RV Lobby for Universal Toll System

[TB673]

Originally Posted by R.Wold

Hope Ohio gets the news....

At least in Ohio, you only pay at the exit.
Not like Fl. (pick 1 of 16 toll roads) or W. Va ( I 77) where you make multiple toll stops before you exit the toll road.
At least Fl has "Toll by Plate"

[fotofx]

Uni pass is currently 18 states.


https://www.cfxway.com/uni/

[wjohnson913]

California has many many problems but most toll roads just use license plate readers. You go on line, put in your plate number and credit card info. It really is a lot more convenient than renting transponders or in Texas buying a sticker to put on your windshield. I’m not sure if the Texas sticker even covers the whole state.

[RRR]

Originally Posted by RoadEyePie

I'm not complaining about having to pay the tolls. Everybody has to pay them.
I'm not happy with the transponders required by the many different states involved. In Virginia, I was issued 3 transponders. One for the car (2 axles 4 wheels), one for the dually (2 axles 6 wheels) and one for the RV with TV. I have another transponder for Colorado. What do tractor trailers do? How many transponders do they have to carry around?

What richard5933 said about the EZ Pass.

Until the current registration for commercial vehicles came in effect 20 or so years ago some states required license plates for their state if you traveled in it. It wasn't uncommon to see trucks with 15 or so plates on the front. Some states had agreements with other states and you had a plate that had little stickers on them and a certain state had to be in a certain place--or else. Some states had stickers that went on the side of the cab and most required their PUC number too.

For a 48 state carrier there was a stack of paperwork about 20" high that had to be completed for the states and I don't think any two forum was the same. Then there was mileage reports forms to fill out for each state monthly or quarterly that might require where you entered the state at, where you exited at, miles traveled, routes used, and fuel purchased in that state. Then pay the tax due, now please. Multiply that by 3000 trucks. Fleets had staff that did only mileage and fuel reports for the trucks.

Bottom line is that each state extracted the maximum possible with the most amount of pain. Now at least they make it less painful.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by RRR

What richard5933 said about the EZ Pass.

Until the current registration for commercial vehicles came in effect 20 or so years ago some states required license plates for their state if you traveled in it. It wasn't uncommon to see trucks with 15 or so plates on the front. Some states had agreements with other states and you had a plate that had little stickers on them and a certain state had to be in a certain place--or else. Some states had stickers that went on the side of the cab and most required their PUC number too.

For a 48 state carrier there was a stack of paperwork about 20" high that had to be completed for the states and I don't think any two forum was the same. Then there was mileage reports forms to fill out for each state monthly or quarterly that might require where you entered the state at, where you exited at, miles traveled, routes used, and fuel purchased in that state. Then pay the tax due, now please. Multiply that by 3000 trucks. Fleets had staff that did only mileage and fuel reports for the trucks.

Bottom line is that each state extracted the maximum possible with the most amount of pain. Now at least they make it less painful.

Thankfully now there's the IFTA instead of all the various license plates or tags. This multiple license plate issue is why my coach has such a wide area up front for the license plates.

It just doesn't seem so difficult for all the various state systems to join into one unified transponder system.

I don't understand how Florida can have a transponder that will work with their toll roads and the EZ Pass system, but the EZ Pass transponders won't work in Florida. This is the 21st century, so the technology is there to make this work. Just not the desire. Maybe if the Feds put a hold on transportation funds until states joined into a unified system they'd get on this more quickly.

[RoadEyePie]

Originally Posted by R.Wold

As far as a lobby goes I guess RIVA would be a place to start.

RIVA policy agenda group:

Jay Landers, Vice President
jlanders@rvia.org
Chris Bornemann, Director
cbornemann@rvia.org
Samantha Rocci, Manager
srocci@rvia.org
Monika Geraci, Strategic Policy Communications
mgeraci@rvia.org

Senate and House RV Caucus contacts:

• Senate: Contact the office of the Senate RV Caucus Chair, Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA).
• House: Contact the offices of the House RV Caucus co-chairs, Representatives Dina Titus (D-NV-1) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN-2).

I checked out the RVIA website and the tab / link at the top "Who We Serve" and it doesn't appear that RV Owners as a group are listed. I also used the search tool to search "Toll Transponders" and it said nothing found.

[Ray,IN]

There will not be a single universal toll system until the USDOT steps in to stop the state turf wars. The movement is still alive to make ALL interstates toll roads, and we all know how wonderfully better present toll roads are for driving___.

[richard5933]

Originally Posted by Ray,IN

There will not be a single universal toll system until the USDOT steps in to stop the state turf wars. The movement is still alive to make ALL interstates toll roads, and we all know how wonderfully better present toll roads are for driving___.

True, that idea was floated in recent years but I don't think it will go anywhere. That would basically impose a per-mile fee for using the Interstate system, and the problem would be that it lets people travel all the other roads without having to pay a similar fee so you'd see lots of traffic move to state and local roads, moving the problems to those roads.

In my view, adding tolls to a road is a way to collect money without having to actually raise taxes. There's a hesitance to raise taxes, but it seems like not so when it comes to adding fees. Seems to me that there are more equitable ways to charge a fee for using the roadways, such as scraping the fuel tax and adding a simple use tax and have drivers pay per mile driven per year. No more tolls, no more fuel tax, just a simple per mile fee. You drive more, you pay more. You drive less, you pay less.

Right now I'm paying $0.018 per mile in fuel tax. (Last year I bought approx. 291 gallons, paid approx. $0.51 per gallon, and drove approx. 8,358 miles). Someone driving a similar sized car which got poorer mileage would have paid more for the same use of the roads. Seems like an equitable system would take into account vehicle weight, number of axles, and miles driven. That would account for actual use and reflect a fair way to divvy up the costs to everyone that uses roads. With the tech in vehicles nowadays, it doesn't seem like a heavy lift to incorporate miles driven into the annual fee paid for vehicles instead of relying on tolls and fuel tax.

Just my opinion of course and I'd love to hear how others would solve the issue with other ideas.

[Billett Bee]

I've been trying to broaden my thinking and I've been paying attention to yalls conversion. I really never knew that this was an issue. I've drove trucks my whole life and we've been full timing for over 4 years now and not once have I had to pay a toll. I've always just avoided the expense and routed around. I've never been in so much of a hurry that I wouldn't rather drive the 5 miles further and stop at a light or two to avoid a toll, I hate tolls. Now I once went across a bridge that was tolled but never recieved a bill. After further research I found that on that bridge you don't get tolled until you go back across. It was only going to be a couple bucks so I thought wth.. I've been east to west and north to south and across the heartland and come across many tolls, we've just always planned ahead to route around. I like listening to everybody's ideas on a better system, this was something i never was aware was a thing. So I'm listening and trying to learn something new.

[RoadEyePie]

Originally Posted by richard5933

True, that idea was floated in recent years but I don't think it will go anywhere. That would basically impose a per-mile fee for using the Interstate system, and the problem would be that it lets people travel all the other roads without having to pay a similar fee so you'd see lots of traffic move to state and local roads, moving the problems to those roads.

providing an incentive to use alternative routes and free up space on interstates....sounds like a good alternative.

In my view, adding tolls to a road is a way to collect money without having to actually raise taxes. There's a hesitance to raise taxes, but it seems like not so when it comes to adding fees. Seems to me that there are more equitable ways to charge a fee for using the roadways, such as scraping the fuel tax and adding a simple use tax and have drivers pay per mile driven per year. No more tolls, no more fuel tax, just a simple per mile fee. You drive more, you pay more. You drive less, you pay less.

Isn't a gas tax a per use tax. The more you drive the more you pay. But EV is coming. Should they get a free ride as an incentive for being "greener"? No, the government will have no choice but to tax based on the amount / number of charges.

Right now I'm paying $0.018 per mile in fuel tax. (Last year I bought approx. 291 gallons, paid approx. $0.51 per gallon, and drove approx. 8,358 miles). Someone driving a similar sized car which got poorer mileage would have paid more for the same use of the roads. Seems like an equitable system would take into account vehicle weight, number of axles, and miles driven. That would account for actual use and reflect a fair way to divvy up the costs to everyone that uses roads. With the tech in vehicles nowadays, it doesn't seem like a heavy lift to incorporate miles driven into the annual fee paid for vehicles instead of relying on tolls and fuel tax.

Tax on miles driven means the guy in a Volkswagen pays the same as the luxury class A or the tractor trailer. Should the system not tax heavier commercial vehicles and recreational vehicles more than the person just getting to work? Besides, I already pay a hefty personal property tax for the RV and the Dually. But that goes to the county. Are you proposing that the state drop the gas tax and toll fees and collect it as another property tax. Kinda like boats, yachts and ships, pay is in the license fees and not how far you go on the water or how often. Aw, but they have fuel taxes too. I don't see things changing. Governments never drops taxes and fees, they only increase or add them as needed. A long tract record of doing so.

[Roy-c]

What would be really new would be an effective lobby for RV owners. Then maybe everyone could get proper and timely warranty repairs and even better yet a new RV that didn't need repairs before it was even delivered.

[RoadEyePie]

Originally Posted by Roy-c

What would be really new would be an effective lobby for RV owners. Then maybe everyone could get proper and timely warranty repairs and even better yet a new RV that didn't need repairs before it was even delivered.

The consumer bankrupted Detroit because they could buy Japanese cars which were built better, ran longer and used less gas. Eventually, competition for consumer dollars should cause the same thing to happen in RVs. This forum is a powerful tool for sharing the knowledge about brand quality and service. Maybe it's working....just takes decades just like the auto industry.

[arcaguy]

Toll roads are the result of gutless politicians who want to be able to lie to us and say they either cut taxes or didn't raise them. I have to travel on roads, if I have to pay a toll that's simply a tax by another name and it is less efficient because it has it's own collection system. If the politicians would simply raise some other tax where the collection system is already in place they could do away with toll roads and we would all be happier. As for efficiency I once spent 3 or 4 hours in a traffic jam on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the Sunday after Thanksgiving to pay an $8.00 toll. How efficient is that. As to going online to pay tolls Illinois doesn't bother to make what web site you have to go to very apparent, and they also don't tell you how long you have to pay. You also have to know which toll booth you bypassed. That's a lot of information to try and gather when you can't see the signs because your vision is blocked by trucks. My point being that I don't live in a state that has toll roads, only one toll bridge. As a result paying tolls is pretty foreign to me. In my world instead of mandating a universal toll pass system the Federal Government should mandate that I be able to pay tolls in cash at a staffed toll booth anywhere I may want to exit the toll road. This is a whole lot more efficient that making me spend an hour of my life figuring out how to pay Illinois $3.30 in tolls for crappy roads. I'll get off of my soap box now.

[EddieJ]

Originally Posted by R.Wold

Hope Ohio gets the news....

Yeah, and tear down those terribly narrow toll booths! There are piles of truck and RV mirrors, don’t ask me how I know....