The Trump administration's consideration of a road funding model based on user charging makes sense, EROAD CEO Steven Newman believes.

Trump's annual economic report proposed replacing a fuel tax with a user fee – rather than raising the fuel tax as he'd earlier signalled.

Now, says Newman, "the president's economic report outlines a logical progression from a fuel tax to a road user-based charge."

The US doesn't have a federal distance-based road user charging system, instead relying primarily on fuel taxes, which is resulting in a shortfall of funds for road maintenance and building – apparently due to the increasing adoption of electric and more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The report says that "conventional funding models are now under pressure"….and adds that "congestion costs are high and rising in many urban areas."

The report cited a possible solution in an Oregon pilot programme imposing road use taxes on heavy vehicles, based on miles travelled – a system similar to NZ's RUCs, says EROAD. Other possibilities mentioned include highway tolls that vary with congestion, to increase efficiency and raise needed revenues to pay for infrastructure improvements and additions to capacity.

An EROAD electronic solution is used in Oregon to manage and pay weight/mile tax, but Newman says that regardless of which of the regimes mentioned in the report is selected, EROAD has "an innovative and cost-effective way to introduce a user fee across jurisdictions."