CTA, OTA says study makes short work of weight-distance tax argument

TORONTO (Dec. 19, 2001) — Do truckers pay their fair share of highway costs? The railways argue they don’t, but Canada’s two largest trucking industry lobby groups say they do.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance and its biggest affiliate, the Ontario Trucking Association, released a study that says trucks already pay far more in fuel taxes than the costs they impose on the pavements of a main highway.

The study, conducted by Orangeville, Ont.-based transportation economist Fred Nix, is aimed at staving off calls for the imposition of a weight-distance tax on trucks. Such taxes are calculated based on both the distance driven and the weight, either of the truck or its axles.

Nix argues that recommendations for weight-distance taxes in Canada tend to be based on “ideas, taxes, or cost-allocation work from the United States,” and don’t account for a number of taxes, permit fees, and tolls that result in heavy vehicles in Canada paying more for the use of a road than light vehicles.

Ironically, only four states — New York, Kentucky, Oregon, and New Mexico — levy a weight-distance tax. Most have abandoned them in favor of arguably more equitable methods of taxation.

Nix argued that the relationship between axle loads and pavement deterioration in Canada is relatively weak, noting that Canada’s harsher climate adds to the amount of damage pavement endures.

“Whatever the precise reason, main highways are built with relatively strong pavements,” he said. “And, with a relatively strong pavement, the passage of an individual truck axle load is not too important in terms of how that pavement deteriorates over time.”

The study does acknowledge that other pavements, particularly in more rural areas of the country may be more susceptible to damage from axle loads, but they do not account for much truck traffic anyway.