The ticket

It's a fine, not a felony — but what you do next depends on your license.

An uncovered-load ticket under Transportation Code Chapter 725 is a misdemeanor punishable by fine only — no jail is possible. That puts it in front of a justice of the peace or municipal judge, and it opens one door worth knowing about before you just pay it. Whether that door is open to you depends almost entirely on whether you hold a CDL.

The short answer

No CDL: before paying, ask the court clerk about deferred disposition — comply for up to 180 days and the case is dismissed with no final conviction. CDL: assume deferral is off the table and the course option too — federal rules bar states from masking CDL-holder convictions. For everyone: paying the fine outright is a conviction.

Statute: Tex. Transp. Code §725.003; Tex. Code Crim. Proc. arts. 45A.301–.305, 45A.351
Penalty: Misdemeanor, fine of $25 to $500, plus court costs
Last verified: 2026-07-28

What the ticket actually is

The offense and the money, straight from the statute:

Statute text

An offense under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $25 or more than $500.

— Tex. Transp. Code §725.003(c)

Because it is punishable by fine only, it lands in justice court — or municipal court inside city limits (Code of Criminal Procedure arts. 4.11 and 4.14). Court costs get added on top of whatever fine the judge sets, and the judge has the whole $25–$500 range to work with.

Two pieces of good news worth knowing. Texas abolished its points-and-surcharges system in 2019 (the Driver Responsibility Program, Chapter 708, was repealed outright), so there is no surcharge program for this to feed. And §725.003 does not appear on DPS's list of traffic offenses that constitute a moving violation (37 TAC §15.89(b)).

No CDL? Ask about deferred disposition before you pay

Texas lets a justice or municipal judge put a fine-only misdemeanor on hold instead of convicting you. It moved in the 2025 recodification — it used to be article 45.051, and it now lives at Code of Criminal Procedure article 45A.302:

Statute text

On a plea of guilty or nolo contendere by a defendant or on a finding of guilt in a misdemeanor case punishable by fine only and payment of all court costs, a judge may defer further proceedings for a period not to exceed 180 days without entering an adjudication of guilt.

— Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 45A.302(a)

Get through the deferral period on whatever conditions the judge sets, and article 45A.305 says the judge shall dismiss the complaint — and that "there is not a final conviction and the complaint may not be used against the person for any purpose."

Three honest caveats. It is the judge's call — "may defer," not "shall defer." You still pay court costs, and usually a special expense fee up to the fine amount. And the sequence matters: mailing in the full fine is a conviction, so the moment to ask the clerk how to request deferred disposition is before you pay anything.

Hold a CDL? Assume none of that applies to you

The deferred-disposition subchapter excludes traffic violations "relating to motor vehicle control" committed by anyone who holds — or held at the time — a commercial driver's license (art. 45A.301). Behind the state rule sits a federal one, and it is the reason no court will bend:

Statute text

The State must not mask, defer imposition of judgment, or allow an individual to enter into a diversion program that would prevent a CLP or CDL holder's conviction for any violation, in any type of motor vehicle, of a State or local traffic control law … from appearing on the CDLIS driver record.

— 49 C.F.R. §384.226 (prohibition on masking convictions)

Is a load-cover offense a law "relating to motor vehicle control"? No statute or published Texas case answers that cleanly, and we say so below rather than pretend. But courts treat CDL holders as ineligible for deferral on traffic offenses generally, and the federal rule reaches "any violation, in any type of motor vehicle" — including your personal pickup. Plan on paying or fighting the ticket, not deferring it. If the stakes are real for your license, that is a conversation with a lawyer, not a webpage.

The driving-course option does not exist for this ticket — for anyone

The other famous Texas escape hatch — take a driving safety course, get the ticket dismissed — is limited by article 45A.351 to offenses under Subtitle C of the Transportation Code, the "Rules of the Road" chapters. Chapter 725 is not in Subtitle C; it sits in Subtitle J, Miscellaneous Provisions.

So a court cannot offer course dismissal on a load-cover ticket no matter who you are or what your record looks like. If someone at the window offers it anyway, they are thinking of a different ticket. Deferred disposition, for non-CDL drivers, is the only dismissal path this offense has.

The part where we sell tarps

Whatever this ticket ends up costing you — the fine, the costs, the morning in court — it prices in one direction: a tarp on the truck costs less than the cheapest version of this process. And the ticket is the rare cost; the gate surcharge at the landfill is the one you would pay every trip. If the tarp tearing is what put you here, we stock the common sizes in Austin and deliver same-day.

What we could not verify

Most pages in this industry state everything with equal confidence, including the parts that are wrong. Here is what we checked and could not confirm — treat these as open questions, not facts.

That the CDL deferral bar definitely covers a §725 ticket.

Article 45A.301 bars CDL holders from deferral for violations "relating to motor vehicle control." Whether a load-cover offense is such a violation is an interpretation question no statute or published case resolves. We present the bar as the safe assumption for a working driver, not as settled text — and a lawyer, not this page, is the right place to test it.

Whether a §725.003 conviction shows up on your DPS driving record at all.

It is not on DPS's moving-violations list, which governs what gets applied to a driver record — that implies it does not, but we found no primary source that says so affirmatively, so we stop at "not listed as a moving violation." Separately, for CDL holders, the federal rule quoted above forces convictions onto the CDLIS record regardless.

What your particular court charges as the deferral fee.

Article 45A.304 lets the judge collect a special expense fee up to the amount of the fine, and courts set their own practice. Ask the clerk for the number before deciding whether deferral is worth it against a small fine.

Primary sources

Every claim on this page links to the government's own text. Read it yourself — that is the point.

Last verified: 2026-07-28

This is a plain-language summary written by a tarp shop, not legal advice. We cite the primary sources so you can check us. If you are fighting a ticket, talk to a lawyer.

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