Okay, everyone in fuel management who worries about diesel fuel prices and gas taxes increasing, please wait a second before getting upset. Before this article goes any further, politics doesn't sway my view on higher taxes, but common sense might.

What can you buy today for the same price you paid in 1993? If you answered Federal tax on diesel fuel prices and gas prices, you're 100% correct. Since 1993, the tax on diesel fuel prices was 24.4 cents and gas tax was 18.4 cents. If they were adjusted for inflation, they'd be 43 and 36 cents. Ask yourself this: if those taxes had been collected over the last 17 years, would our highway system be in better shape?

For a fuel management company that works hard to save fleets from 5 to 25 cents on a gallon of diesel fuel, why would want fuel cost to increase? To answer that, you just have to ask yourself this simple question: are our roads, highways, bridges and transportation infrastructure better today than it was in 1993? If you said no, you'd be right again. If there was a no "porked-up" tax on diesel fuel or gas, what do you think things look like today?

Time to Raise the Fuel Tax

Raise the federal fuel tax rates for diesel fuel and gas to the save level, taking inflation into account. Let's say 50 cents a gallon on both gas and diesel fuel. Yes, I know; that means gas prices, as a percentage, will go up more than diesel fuel. So let's do it gradually. An immediate increase of 5 cents, followed by an increase of 10 cents every six months until we get to the 50 cent federal tax per gallon for both gas and diesel fuel prices per gallon. Then, every year on the first of January, we raise the tax by the rate of inflation rounded to the nearest cent.

On the surface, this might not help fleet fueling for fleet companies or the general public, but let's explore what the positives might be:

• Improved infrastructure would mean less congestion, increased driver morale (due to the decrease in congestion), and improved production.
• Improved infrastructure would mean less wear-and-tear on vehicles and decreased damage to goods during transport.
• While it's impossible to put a $$ amount on lives SAVED, that's exactly what would result from an improved infrastructure - safer roads and bridges.
• More jobs. The resulting construction would mean a decrease in the national unemployment level due to an increase in need for construction workers, drivers, electricians, steelworkers, uniform companies, technology jobs, etc, etc, etc.

What would all this mean to the United States? Yes, gas prices would be higher, but the truth is, we haven't been paying what we should for more than a decade. More people working means less people drawing government assistance and more people spending money and paying taxes!

Totally New Tax Approach will be needed in the Future

As hybrid and electric vehicles become more popular, their diminished reliance on fuel means the existing tax system will have to be replaced with a more creative version that takes into account miles driven. The old expression, there's no such thing as a free lunch, hold true for our country's infrastructure; whoever uses the roads, need to be the ones that pay for their upkeep, whatever the system of taxation.

Again, let me be clear, I'm just stating my personal viewpoint that can't expect to pay what you paid 20 years ago and expect to get the same product. No politics, no left or right; nor do we want our clients to pay more for their fuel. What we DO want is economic growth and infrastructure we can build our future on.