Road Usage Charging United States Report: Table of contents

The Road Usage Charging (RUC) USA Report, the first to cover the mileage-based charging market in the US, is structured into 6 sections:

  • Section 1: Introduces and defines RUC in the US context
  • Section 2: Identifies and analyzes the 4 key external drivers of RUC in the US.
    1. Financial & economic: transportation funding, motor fuel tax, inflation
    2. Mobility: vehicle miles traveled (VMT) evolution, vehicle fuel efficiency, electric vehicle adoption, connected vehicle growth
    3. Infrastructure & climate: road and bridge asset condition and expansion and modernization needs
    4. Political & regulatory: state legislation, federal legislation and regulations, industry group involvement
  • Section 3: Provides a comprehensive overview of the RUC market and how it compares to other funding options. This section has 4 subsections covering the following topics
    • Alternative road funding options: examines options to replace the motor fuel tax (e.g., vehicle registration fees, tolling, electricity tax, RUC)
    • Market overview (US RUC Market): provides an overview of the activities (studies, pilots and programs) that been completed or are ongoing by state and coalition
    • Stakeholders and technology: explores the stakeholders (owners, advisors, account managers, subcontractors, and end users) by their position in the value chain and compares milage reporting options (technologies)
    • Benefits and consideration: analyzes the benefits and considerations (challenges) with RUC in the context of the different road funding options and the work completed in studies to date. This analysis was completed across 8 principal dimensions
      1. Revenue robustness
      2. Efficiency
      3. Flexibility
      4. Acceptability
      5. Equity
      6. Interoperability
      7. Data Collection & Management
      8. Privacy & Security
  • Section 4: Takes an in-depth look at the RUC activities of 4 states Hawaii, Minnesota, Oregon, and Utah in order to capture key lessons from these states. A similar approach is taken to covering each state as noted below
    • Key drivers: examines why the state has explored RUC and assesses how the state ranks across 11 categories (4 financial & economic, 3 mobility, and 4 infrastructure) that impact funding
    • Timeline of key events: outlines the most important events (i.e., legislative, regulatory, program related, etc.) impacting RUC activity in the state
    • Overview of pilots and/or programs: explores key topics, such as objectives, technology, system architecture, and participants, for each pilot or program
    • Examination of unique pilot or program features: for example, Minnesota created a rate setting framework and tested collecting RUC data from connected/automated vehicles (CAVs)
    • Next steps and future plans: future RUC activities states have planned or are considering
  • Section 5: Compares RUC in the US to Europe’s distance based charging schemes and summarizes 5 key insights and lessons that the US market can take from Europe.
    1. Importance of establishing a regional (nationwide) RUC framework
    2. Benefits of location-based charging
    3. The role of the roaming model to reach interoperability
    4. Account Managers (EETS Providers) active role in improving the scheme
    5. Implementation challenges and public acceptance
  • Section 6: Focuses on the future of road funding and RUC and the factors most relevant for RUC programs to expand and succeed. To support this section, we developed a forecasting model, which analyzes road funding needs and RUC’s funding potential in all 50 states. Section 6 and the supporting model cover the following topics:
    • Fuel tax funding: forecasts the impact of fuel efficient vehicles, including electric vehicles, on motor fuel tax revenues
    • RUC’s funding potential: analyzes RUC’s revenue generation potential and the decisions required to optimize a program’s funding
    • RUC’s cost structure and ability to scale: explores RUC’s base cost structure and the key factors, including technology, to lower cost and increase program profitability (i.e., if and how RUC can reach a competitive unit cost)
    • Role of account managers: looks at how the value chain and account manager roles could evolve and which companies are well positioned to enter and succeed in the market
    • Leading states: examines which states are likely to be most active in the future and why
    • Future of RUC (conclusion): provides PTOLEMUS’ view on the medium and longer term prospects of RUC, including the key factors necessary for RUC to eventually become the main source of road funding