Vehicle Registration Exemptions - Iowa

Every motor vehicle, trailer, and semitrailer when driven or moved upon a highway must be registered except:

• Any such vehicle driven or moved upon a highway in conformance with the provisions relating to manufacturers, transporters, dealers, or nonresidents as contemplated by section 321.53 and chapter 326.
• Any such vehicle driven or moved upon a highway under a temporary registration permit issued by the department.
• Any such vehicle driven or moved on a highway only to cross such highway from one property to another.
• Any implement of husbandry.
• Any special mobile equipment as defined below.
• Any vehicle which is used exclusively for interplant purposes, in the operation of an industrial or manufacturing plant, consisting of a single unit comprising a group of buildings separated by streets, alleys, or railroad tracks, and which vehicle is used solely to transport materials from one part of the plant to another or from an adjacent railroad track to the plant and in so doing incidentally using said streets or alleys for not more than one thousand feet.
• Any vehicle propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires but not operated on rails.
• Any school bus in this state used exclusively for the transportation of pupils to and from school or a school function or for the purposes provided in section 285.1, subsection 1, and section 285.10, subsection 9, or used exclusively for the transportation of children enrolled in a federal head start program.
• Any mobile home or manufactured home and any temporary undercarriage used solely for transporting manufactured homes, modular homes, or other portable buildings used or intended to be used for human occupancy.
• Any trailer that is used exclusively for the transportation, display, and distribution of flags honoring deceased veterans in parades or ceremonies held on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, or other patriotic occasions as authorized by resolution of the local government of the community where the parade or ceremony takes place. A trailer hereby exempt from registration may only be used on city streets or secondary roads on the day of a parade or ceremony specified in the local government’s resolution, and a copy of the resolution must be always carried in the vehicle pulling the trailer.

“Special mobile equipment” means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including road construction or maintenance machinery and ditch-digging apparatus.