Kentucky KYU Weight Distance Tax Explained: The Tax Every Carrier Over 59,999 Pounds Meets in Kentucky

The Kentucky Weight Distance Tax, known by its licence prefix as KYU, is a tax on miles travelled on Kentucky highways by motor vehicles with a combined licensed weight of 59,999 pounds or more. It is administered by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's Division of Motor Carriers, the same office that runs Kentucky's IRP and IFTA programs, and it is filed quarterly on the same calendar as IFTA. The rate is a flat amount per mile, currently 2.85 cents, regardless of fuel or weight above the threshold.

Any carrier, based anywhere, that operates a qualifying vehicle on Kentucky highways with any regularity applies for a KYU licence and receives a KYU number, which is displayed on the vehicle and checked at Kentucky weigh stations. A carrier that crosses Kentucky once — a Tennessee fleet on a single Cincinnati run, an Ontario fleet on one trip south on I-75 — can buy a temporary KYU permit for the trip instead. Carriers that expect to return get the licence; the permits add up fast on a corridor state.

Each quarter the carrier reports Kentucky miles per qualifying vehicle and pays the per-mile tax, through the Cabinet's online system. A quarter with no Kentucky miles still needs a zero return, and a lapsed KYU account is a roadside problem before it is a tax problem. Records supporting the return are kept for audit, and a Kentucky audit compares the KYU miles with the Kentucky line on the carrier's IFTA return for the same quarter; a mismatch between the two is the finding that costs.

The KYU return needs the same number as the Kentucky line of the IFTA return: miles in the state, per vehicle, for the quarter. Telematics produces it from continuously logged position, and the same report answers both filings with figures that match. Fleets that run Louisville, Lexington or the I-65 and I-75 corridors routinely file KYU from the MyGeotab jurisdiction report. High Point GPS sets up the report for carriers in Ontario and the northeastern US whose southbound runs cross Kentucky.