[2] In the United States, a VMT fee currently exists as part of a limited program for 5,000 volunteers in Oregon and for trucks in Illinois.
[3][4] Internationally, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Russia and Switzerland have implemented various forms of VMT fees, limited to trucks.
With the UK government banning the sale of non-electric cars from 2030, VMT tax is being considered in place of fuel duty revenue.
[5] Instead of using a tax on fuel consumption as a way of financing transportation infrastructure, a VMT fee charges motorists based on their road usage measured in mileage.
GPS units on board a vehicle can record distance, assign it to the appropriate taxing jurisdiction, and calculate the amount owed.
The on-board computer keeps track of the number miles participants travel and submits the information to the University of Iowa Public Policy Center to be processed and evaluated.
However, in response to LaHood's remarks, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that VMT "will not be Obama administration policy.
[1] In June 2009, ITS Institute (RITA), Minnesota Department of Transportation published a research report, "Technology Enabling Near-Term Nationwide Implementation of Distance Based Road User Fees.
[15] It emphasized the disproportionate road wear of cargo trucks[16] versus the current tax rate paid, but noted that costs assessed to this sector would be passed along to the consumer.
[17] In 2013, Oregon passed the first legislation in the United States to establish a permanent road usage charge system for transportation funding.
The law authorizes the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to set up a mileage collection system for 5,000 volunteer motorists beginning July 1, 2015.
[18] ODOT may assess a charge of 1.5 cents per mile for up to 5,000 volunteer cars and light commercial vehicles and issue a gas tax refund to those participants.
Included in these services is the collection of the road usage charge (RUC) from the driver and then passing that fee onto the Oregon Department of Transportation.
As any data collection system poses a risk to private information of users, VMT pilot programs across the country have explored various options to protect the privacy of participants.
Oregon's 2012 VMT fee pilot study offered five plans, each with a different technology option and payment method depending on the drivers' privacy preferences.
These on-board units were programmed to contain just enough intelligence and knowledge of map boundaries to accumulate and transfer to the billing entity the miles per region or zone, as opposed to exact location.
[33] Negotiations with the American Civil Liberties Union shaped the privacy provisions of Oregon's recent 2013 legislation, which set up the forthcoming 2015 VMT program.
Another option is to track and collect the fee not through a government-issued device, but through a multi-purpose, private-sector application or tool that records the mileage and then transmits it to a private entity for billing.