Ok, everyone who worries about diesel fuel prices and gas pricing increases in taxes coming from a person in fuel management, please wait a second before being upset. Before this article goes any further, politics don’t sway my view on higher taxes, which will increase diesel fuel prices and gas prices but common sense might.
What can you buy today for the same price as you did in 1993? If you answered Federal tax on diesel fuel prices and gas prices you are 100% correct. Since the tax on diesel fuel prices was 24.4 cents in 1993 and gas tax was18.4 cents if they were adjusted for inflation they should be 43 cents on diesel fuel prices and 36 on gas prices. If those taxes had been collecting over the last 17 years, would are highway system be better. It didn’t happen so let’s look ahead.
For a fuel management company that works hard to save fleet companies 5- 25 cents on diesel fuel prices, how could we even think of wanting fueling cost to go higher? As our clients are fleet companies are the roads, highways and bridge infrastructure system better today than in 1993? Were they good in 1993?
The thought is everyone can talked about better fleet management for their fuel management system and saving money on fuel cards, diesel fuel prices, mobile fueling and diesel fuel additives. If there was a no porked up tax on diesel fuel prices or gas taxes, what would things look like? Raise the federal fuel tax rates for diesel fuel and gas to the save level. Let’s say to 50 cents a gallon on both gas prices and diesel fuel prices. Yes, that means gas prices are going to go up more than diesel fuel prices. Let’s do a nickel increase now on fueling. Let’s raise it another 10 cents in six months. And within the next 24 months we get to the 50 cent federal tax per gallon for both gas and diesel fuel prices per gallon. Then every year on January 1st we raise the tax by the rate of inflation rounded to the nearest cent. This would help simply our fuel tax system on diesel fuel prices and gas prices.
On the surface this might not help fleet fueling for fleet companies or the general public but let’s look at the positives:
- Better infrastructure means less traffic congestion, less fleet companies driver delays, improved production
- Improved roads mean less damage to vehicles, tires, suspension and damage to goods being shipped
- Safer better roads and bridges are difficult to put a price tag on that
- More jobs. It doesn’t take an economic genius to realize more construction means more construction jobs, driver jobs, electrician, steelworkers, uniform companies, technology jobs, etc.
What does this stuff mean to the United States? It is a tax that effects everyone who drives or has fuel management, fleet companies and fuel companies.
- More people working, means more people spending money on everything!
- People, who have been unemployed because they can’t find work and therefore needed unemployment money to survive, come off unemployment and start paying taxes. They need to use their fuel cards and buy fleet fueling.
Yes, gas prices are higher, diesel fuel prices are higher but they should have been. We have all not really been paying our fair share on these fueling taxes. As hybrid & electric vehicles become more popular some creative way is going to need to be developed to tax those vehicles. Yes, those vehicles use less or no fuel but they still put wear and tear on the infrastructure, right? The old expression, no free lunch, you use the road, you need to pay something, even if it’s a reduced fee from diesel fuel prices or I should save fleet fueling tax.
Again, let’s be clear, this fuel management, fuel consulting person is just stating a view. No politics, no left or right nor do we want our clients to pay higher diesel fuel prices on their fuel cards, mobile fueling or fleet cards. We want economic growth, good roads, bridges and infrastructure we can build off of for the future. Just an open view that you can’t expect what you received almost 20 years ago for the same cost today.
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