Trucking: ATA says increased tolling on highways threatens recovery
John D. Schulz, Contributing Editor -- Logistics Management, 7/1/2009
WASHINGTON — How would you like to enter a grocery store, pay for a bag of groceries, proceed to your vehicle and then, upon exiting the grocery parking lot, be charged again for that same bag of groceries?
That scenario is akin to the trucking industry’s argument against expanded use of highway tolls.
Once exclusively reserved for building highways and bridges, tolls have been expanded recently to help cash-strapped states balance their budgets. With the 24.4-cent per-gallon fuel tax unchanged since 1993, and the costs of highway and bridge maintenance skyrocketing in recent years, increased tolling has become a popular method to raise millions of dollars by states reluctant to raise their own fuel taxes.
“It’s interesting to see how the American people get around using the word 'tax,’” says Charles “Shorty” Whittington, the chairman of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) who also heads Grammer Industries, an Indiana-based carrier that specializes in hazardous materials hauling.
According to Whittington, politicians reluctant to use the word “tax” seem to have no problems raising tolls, which fall under the category of “user fees,” not taxes. However, the problem from the trucking industry’s viewpoint is that this is actually a form of double taxation.
“The problem we have is these are taxes we’ve already paid to build these roads,” Whittington told LM. “Now they are taxing us again to use them. If this double-taxation continues, they are going to create another tea party,” he added, referring to the Boston Tea Party that sparked the American Revolution.
Some politicians are listening. In fact, the ATA is supporting the “Freedom from Tolls Act” that was introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas and is designed to limit the spread of tolling on federal highways. The bill (S.1115) would prohibit states, private entities, and private-public partnerships from adding tolls on existing federal highways, bridges, or tunnels built with federal funding.
In 2006, the trucking industry paid $37.4 billion in federal and state highway taxes. That amounts to nearly $8,000 per truck, or 36.5 percent of the total amount paid. Meanwhile, trucks represent only 12.5 percent of the vehicles on the road. In addition, the trucking industry paid $17.8 billion in federal highway-use taxes and $19.6 billion in state highway-use taxes.
The trucking lobby doesn’t mind paying for use of the roads—once. The issue they’re having is paying tolls that were designed for original construction bonds that long ago have been paid.
“Highway users have paid for these highways through fuel taxes,” said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves. “Additional tolling on our National Highway System is nothing more than an ill-conceived quick fix for transportation funding shortfalls.
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