Vehicle Registration Exemptions - Alaska (2024)

Vehicles driven only on private property

Vehicles driven or moved on a highway solely to cross from one private property to another (including implements of husbandry as defined by regulation) are exempt from registration requirements.

Driven or moved on a highway under a dealer’s plate or temporary permit

Temporary permit: When an application, accompanied by the proper fee and tax, has been made for the registration of a vehicle, the vehicle may be driven pending the issuance of a certificate of registration by displaying a temporary permit issued by the department.

Dealer plate: A state-registered and bonded vehicle dealer may apply for a dealer registration plate. The plate issued may be used only on dealer-owned vehicles during the routine and normal course of the dealer’s business, excluding service vehicles, or for transporting an unregistered vehicle from a port of entry to the dealer’s facilities or from one dealer to another or, in the case of a house trailer, from the retail facility to a trailer space.

Special mobile equipment

“Special mobile equipment” is defined by regulation as a vehicle which is not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over a highway.

It includes but is not limited to:

• Ditch digging apparatus,
• Well boring apparatus,
• Construction and maintenance machinery such as:
  • Asphalt spreaders,
  • Bituminous mixers,
  • Bucket loaders,
  • Tractors other than truck tractors,
  • Ditchers,
  • Leveling graders,
  • Finishing machines,
  • Motor graders,
  • Road rollers,
  • Scarifers,
  • Earthmoving carryalls and scrapers,
  • Power shovels and drag lines, and
  • Self-propelled cranes and earthmoving equipment.

It does not include house trailers, mobile homes, off-highway vehicles, dump trucks, truck-mounted transit mixers, cranes, or shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.

Vehicles owned by the United States

See citations below for more details.

Vehicles transported under a special permit

When moved or driven under a special permit, registration is not required of:

• A vehicle under construction and that is not completed;
• A vehicle while being moved from one place to another for the purpose of inspection, weighing, or meeting other requirements;
• A vehicle while being moved or driven from one location to another for the purpose of rebuilding, dismantling, or permanently removing the vehicle from the highways and vehicular ways and areas of the state; or
• An unladen commercial vehicle making a single continuous trip by a noncircular route for a period not exceeding 10 days.

A special permit must be prominently displayed.

A vehicle being driven or moved on a highway, vehicular way, or a public parking place in Alaska that is not connected by a land highway or vehicular way to:

• The land-connected state highway system; or
• A highway or vehicular way with an average daily traffic volume greater than 499.

An implement of husbandry

Implements of husbandry, as defined by regulation under AS 28.05.011, are not subject to restrictions adopted under AS 19.10.060(a)(1) (weight, size, and load) unless the implement is the load of another vehicle. Implements of husbandry may be operated on highways subject to the department’s jurisdiction without obtaining a permit.

The incidental operation of an implement of husbandry up to 12 feet wide on a state highway is authorized without a permit if the implement:

• Is operated only during the period from one-half hour after sunrise to one-half hour before sunset;
• Displays a slow-moving vehicle emblem on the rear of the implement;
• Displays a red flag on the implement in a location that affords greatest visibility; and
• Is moving from one farm operation to another within 50 miles of the home base of the implement of husbandry.

An implement of husbandry that is more than 12 feet wide may be operated on a state highway without a permit if it meets the 4 provisions above and is preceded by a pilot car during operation on the highway.

Citations

• Alaska Stat. 28.10.011 Vehicles subject to registration
• Alaska Stat. 28.10.031 Temporary permits
• Alaska Stat. 28.10.181(j) Registration of unique and special vehicles and vehicles used for special purposes; special registration plates
• 13 Alaska Admin. Code 40.010(a)(52) Definitions
• Alaska Stat. 28.10.151 Vehicles transported under a special permit
• Alaska Stat. 19.10.065 Operation of farm equipment on highways