Assessment of IRP Truck Licensing for Ohio Counties

Local government officials in Ohio perceive a disconnect between the percentage of IRP revenue allocated to their governments and agencies from registration fees and the amount of pavement damage caused by commercial vehicles on local roads. The problem is twofold. Not only are local revenue allocations from IRP insufficient, but local roads are especially susceptible to accelerated deterioration due to their pavement design, which is different from that of high-traffic state and federal roads. Officials in Mahoning County identified one potentially critical cause of insufficient revenues, particularly in areas with large amounts of commercial trucking activity. The officials identified a large fleet (700+ trucks) that declared another state as its IRP base jurisdiction in spite of basing its operation in Mahoning County, Ohio. Because of the way Ohio’s IRP allocation formulas are designed, the county now receives far smaller share of revenue from the company’s IRP fees because out-of-state fees are apportioned differently than for vehicles registered with Ohio as the base jurisdiction. Having made this realization, these officials had a dialogue with the company, and after arranging for restructured payments and licensing for the fleet, the trucks were once again registered in Ohio. As a result, Mahoning County collected an additional $450,000 in revenue. ODPS and Ohio IRP officials have concluded this is probably not an uncommon occurrence, and as a result local governments are missing out on crucial revenue needed to maintain local roads. However, research is needed to determine the overall magnitude of the problem – which is trucking companies operating in Ohio but licensing their plates in another state. The research will provide recommendations for changes to Ohio IRP allocation policy in order to ensure counties receive adequate road maintenance revenue in instances where trucking companies are no longer registering in Ohio yet domiciling their commercial vehicles at terminals in Ohio taxing districts.