, the weight you register and where your miles fall. That is why no one can quote you one price for apportioned plates.

Your first bill works the same way, with one twist. Your fleet has no IRP miles yet. The Plan says a fleet with no actual miles uses the base State’s average per vehicle distance (the Plan). Each base State builds that table from the miles its own IRP fleets reported the year before. It must update the table by March 31 each year. Texas lists all 59 members on it (Texas renewal guide). So your first bill pays a small share to places your trucks may never see, like Quebec. There is one exception. If a truck ran on apportioned plates in the last 18 months, Texas wants those actual miles instead. That happens when a truck was leased onto another carrier, for example (the Texas IRP packet).

You also choose the weight. You tell Texas the most each truck will weigh with trailer and load, say 80,000 pounds. That weight is printed on the card for each member. Paying for 80,000 pounds does not let you run at 80,000 where a State’s legal limit is lower (the Plan’s notes). If you ask for weights that differ by more than 10% between States, Texas wants a business plan and an extra form (Texas renewal guide).

Say Texas finishes your application on February 3, and you pay the same day. Texas takes bank transfers and cards, and a card adds a charge of $0.25 plus 2.25% (Texas DMV). The plates come by mail. Each plate says “apportioned”, or APP or PRP, with the State’s name (the Plan).

The cab card is the other half of your registration. It lists every member State and province, and the weight you paid for in each. It shows the start date, the end date, the truck’s model year, make and VIN, the plate number and your unit number. It also shows your name, your address and your IRP account number (the Plan). An officer at a roadside stop reads it to see if the truck is registered, and for how much weight. Keep it in the truck. The base State may issue it on paper or as an electronic image. Every member must accept a paper original, a clear paper copy or a clear image on a screen. In Texas the card also serves as proof of the truck’s State inspection (Texas DMV).

How long does it last? A registration year is 12 months. In Texas, a new registration ends on the last day of the month before the month you bought it (the Texas IRP packet). You bought in February, so yours ends on January 31, 2028. Every truck in one fleet shares that end date (the Plan).

What about a load before the plates arrive? Do not send a truck across a State line on its old Texas plates. Wait, or buy trip permits for each State on the route. The Plan also lets a base State issue temporary papers, good for up to 60 days, and every member must accept them. But a State does not have to offer them (the Plan). New York, for example, gives a temporary paper good for 30 days, and only to accounts already open and paid (New York’s manual). New York also credits the unused part of an old New York registration when a truck converts, and wants the old plates back. We could not confirm how Texas handles either one for a brand new account, so ask when you apply. Once the plates are on, the next job starts, and it runs all year.

Chapter 04

What miles must I record, and how do I add or drop a truck?

Record every mile each truck runs, in every State: loaded, empty, deadhead and bobtail. Each trip record needs the dates, the start and end points and the route. It also needs the odometer readings, the total miles, the miles in each State and the truck’s number. Then add them up by month and by quarter (the Plan). Keep them at least three years after the registration year they support. To add or drop a truck during the year, you file a change called a supplement.

These miles matter more than you might think, because they set your next bill. Your next registration year starts February 1, 2028. It will be priced on the miles your fleet ran from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. The Plan calls that stretch the reporting period (the Plan). Your fleet only went on IRP on February 3, 2027. So the miles from February to June carry the whole next year. About five months of records will set the price of twelve.

So tell your drivers what to write down on every trip. They need the start and end dates, where the trip began and ended, and the route. They need the odometer at the start and the end, and the trip’s total miles. And they need the miles in each State, and the unit number or VIN (the Plan). A paper trip sheet works. So does a GPS system, if it saves a reading at least every 15 minutes while the engine runs. Each reading needs the date and time, the location to four decimal places and the odometer. These GPS rules cover trips since January 1, 2024. The data must come out as a spreadsheet file, such as CSV or Excel (New York’s manual). A PDF or a picture of a map does not count.

Texas adds a warning about the devices themselves: “There is no such thing as an IFTA- or IRP-certified ELD” (Texas DMV). Buying an ELD does not mean its reports are good enough for IRP. Ask your provider for a sample State mileage report, and check it against the list above before you rely on it.

Count every mile. Loaded, empty, deadhead and bobtail miles all count, and so do miles that never leave Texas (the Plan). Texas adds off road and personal miles (Texas renewal guide). Each month, total the miles for each truck, overall and by State. Each quarter, total them for the fleet. At the end of the period, total the quarters. Those totals are what you will copy onto the renewal.

Keep the records at least three years after the end of the registration year they support (the Plan). Some States ask for more. New York wants six years (New York’s manual). In your case, the records from February to June 2027 support the registration year that ends January 31, 2029. So under the Plan, keep them until at least January 31, 2032.

In August business grows. On August 20, 2027 you buy a third tractor. To add it, you file a supplement in TxFLEET (the Texas IRP packet). You send the same kinds of papers as before: the title, insurance, the carrier responsible for safety and the 2290 proof. For a truck just bought and titled in Texas, you have 60 days from the date on the title papers to show that proof (Texas DMV). The new truck pays at the fleet’s percentages for this year, which are still the average ones. Unless a member says otherwise, its fees run from the first day of the month you add it, so from August 1 (the Plan). It gets its own plate and card, ending January 31, 2028 like the others.

In November you sell truck one. Take the plate off before the buyer drives away. Apportioned plates cannot pass to a new owner, and Texas tells you to remove and destroy them when you sell (the Texas IRP packet). Then file a supplement to delete the truck. New York instead wants the plates mailed back (New York’s manual). The Plan lets each base State choose (the Plan).

What about the months you already paid for? The Plan lets you move the unused fee to a replacement truck in the same fleet, under each member’s own rules (the Plan). A refund or credit beyond that is up to each member’s law. In Texas, swapping one truck for another is called a credit exchange. To get credit now, you destroy the plate and its card when you file the change. Not every member gives credit, and a credit cannot move to another account. Buying a replacement later? Texas lets you hold both instead and turn them in for credit toward the Texas fee then (the Texas IRP packet).

Keep the sold truck’s trip records too. It was part of the fleet from February to June 2027, so its miles still count in your first renewal. New York even asks you to keep a deleted truck’s cost and weight records for six years after it leaves the fleet (New York’s manual). The other papers that change when a truck comes or goes, from insurance to IFTA decals, are in our guide to adding or selling a truck. Then comes December, and the renewal.

Chapter 05

How do I renew on actual miles, and what if records are missing?

You renew before your registration year ends, when your base State sends the renewal. This time you report the actual miles your fleet ran in each member during the reporting period. That is the July 1 to June 30 before the new year starts (the Plan). You also send new 2290 proof and insurance. Later, the State may audit those miles. If your records cannot be checked, it adds 20% of that year’s fees, 50% the second time and 100% after that.

Texas emails the renewal 45 days before the end of your registration (the Texas IRP packet). Yours ends January 31, 2028, so the email comes around December 17, 2027. Your new year starts February 1, 2028, so the reporting period is July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. Your fleet ran on IRP from February 3 to June 30, 2027. You take the monthly totals of trucks one and two for those months and add them up by State. Truck one is gone now, but its miles stay in, because it was part of the fleet then. Truck three’s miles from August on do not belong here. They go into the renewal a year later. Truck three still renews with the fleet, at the fleet’s new percentages.

Enter the miles as whole numbers. Texas says actual miles “cannot be estimated, guesstimated, nor projected” (Texas renewal guide). Its system also flags odd patterns for a closer look. Among them are the same miles in two States, many totals that end in 0, and the same miles as last year. So are more than 250,000 miles on one truck, more than 75% of the miles in one State other than Texas, and miles in only one State (Texas DMV). A flag is not a fine. But Texas may ask for your trip summaries, and a written statement alone will not do.

Now the actual miles change the bill. Say Oklahoma and Louisiana carried a big share of your miles. Their shares of your fees go up. Places you never visited, like Quebec, drop to zero (the Plan). So a renewal can cost more or less than your first year. It depends on where you really ran and on each State’s fee list.

Send the rest with the renewal. Texas wants current insurance. For each truck at 55,000 pounds or more, it also wants the Schedule 1 of Form 2290 for the tax year that began July 1, 2027. The VIN on each Schedule 1 must match the renewal exactly (Texas renewal guide). If the renewal plates or cards arrive before February 1, you may display them early. Carry both the old and the new cab card until the new year begins (the Plan).

What if a truck stayed in Texas all year? The Plan’s notes say a truck that ran in one State for a whole registration year plus six months is presumed never meant for IRP (the Plan). Texas warns that every truck must keep crossing State lines, or it can refuse or cancel the registration (Texas renewal guide).

Your renewal date depends on your base State. Most States spread renewals across the year, like Texas. A few use one date for everyone. New York’s table shows Illinois running from April to March and Pennsylvania from June to May (New York’s manual). Put your date on one filing calendar next to your 2290, IFTA and UCR dates.

Now suppose a letter comes from Texas in March 2029. It has picked your account for an IRP audit of the year that began February 1, 2028. Each base State must audit about 3% of its renewed fleets each year, and it audits for all members at once (the Plan, Texas DMV). The auditor checks the miles you reported against your trip records. You open the files and find a gap. Truck two’s trip sheets for April 2027 are missing. The driver kept them in the cab, and they are gone.

How bad that is depends on the size of the gap. The Plan sets a charge called an assessment. The State adds it if your records, taken as a whole, cannot be audited, or if you send nothing within 30 days of its written request. It is 20% of the fees you paid for that year, 50% the second time, and 100% the third time and after (the Plan). But the Plan’s notes say the charge is not meant for a fleet whose records can still be audited as a whole, even when records for some trucks are missing. So one lost month for one truck should not bring the 20% by itself. The auditor can still change your miles, and your fees with them.

Try to fill the gap honestly. The Plan accepts records produced “through any means”, as long as they can be audited (the Plan). Your ELD or GPS provider may still hold April’s data. Fuel receipts and bills of lading show where the truck was. Use them, and label them for what they are. Never write new trip sheets and pass them off as old ones. In Texas, knowingly giving false information on an IRP filing is a felony (Texas renewal guide).

The audit can go either way. If you underpaid a member, you pay the difference. If you overpaid, the base State refunds you. The amounts owed and overpaid are combined into one net amount. You get a written report, and at least 30 days to appeal under your State’s rules. Once that time passes, the findings are final (the Plan). Pay what you owe, because a base State must cancel or suspend a registration when fees go unpaid. New York will not process any other IRP change until an assessment is paid or an appeal is won (New York’s manual).

Chapter 06

What has changed, and what should I do now?

Three changes matter. Since January 1, 2015, a new fleet pays on the State’s average miles, not its own guess, and every cab card lists all members, so you never add a State. Since January 1, 2024, GPS records must hold a reading every 15 minutes, in a spreadsheet file. Since October 1, 2025, a base office must be owned or leased for at least 12 months, carry a sign, and be staffed 20 hours a week. Without one, you base where you live (the Plan). Advice older than those dates may be wrong.

Before 2015, a new carrier guessed its own miles by State. It paid only the States listed on its card, and to run somewhere new it added that State during the year. The change IRP called the Full Reciprocity Plan ended both on January 1, 2015 (Texas renewal guide). If a guide tells you to “estimate” your miles, or to add a State to your cab card, it was written for the old system.

The office rule changed on October 1, 2025. Before, the office had to be open and staffed during business hours. Now you must own it or lease it for at least 12 months, and it needs a sign and posted hours. It must be staffed at least 20 hours a week, and shared or virtual space does not count (the Plan). New York’s manual, dated March 2025, still prints the old words (New York’s manual). So check the date on any State booklet you read, including Texas’s renewal guide from February 2024. A small fleet run from home should expect to base on residence and to prove it with papers.

There are things we could not check. The Plan’s page on the IRP, Inc. website blocks automated readers. So we read the Plan file that IRP, Inc. publishes, the edition amended October 1, 2025. It was the newest one we could open, and we could not confirm whether a later change took effect in 2026. We could not open a current edition of IRP’s audit manual either, so this page relies on the Plan’s own audit rules. We read three State guides: Texas, New York and North Carolina. Your State may ask for different papers, forms and dates, so read its own IRP guide too. We found no single price for apportioned plates, because the bill depends on every member’s fees, your weight and your miles. And we could not confirm what temporary papers Texas gives a brand new account.

Is it worth the work? If your trucks cross State lines every week, IRP is the normal way to run legally, and the work is steady rather than hard. The real risk is records. A few months of trip sheets set a whole year’s bill, and an audit can reach back years. So set up the records on the first day, file each supplement the week a truck comes or goes, and put the renewal date where you will see it.

If you would rather hand the account, the supplements, the mileage totals and the renewal to someone, here is what it costs.