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Originally Posted by JSH
Do companies (UPS, Greyhound, OTR trucking, etc) get charged a different rate than private citizens? I'm pretty sure they do more damage.
And for JSH and elhigh.....how do you track how many miles were driven in state? Certifying an odometer doesn't account for miles driven out of state. Like my parents that go to Tuscon every year for 4 months. They drive down and back. Should they be taxed by Illinois for those miles?
Like I said in the other thread. Too many questions and no real answers. Nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction by politicians.
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This is how the system works.
There are 3 private companies that collect the data (all currently do truck data analytics) All of them measure fuel consumption and miles driven based on OBDII data. They credit back the fuel tax paid at the pump and then debit per mile driven. This gets settled up every month.
Option 1: You plug a dongle into your OBDII port. It only records fuel used and miles driven. You are charged for every mile driven regardless of where
Option 2: You plug a dongle into your OBDII port. It records fuel used, miles driven, and location. You are only billed for miles driven in participation states on public roads. You are not charged for miles driven off road or in other states. The added information is also sold as an added feature as it is basically some of the same functions as On-Star and other similar services. You can see the vehicle location and put user limits for teenagers where you get reports on their driving.
Option 3: Only works on cars with Verizon's version of OnStar. Does the same thing as option 2 but without a dongle needed.
So how do they collect from out-of-state drivers?
They still pay fuel taxes at the pump. The same question case can be made for the current system. I can drive across a state today, use their roads, but never pay for them because I filled up out-of-state.
What about trucks?
Currently this system is only for private vehicles. However it would be even easier to do with trucks as all of them are required to have electronic logs books today that collect all the same information.
What about miles driven out-of-state?
If you use option 2 or 3 you are not billed for miles out of state. Right now California, Oregon, and Washington have fee-per-mile trials. Washington and Oregon are linked so when I cross state lines the rate per mile changes and the money goes the the respective state. California is not integrated yet but will be at a later date. This is a 14 state projected called RUC West.
Oregon is the farthest along.
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, and Utah are doing trials
Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas are researching the idea.
I fully expect California, Oregon, and Washington to roll out an integrated system. I expect it will expand to others.
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I think North Dakota's died in legislature, and since session is over now it won't be looked at again until January of 2021 at the soonest. It's not a big issue up here, somehow despite one of the harshest climates in the US, and a lot of pass-through truck traffic in ratio to local traffic that pay taxes to keep up the roads, we consistently are ranked as having some of the best roads in the union. This is largely because the taxes that are supposed to maintain our roads actually do, without getting pulled for other pet projects.
We also have some of the lowest gas tax and registration costs, and I seriously doubt anywhere else has cheaper tickets for moving violations.