I think this is the first step and a trial using trucks before they start charging everyone else the same way. It makes sense.
The whole apportioned plate thing has never made sense to me. We should be able to go to our local DMV and get a base plate just like we do our cars. We pay a tax on every mile run in states through IFTA. In fact, I would like to see IFTA go away and let states compete for our fuel dollars. Get rid of the costly quarterly reporting. The annual cost of reporting costs carriers billions of dollars. We could save a lot of money if states didn't have IRP or IFTA. There would be no need for personnel in these offices and everything could be done locally.
That would be too simple & eliminate too many of those state jobs. If that happened you wouldn't get to see ms. Minnie when you needed your tags.
I'm willing to bet that system won't make it through the trial period before they return to maybe an updated, on-line version of what we're doing today. The simple reason: it's doing away with one of very few advance tax payments. Most taxes are paid in arrears. That is, the tax is collected at the end of the tax period. At least with estimated miles, the states have something already banked in the event a new carrier goes TU before the first renewal.
I'm still trying to figure out why I'm paying property tax for my truck in Arkansas and I don't even live there!
