How a Truck Tax Could Save the Highway Trust Fund

In a paper published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Michael F. Gorman outlines an argument for a Vehicle Mileage Traveled Tax (VMTT) on freight trucks, which cause a disproportionate amount of damage to roadways. While some states are imposing VMT taxes on private vehicles, public support is low, and Gorman argues that imposing a tax on freight trucks would be a more cost-effective and efficient starting point.

According to the analysis, a VMTT on trucks makes sense because “Trucks create far more pavement damage per vehicle mile than do passenger vehicles, making the VMTT more important for these heavier vehicles. There is already in place extensive tracking of miles traveled by in-cab systems, making the implementation of taxes based on miles driven much easier. There are far fewer large trucks than passenger vehicles, which allows for a far lower administration cost. Thus, the cost of tracking miles is low and the benefit is high by imposing a VMTT on trucks.”

The analysis proposes “an axle-adjusted VMTT of 1 to 13 cents for single-unit trucks and 1 to 19 cents for combination trucks on top of existing taxes to offset the deficit in the Highway Trust Fund.”

The paper concludes, “Current insufficient, inequitable, and poorly incentivized tax structures are leading to behaviors in the trucking industry that threaten the sustainability of the highway (and other road) network. An axle-adjusted VMTT would address many of these inefficiencies and help mitigate the shortfall to ensure the sustainability of the U.S. Interstate network.”