This division is staffed by 175 law enforcement officers who are graduates of the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers’ Training Academy and certified by the state as having met minimum standards requirements. The division is responsible for enforcing state laws governing the operations of commercial vehicles, to include: truck size and weight laws, registration, international Fuel Tax Agreement compliance, and oversize/overweight non-divisible loads.

The division operates 32 permanent weigh stations at 19 locations around the borders of the state. The division also operates 30 portable scale units. While patrolling the interior highways of the state and scale bypass routes, officers equipped with portable scales randomly weigh traffic entering or exiting the state. Each portable unit consists of two officers in a law enforcement patrol car equipped with four portable scales. Upon weighing a commercial vehicle and determining that the vehicle exceeds legal maximum weight limits, the officer issues the owner a weight penalty, which is considered a civil tax penalty.

The monetary penalty is on an ascending scale depending on how much the vehicle is overweight. The penalty begins at one cent per pound for overweight of 1,000 pounds to 1,999 pounds and goes up one cent per pound for each additional 1,000 pounds. The penalty is capped at 11 cents per pound for all overweight in excess of 11,000 pounds.

For example, a vehicle weighed at 92,000 pounds on an 80,000-pound highway would incur a penalty of $1,320 (the penalty for 1 to 999 pounds of overweight is $10). The Harvest Permit Law allows haulers of sand, gravel, fill dirt, agriculture products and unprocessed forestry products to haul 4,000 pounds of additional weight and sets the penalty for the holders of harvest permits at a flat five cents per pound. During a typical year the division will issue between 11,000 and 12,000 weight penalties.

In addition to its other duties, the division is involved in commercial vehicle drug interdiction. All personnel have been trained in drug interdiction techniques and a three-officer Drug Interdiction Unit has been designated to include a K-9 team. The division works in close conjunction with the Bureau of Narcotics in its efforts.