Utah transportation laws
What Utah has enacted on transportation, what each law requires, and what the bills still moving would do. Utah is one of 41 states that enacted a transportation law in the 2025 and 2026 sessions.
10 new Utah laws take effect in 2027
- Bills in scope
- 21bills in scope
- Past committee
- 15past committee
- Most recent action
- 26 March 2026most recent action
Transportation laws enacted in Utah
12 transportation laws enacted in the Utah Legislature in the 2025 and 2026 sessions, newest first. Each links to the legislature's own page.
What it requires: CDL applicants must sign an acknowledgment that they can read and speak English sufficiently to converse with the public, understand traffic signs, respond to official inquiries, and make entries on reports. CDL driver training schools and third party testers must notify the division when applicants fail skills tests or fail to test due to English language proficiency.
Motor carriers and commercial drivers
What it requires: Salt Lake City must enter into an agreement with the Department of Transportation by January 1, 2027 designating roads within the study area by tier and adopting a critical capacity routes map. The city may not implement highway reduction strategies on tier one roads except for safety improvements that do not materially reduce travel capacity.
What it requires: Manufacturers and developers of level four and level five automated driving systems may be held liable only under the product liability act or Section 78B-4-903, not under ordinary negligence. Awards for noneconomic losses in actions relating to ADS-equipped vehicles are capped at $1,000,000, except wrongful death claims. Punitive damages are prohibited for level four and level five ADS claims.
Autonomous trucks and delivery devices
What it requires: Owners of non-commercial trailers may register for the lifetime of ownership by paying four times the annual registration fee and applicable taxes. Owners of intrastate commercial trailers may elect lifetime registration and pay a one-time in lieu fee. Persons falsely declaring a trailer as an intrastate commercial trailer must not commit fraud.
Truck size, weight and road use
What it requires: Motor carriers operating in Utah must obtain motor vehicle liability insurance for power units that includes a separate coverage rider providing at least $40,000 minimum coverage for recovery operations. Commercial liability insurers must pay recovery operators within 60 days of receiving an invoice, either the full amount or 75% of the invoiced amount, whichever is less, capped at $40,000. Towing entities must require tow truck motor carriers to disclose recovery operation qualifications and dispatch appropriately qualified carriers.
What it requires: The Utah Inland Port Authority must establish minimum mitigation and environmental standards that prohibit using property tax differential as a business recruitment incentive for new or expanded commercial or industrial development within authority jurisdictional land that will consume more than the maximum daily potable water use permitted by the municipal retail water provider's adopted ordinances or policies.
What it does: Modifies Department of Agriculture duties by removing railroad livestock damage administration, amends rail ombudsman duties to facilitate dispute resolution on safety, crossings, fencing, and livestock injury, and repeals the Office of Rail Safety and related railroad provisions.
Freight rail
What it requires: Tow truck motor carriers must provide dispatch rotation information to the Department of Transportation quarterly and allow individuals to remove personal items after paying towing fees. Private property owners contracting with towers must publish patrol agreements publicly. Local governments cannot impose maximum rates deviating from department-set rates.
Truck size, weight and road use
What it requires: The division may issue a conditional registration for a new commercial motor vehicle to a passenger rental car establishment that lacks a manufacturer's statement of origin but possesses the vehicle and has paid applicable taxes and fees, provided a qualified identification number inspector has physically inspected and recorded the vehicle's identification number.
Motor carriers and commercial drivers
Motor carriers and commercial drivers
What it requires: Owners of certain trailers may obtain lifetime registration by paying a one-time uniform fee of $150 instead of annual ad valorem tax. Owners of commercial trailers or intrastate commercial trailers not used as travel trailers may register for the trailer's life and pay a special registration fee of $130.
Truck size, weight and road use
What it requires: The Utah Inland Port Authority must conduct at least annual reviews of its statutory authority and recommend legislative changes if necessary. The authority may facilitate and fund development of land in project areas, including public infrastructure and environmental sustainability projects. Municipalities must allow inland ports as permitted or conditional uses consistent with authority policies.
Ports, maritime and freight corridors
Transportation in Utah, by topic
Motor carriers and commercial drivers
7 bills, 3 enacted. Enacted in 34 states.
Truck size, weight and road use
3 bills, 3 enacted. Enacted in 17 states.
Freight rail
2 bills, 1 enacted. Enacted in 17 states.
Autonomous trucks and delivery devices
2 bills, 1 enacted. Enacted in 8 states.
Ports, maritime and freight corridors
1 bill, 1 enacted. Enacted in 10 states.
Truck and fleet emissions
1 bill. Enacted in 3 states.
Transportation bills in Utah
The bills not yet law, furthest along first, with what each would do.
12Enacted
3Past committee
6Introduced or inactive
21 bills in scope
Past committee
3
What it would do: Establishes a $175 heavy duty emissions compliance fee for registration or renewal of motor vehicles with gross vehicle weight rating over 14,000 pounds and model year 2009 or older, effective January 1, 2027, with revenue deposited into the Transportation Fund.
What it would do: Defines autonomous vehicle terms and requires a large public transit district to request information on implementing autonomous vehicle transit networks by November 30, 2026, and requires the Department of Transportation to request information on autonomous vehicle operations and safety by November 30, 2027.
What it would do: Requires CDL applicants to sign a form attesting to English language ability before enrolling at a CDL driver training school. Requires CDL third party testers to report the names of training schools used by applicants and CDL applicant passage rate data to the division.
Introduced or inactive
6
What it would do: Modifies requirements for towing dispatch vendors serving tow truck motor carriers, limits dispatch fees to 50% of administrative fees, prevents persons with interest in removed carriers from joining new carriers, and establishes appeals processes for removal from towing rotations.
What it would do: Creates a restricted "K" commercial driver license for individuals lawfully present and authorized to work in the United States but not domiciled in Utah, valid only for intrastate commerce within Utah and expiring when federal work authorization expires.
What it would do: Removes a provision allowing chemical substances to be used as bonding agents to secure vehicle loads. The bill takes effect May 6, 2026.
What it would do: Requires the Division of Air Quality to complete an emissions inventory of railyards in five specified counties and propose an emissions reduction plan for certain railroad locomotives to meet specified emission standards by December 31, 2027, with findings reported by November 2025.
What it would do: Modifies criminal offenses that disqualify individuals from holding a commercial driver license and requires CDL applicants to complete a fingerprint background check by the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Federal Bureau of Investigation beginning July 1, 2025.
What it would do: Creates a $250 first-time and $45 annual registration fee for heavy duty vehicles over 14,000 pounds with model year 2009 or older, depositing revenue into the Clean Fuels and Emission Reduction Technology Fund, and expands tax credits for qualified heavy duty vehicle purchases.
Bill titles link to the Utah Legislature's own page.
What counts as transportation legislation
In scope: Motor carriers and commercial drivers; truck size, weight and road use; truck and fleet emissions; hazardous materials transport; freight rail; ports, maritime and freight corridors; warehouses and delivery; and autonomous trucks and delivery devices.
Questions
Does Utah have a transportation law?
Yes. Utah enacted 12 transportation laws in the 2025 and 2026 sessions, among them HB 118, SB 242 and SB 292. Each is listed on this page with what it requires.
When do Utah's transportation laws take effect?
HB 118 on 6 May 2026, SB 242 on 6 May 2026, SB 292 on 6 May 2026, SB 190 on 1 January 2027 and HB 336 on 5 May 2027. The others have no single date in their text.
Which transportation bills are moving in Utah?
3 bills not yet law have passed a committee or a chamber, the furthest along HB 263 (passed chamber), HB 581 (passed chamber) and HB 535 (passed chamber).
What does Utah legislate on most in transportation?
Motor carriers and commercial drivers (7 bills), Truck size, weight and road use (3 bills) and Freight rail (2 bills).
Are these summaries reviewed by a lawyer?
No. Which bills count as Transportation bills, and the line on what each law requires or each bill would do, are drafted by software from the bill's own text and not reviewed by an attorney. Every bill links to the legislature's own record: read the text before relying on it. The list covers bills from the 2025 and 2026 sessions.
Other practice areas in Utah
- AI in Utah24
- Alcohol in Utah6
- Cannabis in Utah17
- Children's Online Safety in Utah7
- Cybersecurity in Utah12
- Data center and energy in Utah8
- Data Privacy in Utah30
- Employment in Utah48
- Healthcare in Utah114
- Insurance in Utah70
- Intellectual Property in Utah6
- Packaging and PFAS in Utah1
- Payments and fintech in Utah9
- Rental housing in Utah12
- Tobacco and nicotine in Utah10
- All jurisdictions
Transportation legislation in other jurisdictions
52 more currently hold bills in this tracker
- Congress101
- New Jersey72
- Texas61
- New York49
- Missouri39
- Iowa34
- Oklahoma33
- California30
- Massachusetts30
- Louisiana25
- Illinois24
- Pennsylvania24
- Kentucky21
- Hawaii20
- Mississippi20
- Montana20
- Nebraska19
- Virginia18
- Maryland17
- Washington17
- New Mexico16
- Arizona15
- Tennessee15
- Connecticut14
- West Virginia14
- Minnesota13
- Oregon11
- Florida10
- Michigan10
- Rhode Island10
- South Dakota9
- Arkansas8
- Colorado7
- Georgia7
- Kansas7
- Maine7
- North Carolina7
- Wisconsin7
- South Carolina6
- Alaska5
- District of Columbia5
- Delaware5
- Wyoming5
- Indiana4
- New Hampshire4
- Nevada4
- Vermont4
- Alabama3
- North Dakota3
- Idaho2
- Puerto Rico2
- Ohio1
Know when Utah's transportation law changes
An alert when a bill moves, and one report a month on what changed in every state and Congress.