Alliance for Toll Free Interstates opposing the Virginia interstate truck tolls plan
Valentine says that VDOT is also considering a plan to toll trucks less at night, a move which officials hope could convince some truck drivers to operate at night.
Several groups have spoken out against the idea of truck tolling, arguing that the tolls would harm Virginia businesses and could force truck traffic onto Route 11 and 460. The Alliance for Toll Free Interstates sent a letter to VDOT opposing the truck toll plan.
From the letter:
“Tolling trucks using I-81 will raise costs for moving goods through the supply chain, hurting the competitiveness of local companies. Restaurants, convenience stores, travel plazas and gas stations operating near the interstate will face higher costs from manufacturers and shippers, who will be forced to charge more to transport goods by truck. Everyday consumers will be shouldering the burden by paying more for goods. A toll will become nothing more than an underhanded tax on the general public. Inevitably, truck tolls will have a chilling effect on consumer activity.”
The Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board will be hearing a final plan for I-81 improvement funding at a December meeting, after which they will present their recommendations to state lawmakers in January 2019.
Safety is at the forefront of everything we do as a company. Our dedication to continuously improve our operational safety practices stems from our relentless focus on protecting the people within the communities where we operate, our employees and the environment. While we already have a strong safety record, our goal is zero incidents, as no incident is acceptable.
Pipelines are America’s lifelines, and they operate safely every day across the country. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, natural gas transmission pipelines are the safest mode of energy transportation. There are more than 300,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines in the U.S. today — spanning across communities large and small, rural and urban.
To ensure that our pipeline remains in safe and reliable operating condition, we employ a number of redundant, overlapping layers of protection — from high-tech monitoring at our gas control centers to routine foot patrols of the pipeline right of way. Below are just a few examples of the human and technological safeguards we employ to continuously protect public safety and ensure the long-term integrity of our pipeline.
Today’s complex public affairs environment often requires a comprehensive approach that may involve some combination of lobbying, grassroots advocacy, public relations and other types of communications. Organizations may be facing a single issue or need a comprehensive strategic approach to meet long-term objectives — Capital Results has the experience to help accomplish either or both. Our work has earned us an outstanding reputation for our integrated government relations and communications services, consistently exceeding the expectations of our clients.
Communications
Building and mobilizing effective support for public policy issues through communications, advertising and grassroots outreach
Capital Results — a full-service public affairs and business consulting firm helping a wide range of companies, associations and government entities achieve their public policy and business goals.
The Iroquois Group and The Hartford have had a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship for years but now all five Iroquois regional organizations have attained VIP status for commercial lines with the carrier. VIP is the most prestigious partnership level available at The Hartford, requiring a large book of business with consistent growth and profitability for many years.
In the case of Iroquois Midwest, a 12-state region that is the most recent regional organization to reach VIP status, the honor is the result of hard work and cooperation between field representatives of both companies.
“We’ve been working very hard for many years to earn the VIP status and our Hartford partners have been with us every step of the way,” said Philip Dawson, Iroquois’ Midwest and Texas managing partner.
The Hartford’s VIP status brings greater compensation and added resources for Iroquois members.
Independent insurance agencies interested in joining the network can learn more by clicking here.
“The Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky carries twice as much traffic as it was built to handle — it’s 54 years old and functionally obsolete.
Bridge Toll
But an effort to replace the span on one of America’s busiest trucking routes has languished for years — even after governors from both states agreed on a $2.5 billion plan about five years ago. The reason: Kentucky won’t approve new interstate highway tolls needed to attract private money to the project.”
FHWA PROMOTES FAILED TOLLING PILOT PROGRAM: PROGRAM WOULD HURT DRIVERS AND BENEFIT WALL STREET INVESTORS
Richmond, VA — The Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates (ATFI) criticized the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) over the issuance of a notice soliciting participation in the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program (ISRRPP). The ISRRPP is one of the few ways the federal government allows for tolls to be placed on existing interstates. The notice invites state Departments of Transportation to submit applications for three potential slots on a rolling basis until further notice, based on a directive from Congress.
alliance toll free
“When a 20-year-old pilot program has not been utilized successfully in a single instance, it’s time for Congress to pull the plug on the program,” said Stephanie Kane, spokesperson for ATFI. “Several states have tried to implement the pilot program and they have each come to the same conclusion — that tolls on existing interstates are bad for motorists, bad for the economy and wildly unpopular.”
Previous ISRRPP slots were held by Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia. Despite holding these slots for nearly two decades, not a single toll road was ever built. In 2011, Virginia was granted conditional approval to place tolls on Interstate 95. What followed was an economic study funded at taxpayer expense. Virginia ultimately recognized that the inefficiency of toll collection, the harmful consequences for businesses due to traffic diversion, and the diminished safety and increased maintenance costs of secondary roads far outweighed any perceived benefits to the state. Likewise, North Carolina spent public funds studying and debating tolls only to come to the same conclusion.
“The FHWA and DOT should abandon the call for new state tolling pilots and instead focus on real solutions that improve our surface infrastructure and citizens will support,” said Stephanie Kane, spokesperson for ATFI. “Instead, with Congressional backing, the FHWA is doubling down on a failed program and begging states to apply.”
“States that pursue tolling under the ISRRPP will continue to be met with widespread disapproval from both the business community and local residents,” said Tiffany Wlazlowski Neuman, Vice President of Public Affairs at NATSO. “The public continues to detest interstate tolls, and with good reason. Tolls double-tax motorists and harm the off-highway businesses that economically support the communities in which they operate. Furthermore, tolls divert motorists and truck drivers to non-interstates, leading to significant safety concerns.”
“Infrastructure needs to be paid for, but relying on expensive, inefficient, inequitable tolling plans is not the answer. The winners in tolling are the tolling companies and their Wall Street investors, and the losers are American motorists and the economy that gets weighed down by the enormous burden tolling brings with it,” said Kane. “It’s surprising that such a plan is being pushed by this Administration when President Trump campaigned as, and continues to claim to be, a fighter for the little guy and someone who will stand up to Wall Street.”
Tolling wastes 8 to 11 percent of revenues on administrative and operational costs and requires an expansion of government bureaucracies through the creation of quasi-public tolling authorities. Tolls take a huge bite out of commuter pay, and modern electronic tolling can discriminate against the tens-of-millions of Americans who are unbanked.
With the failings of tolls so apparent, any state pursuing an ISRRPP slot should prepare for immense public backlash.
In 1998, Congress established the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program, which authorized three toll pilot projects, one in each of three states, to toll an interstate highway, bridge toll or tunnel. Due to significant public and political opposition, attempts at tolling under the program have been unsuccessful. These failed attempts have cost states and the federal government millions of taxpayer dollars.
Since its creation, the Federal Interstate System has been financed under the philosophy that roads should be funded primarily through fuel taxes, not tolls (with the exception of interstate segments that pre-date the establishment of the Interstate System in 1956).
Tolling existing interstate lanes has never been successful, and the evidence demonstrates the negative effect of tolling on public safety, congestion, the environment and the economy.
However, with Congress debating long-term funding for transportation and states looking for additional dollars, the tolling industry is pressuring lawmakers to open existing federal interstate capacity to new tolls.
INEFFICIENCY
Waste of Taxpayer Money
Decades of data shows that toll infrastructure is inherently inefficient and takes many years to generate any net income.
According to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the administrative, collection and enforcement costs of a typical toll facility are 33.5% of the revenue generated. Compare this to the Board’s finding that the administrative cost of the fuel tax is about 1% of revenue.
In 2003, researchers in New Jersey calculated the annual cost of electronic toll collection on the Garden State Parkway to be $46.9 million—or about 92% of what it cost the federal government to collect federal gasoline taxes in all 50 states during that year.
According to the North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA), in 2012, over 7% of the total revenue generated by NTTA was never recovered due to evasion and other collection problems.
DIVERSION
Traffic Diversion
Electronic tolls can cause delays and make roadways less safe by disrupting traffic patterns around the toll facility.
Traffic diversion creates congestion on the local and secondary roads near toll facilities. This congestion delays response times for emergency personnel who rely on these secondary routes to quickly get to and from accidents and emergencies.
A recent study on the effects of tolls in North Carolina predicted that tolls would divert up to 36% of traffic to alternate routes, contributing to delays, traffic accidents, and wear and tear on smaller secondary roads that were not built to handle high traffic levels.
Local communities must deal with the consequences of traffic diversion created by tolls. Local roads deteriorate when they must accommodate traffic volumes that they were not built to handle. When these roads need to be fixed, it is the local communities and states that must pay. This diversion also hurts local businesses that depend on interstate drivers for their customers.
A 2013 Economic Assessment of I-95 in North Carolina estimated that between 2014 and 2050 diversion from tolls on I-95 would cost approximately $1.1 billion dollars in revenue to businesses within a mile of the I-95 corridor in North Carolina.
TOLLS ARE TAXES
Double Taxation
Taxes paid to build interstates and fuel taxes continue to pay to maintain them. New tolls would tax users twice.
Since the inception of the Federal Interstate Highway System, the federal gas tax has always been the primary source of revenue for the construction and maintenance of federal interstate lanes. Every time a motorist puts gas in his vehicle, he is paying his share for interstate maintenance.
A new toll on an existing interstate forces a motorist to pay two taxes for that same road: a gas tax and a toll tax.
Tolls on existing interstates are particularly unfair due to their disproportionate effect on low-income Americans and the elderly living on fixed incomes, who must pay a higher percentage of their income to be able to access the interstate. Within a city or a town there may be a number of alternate route choices, but there is no economically viable substitute for the Interstate Highway System in terms of connecting people and goods over long distances.
BAD FOR BUSINESS
Economic Impacts
Tolls increase the cost of delivering goods and services, putting local businesses at a competitive disadvantage and increasing the cost of living for residents.
A 2009 study on the impact of potential tolls on I-80 in Pennsylvania estimated that shippers, truckers, and consumers would suffer a combined annual deadweight loss of between $8 and $15 million dollars per year.
In Mercer Island, Washington, where officials are considering adding tolls to I-90, it is estimated that workers commuting to the island will pay an extra $1,300 each year just to get to and from work.
Beyond the direct effects of paying the toll, local communities must deal with the consequences of traffic diversion created by tolls. Local roads deteriorate when they must accommodate traffic volumes that they were not built to handle. When these roads need to be fixed, it is the local communities and states that must pay. This diversion also hurts local businesses that depend on interstate drivers for their customers.
A 2013 Economic Assessment of I-95 in North Carolina estimated that between 2014 and 2050 diversion from tolls on I-95 would cost approximately $1.1 billion dollars in revenue to businesses within a mile of the I-95 corridor in North Carolina.
Located in Flowood, Mississippi, Risk Management Partners is a $15 million-dollar agency anchored by multiple niche industry programs. In April 2011, the insurance agency connected with Perry Grant of Iroquois South and conducted a deep dive into how an Iroquois partnership could benefit the agency through enhancing revenue and agency value.
The principals of the agency, Paul Megginson, Guy Warren and Bob Ganz, did their due diligence and reached out to existing Iroquois members to vet the opportunity. What they found was that Perry Grant and Iroquois South were indeed delivering on their value proposition to members. It didn’t take long for the agency to move forward with Iroquois group, and today they are one of Iroquois South’s largest partnerships.
RMP has taken advantage of Iroquois’ Market Alliance program with 12 of their carrier relationships, and generated significant revenue gains in doing so. Perry still remembers profit sharing season in 2015 when he delivered his largest check ever to the agency. Per Perry, “It was wonderful to deliver a check that was more than 50% greater than the agency would have earned with the carrier
on their own. When our teams synch up like we have with RMP, the potential is really unlimited.”
Since joining Iroquois, the insurance agency has enhanced its revenue. Yet, the partnership with Iroquois extends beyond the financial components. According to Paul Megginson, “We don’t hesitate to call Perry and the Iroquois team to draw on their deep carrier relationships, resources and market knowledge. On more than one occasion, the Iroquois team advocated with carriers for our agency and we benefited with favorable resolutions to issues. The Iroquois team is always ready to help whenever they can and we gain the advantage of their strength in the market.”
WILL THE TRUMP INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN RELY ON TOLLS TO PAY FOR IT?
“The Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky carries twice as much traffic as it was built to handle — it’s 54 years old and functionally obsolete.
But an effort to replace the span on one of America’s busiest trucking routes has languished for years — even after governors from both states agreed on a $2.5 billion plan about five years ago. The reason: Kentucky won’t approve new interstate tolls needed to attract private money to the project.”
The Iroquois Group® started more than 39 years ago with five independent insurance agencies trying to bolster each other in a competitive marketplace. They succeeded. And then some.
Today, The Iroquois Group has more than 2,250 member agencies of all shapes and sizes. Despite their diversity, each joined Iroquois® – without giving up their independence – for assistance with Market Optimization and strategies to increase revenue, profits and agency value.
Over the years, our members have:
Gained access to national, regional and specialty insurance carriers, with lower volume expectations than through direct appointments;
Increased total compensation through enhanced commission and profit sharing arrangements;
Accessed resources to strengthen their agency in areas such as best practices, hiring and training, sales & marketing, technology, and risk management;
Benefitted from the strength and negotiating power of 2,250 other agencies;
Blogging and News 