Tech Firms May Have Role in Road Charge Plan

The state will ask technology companies early next year for help with a simple communications system that can instantly transmit how many miles a car has driven, the outgrowth of a study on how California can shift from funding roads through a gas tax to one that’s based on miles driven.

A new report by the California State Transportation Agency, with input from Caltrans, says vehicles’ ever-increasing fuel efficiency is limiting the revenue raised by the per-gallon gas tax, and that other means of funding roads need to be considered. The California Road Charge Pilot Program report was put together to analyze alternative ways to raise the needed revenue.

The report considers four key factors:

• Feasibility – The viability of recording and reporting of vehicle miles traveled for a statewide road charge system.
• Complexity – The degree of difficulty of implementing a statewide road charge system.
• Security – Ensuring the safeguarding of personally identifiable information and data in a statewide road charge system.
• Acceptability – Surveying the acceptability of a road charge as an alternative to the gas tax.

During a pilot program involving 5,000 volunteers, motorists used various methods — manual as well as automated — to track and report their mileage. The device-based methods included a plug-in device that used the vehicle’s on-board diagnostics port; smartphones with GPS, with and without location tracking; in-vehicle “telematics,” technology expected to be increasingly included by vehicle manufacturers; and a commercial mileage meter for trucks.

Potential challenges to any such system include data security; enforcement and compliance; and the user experience, or how easy or difficult the system will be for the public.

Among the opportunities for tech companies would be the use of third-party vendors, or “account managers,” to provide the necessary services and technologies used to record and report miles driven.

“The formation of a technology collaborative, with representatives from the public and private sector, will ensure the latest technology will be considered in the formation and development of a road charge program, providing the framework for future evolution of the program,” the report says.

According to Tribune News Service, Caltrans Deputy Director Carrie Pourvahidi said the state will send out a request early next year to technology companies for ideas on a simple communication system at gas stations or electric charging stations that can instantly tell how many miles the car has driven.  

Tribune News Service contributed to this report.