Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed whether highway user fees should be based on weight and distance travelled, focusing on the: (1) rationale for and arguments against assessing wear-based user fees; (2) recent state experiences in assessing wear-based fees; and (3) potential approaches that could be used to overcome the obstacles to implementing such fees. GAO found that: (1) proponents of wear-based fees contend that such fees would more accurately charge heavy trucks for the wear they cause and, in the long run, provide truck operators with an incentive to reduce pavement wear; (2) opponents of wear-based fees argue that they are unnecessary, costly to administer and enforce, and easy to evade; (3) since 1989, 5 states have rescinded their wear-based fees due to administrative costs, evasion, and legal challenges; (4) 6 states continue to use wear-based fees, emphasizing that they increase equity and efficiency; (5) high administrative costs and evasion rates can be minimized with the use of efficient new highway system technologies; and (6) Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) officials emphasize that the implementation of a national weight-distance user fee is currently feasible and would allow greater precision in charging trucks on a weight-per-axle basis.

RCED-94-181 Highway User Fees: Updated Data Needed to Determine Whether All Users Pay Their Fair Share