# Road Usage Charging

## in Oregon

In 2015, the Oregon Department of Transportation set out to demonstrate a fair and sustainable way to fund road maintenance, preservation, and improvements throughout the state. ODOT partnered with a team including ClearRoad to deliver the OReGO system to work with a growing share of Oregon’s vehicles.

## The Funding Problem

U.S. road infrastructure has seen chronic underfunding, with a backlog of nearly $1 trillion. Fuel taxes, the primary funding mechanism for roads, have stagnated due to inflation, increasing efficiencies and labor costs.

With fuel taxes bringing in less than half their 1990 value, Oregon was early in seeing the need for a new funding paradigm to avoid further shortfalls in the state’s road budget. With state policies pushing EVs in the state, this funding hole will only deepen.

> We dug into the analysis on gas taxes, looked at electric vehicle adoption rates, and sort of came to [Road Usage Charging] as the obvious conclusion  
> -- Robert Atkinson, former head of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission

## Road Usage Charging (RUC)

### OReGO

Launching OReGO in 2015, Oregon set up an inflation-adjustable 1.7-cent per-mile fee, normalizing to the average monthly contribution to fuel tax of the state’s drivers. 1,000 early adopters from all regions of the state, driving a wide variety of vehicles, from 1988 Dodge Dakotas to 2016 Toyota Prius received monthly bills for their per-mile usage, while being reimbursed for estimated taxes paid at the pump.

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## Architecture of ClearRoad’s Road Usage Charging Platform

### The ClearRoad Platform in Action

ClearRoad’s RUC platform is architected for maximum flexibility based on the perspective that states should determine program design rather than the limitations of proprietary & legacy technologies. The platform’s adaptability is demonstrated in multiple components:

- An Open API that seamlessly pulls mileage data from a wide range of connected & IoT devices, including many already in vehicles
- A Geoprocessing Engine that allows managers to define boundaries, times, and fees instantly
- A standardized RUC Transaction Ledger that can output to any existing or new billing and reporting systems

### Additional features that ClearRoad provides for these and other RUC programs include:

- Secondary compliance with smartphone OCR odometer readings
- Jurisdiction- and area-based pricing
- Vehicle make & model program differentiation
- Trip data validation and auditing logs

## The Future of Road Usage Charging – EVs and Local RUC

The OReGO program is poised to grow in meaningful ways. Beginning January 2020, OReGO transitioned to efficient vehicle participation only, so that owners of EVs or 40mpg+ cars and light-duty trucks are required to either pay a surcharge on their annual registration or join the OReGO program and pay by the mile. For most drivers, OReGO enrollment will represent the cheaper option.