Connecticut Highway Use Fee (HUF): what it is, who pays, and how to file

What is the Connecticut Highway Use Fee?

The Highway Use Fee is administered by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. It applies to eligible heavy motor vehicles, those of 26,000 pounds and up (carrier classifications 8 through 13), operating on Connecticut public roads. Carriers register for a HUF permit, then report their Connecticut miles and pay a per-mile fee that increases with the vehicle's weight. The program is younger than its weight-distance cousins in Oregon, New York, Kentucky, and New Mexico, but it works the same way at its core: miles times a weight-based rate, filed on a fixed cadence. Unlike New York's HUT there is no decal to display. The permit is the credential, and compliance is enforced through registration and filing records rather than a sticker on the windshield. DRS publishes program guidance on its Highway Use Fee page.

Who has to pay the Highway Use Fee?

Any carrier operating an eligible vehicle of 26,000 pounds or more on Connecticut highways owes the fee, whether based in Connecticut or passing through. It is separate from IFTA and IRP; those credentials do not cover the Highway Use Fee. The obligation follows the truck onto Connecticut pavement, not the carrier's address. An out-of-state fleet crossing on I-95 or I-84 owes the fee on those Connecticut miles the same as a Hartford-based carrier does. Missing the registration is the expensive version of this mistake: the Department of Revenue Services can assess the unpaid fee with penalties and interest for every month you should have filed, and an unregistered carrier discovered in audit has no filing history to soften the estimate. If you're already registered in the other weight-distance states, treat Connecticut as one more account with its own permit and its own monthly return, not an extension of any of them.

How do you register?

Registration runs through the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services and must be done before the first Connecticut trip. The sequence looks like this:

1. Register with the Department of Revenue Services for a Highway Use Fee permit before operating an eligible vehicle in the state.
2. Set up your account in myconneCT, the DRS online portal, which is where the permit is issued and returns are filed.
3. Add each eligible vehicle to your account with its weight information, since the weight determines the fee tier.
4. Note that there is no decal to affix. The permit itself is your credential, so keep evidence of it with your compliance records.
5. File the Highway Use Fee return monthly on the DRS schedule, reporting Connecticut miles by vehicle.
6. Keep the registration current and update your vehicle list as trucks enter and leave the fleet.

How is the fee calculated?

The fee is your Connecticut miles multiplied by a per-mile rate that is tiered by gross weight. Heavier vehicles pay a higher rate, with the top tier for trucks over 80,000 pounds. Because the published rate tiers change, this guide does not quote specific figures. Confirm the current tiers with the Department of Revenue Services and apply the rate for your weight to your Connecticut miles. Getting the weight right is most of the work: the tier follows the vehicle's gross weight, so the same lane can produce different fees for different configurations, and reporting a lighter tier than you actually ran understates the fee and surfaces later in audit. The mileage side is the same discipline every weight-distance program demands: complete, per-trip Connecticut miles, reconstructed from records rather than memory. The tier mechanics are covered in more detail below.

How do the weight tiers work?

Conceptually, the fee schedule is a staircase: gross-weight bands, each with its own per-mile rate, rising from the 26,000-pound floor up to a top tier for trucks over 80,000 pounds. A vehicle's gross weight places it on a step, and its Connecticut miles are charged at that step's rate. Two carriers can run identical Connecticut miles and owe different amounts purely because of weight, and a fleet with mixed configurations calculates per vehicle, not per fleet. In practice you resolve each truck to its tier, multiply its Connecticut miles by the tier's rate, and sum across the fleet for the monthly return. Because the structure is tiered rather than flat, weight records matter as much as mileage records here: if you can't support the weight you reported, the tier (and the fee) gets re-decided in audit. The current schedule is published by the Department of Revenue Services; use it, not a cached copy.

How and when do you file?

Highway Use Fee returns are filed monthly. Register for the HUF permit before operating, report Connecticut miles by vehicle, and keep your mileage source records (trip reports, GPS/IFTA mileage, odometer logs) because the fee is auditable. The monthly cadence makes Connecticut the most frequent filer among the weight-distance states, so it deserves a fixed slot in your monthly close rather than a quarterly afterthought. A missed month draws penalty and interest from the due date, and a string of missed months is what turns a small account into a serious audit problem. The Department of Revenue Services sees the gap in your filing history either way. Returns are filed with DRS through its online portal, and the same records that support your quarterly IFTA return should tie out to every monthly HUF filing before it goes in.

What records do you need to keep?

Keep per-trip mileage records that show, for every vehicle, the miles run in Connecticut and in each other state: trip dates, origin and destination, routes, odometer or GPS readings, and per-jurisdiction distance. Because the fee is tiered by weight, keep weight documentation alongside the mileage: the configuration and gross weight you reported for each vehicle should be supportable from your own records. Keep the underlying documents too (dispatch and trip sheets, bills of lading, fuel receipts, ELD or GPS distance data), because the Department of Revenue Services tests reported miles against them. These are the same source records behind your IFTA return, so one disciplined system covers both; the trap is a monthly HUF return and a quarterly IFTA return that disagree about Connecticut miles. Keep them for the period the department specifies. Weight-distance accounts are audited, and missing records become estimates in the state's favor.

How does it interact with IFTA?

The Highway Use Fee is a distinct, additional obligation from IFTA. You track Connecticut miles for your IFTA fuel-tax return and separately pay the Highway Use Fee on those same miles. They are filed separately, on different schedules. The two programs want the same raw input (accurate Connecticut miles per vehicle) but they settle different taxes with different agencies on different calendars: IFTA reconciles fuel tax quarterly across all member jurisdictions through your base state, while the Highway Use Fee is Connecticut's own per-mile charge paid monthly to the Department of Revenue Services. Your IFTA license and decals do not satisfy the HUF, and paying the HUF does not touch your fuel-tax liability. The practical consequence: a truck running Connecticut carries both obligations for the same miles, and the surest sign of a record-keeping problem is when the Connecticut miles on the two returns don't reconcile.

What happens if you don't pay?

Operating without registering, or filing late, draws penalties and interest, and continued non-compliance can jeopardize your ability to run in Connecticut. Underreported miles surface later as audit assessments plus penalties. Because there is no decal or roadside credential, Connecticut's enforcement leans on registration checks and audit rather than the weigh station, which means problems tend to surface later and larger, as months of unfiled returns rather than a single citation. The Department of Revenue Services can assess the unpaid fee plus penalties and interest across the whole unfiled span, and can estimate liability when records are missing. Those estimates you then have to disprove from your own files. If you discover you should have been registered and weren't, coming forward to DRS before an audit finds you is consistently the cheaper path.