Trucking compliance in Maryland

UCR in Maryland

Maryland is not a UCR participating state. That does not exempt a Maryland carrier: the UCR Agreement covers every interstate for-hire carrier, private carrier of property, broker, forwarder and leasing company, wherever it is based. What changes is the base state. The UCR Plan's rule has three steps, and Maryland carriers start at step two:

1. Principal place of business in a participating state? Not the case for a Maryland company, so move on.
2. An office or operating facility in a participating state? If so, that state is your base state. A Maryland carrier with a terminal across the line uses that terminal's state.
3. Otherwise, choose from the regional list. For Maryland the UCR Plan lists 10 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia.

The fee does not change with the base state you pick — $55 for 0–2 vehicles, $167 for 3–5, $333 for 6–20 in 2027 — so the practical choice is the state whose system you already deal with for IRP or IFTA. Enforcement also follows the vehicle, not the home state: a Maryland truck inspected in a participating state can be cited for an unpaid UCR.

IFTA fuel tax in Maryland

Under the International Fuel Tax Agreement you owe Maryland fuel tax on every gallon you burn inside the state, worked out from your miles here and your fleet's average miles per gallon, and you get credit for tax paid on fuel you bought here. Maryland reported a special-diesel rate of $0.4745 per gallon for 4Q2026.

That puts Maryland at number 8 of 46 US IFTA jurisdictions shown here, 51 percent above the median of $0.3150. Fuel bought in Maryland carries a lot of tax, which is fine if you also run most of your miles here, since the credit and the liability cancel; it is a poor place to fill up for miles you will run in a low-rate state. The closest rates to Maryland's are Ohio ($0.4700), Connecticut ($0.4990), Michigan ($0.5240).

A worked example

Run 1,000 miles in Maryland at 6.5 mpg and you burned 153.8 gallons here, which at $0.4745 is $72.98 of Maryland tax. If you bought 153.8 gallons in Maryland on that trip you have already paid $72.98 at the pump and owe nothing more; if you bought none, the whole $72.98 is due on the return. The IFTA calculator does this for every state on a trip.

Federal filings that apply in Maryland as everywhere

• Heavy Vehicle Use Tax, IRS Form 2290: $100 a year for a 55,000 lb vehicle, $550 for anything over 75,000 lb, logging vehicles at 75 percent; due the last day of the month after first use.
• Operating authority: $300 per authority type under 49 CFR 360.3T, a USDOT number at no charge, $10 per insurance filing.
• Medical certificate: the 49 CFR 391.41 standards (20/40 vision, 70-degree field, forced whisper at 5 feet), renewed every 24 months, or 12 for some conditions.
• Carrier lookup: check any USDOT or MC number in FMCSA's SAFER system before you lease on or hire.

Not on this page yet

Maryland's IRP apportioned-plate fees, intrastate operating-authority rules, size and weight limits and state DOT contacts are not published here, because they were not available from a source this site could cite on 2026-10-23. They are listed as gaps in the methodology and will be added when they can be sourced.

Sources: UCR Plan — FAQ; IFTA, Inc. tax rate matrix 4Q2026 (updated 2026-10-21; not final until 2026-12-04); FMCSA final rule, 49 CFR 367.50 (FR Doc. 2026-17893, Docket FMCSA-2025-0655); IRS Form 2290 (Rev. July 2026), Tax Computation. Checked 2026-10-23.