Letter to the Editor: Interstate Tolls

n reading your article about South Carolina’s proposal that heavy trucks be exempt from tolls on Interstate 95, I can’t imagine anyone believing that if this happens to I-95 in South Carolina it won’t happen to other interstate highways across the United States.

Yes, I know it says that heavy trucks will be exempt, but how long do you think this will last? Someone will file a lawsuit on behalf of the motoring public (four-wheelers) and then trucks will have to pay as well. Then, once other states see the money that South Carolina will bring in, they will apply to the Federal Highway Administration for “express authority” to toll their interstates.

Do you think the “government” will turn these applications down when it will receive taxes from the states for the money collected? It’s not going to happen.

can’t believe this provision [establishing pilot programs that allow states to impose new tolls on already built interstates, with FHWA permission] got through and passed in the Federal Highway Funding Act.

It’s going to cost more to run freight across the United States, so carriers will have to raise their rates. Shippers and manufacturers will pass this cost on to the U.S. consumer who buys their products. And who will take on most of this burden? The “middle-class American,” including the majority of truck drivers in this country.

If this isn’t “double taxation,” what is? Why should the trucking industry have to pay to get the states out of debt they got into because they can’t manage their money? We have to stop this before it begins — or just sit back and watch how many toll roads appear. Just give it time.

Does anyone remember reading about the American Revolution in their history books in school? I believe double taxation was one of the many causes of that.

Mike Bricker Jr.

i>Sales Manager

B Carriers Inc.

effersonville, Ind.

This letter appears in the Feb. 27 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.