Skip to main content

Oregon per-mile charging system launched

The first US pay-per-mile road charging program went into operation in Oregon last week. OReGO is currently limited to 5,000 vehicles statewide; participants will pay 1.5 cents per mile while driving in Oregon and receive a credit on their bill for state gas tax paid at the pump. ODOT is asking participants for feedback and suggestions for improving OReGO along the way. "The doors are now open for Oregonians to enrol their vehicles and test-drive OReGO statewide," said Vicki Berger, chair of Oregon's
July 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
The first US pay-per-mile road charging program went into operation in Oregon last week.

OReGO is currently limited to 5,000 vehicles statewide; participants will pay 1.5 cents per mile while driving in Oregon and receive a credit on their bill for state gas tax paid at the pump. ODOT is asking participants for feedback and suggestions for improving OReGO along the way.

"The doors are now open for Oregonians to enrol their vehicles and test-drive OReGO statewide," said Vicki Berger, chair of Oregon's Road User Fee Task Force, and a former member of the Oregon House of Representatives who helped pass legislation creating Oregon's new road usage charge program in 2013.

"Enrolling to test-drive OReGO is simple," said Tom Fuller, 5837 Oregon Department of Transportation communications manager.

Drivers can enrol online at myOReGO.org to choose their provider from a choice of three secure mileage reporting options offered by OReGO's trusted private-sector partners, 7977 Azuga, 480 Sanef/IMS and 1984 Verizon Telematics. Once approved, the driver is sent a small reporting device which is plugged into their car.

Drivers can opt for a non-GPS option offered by Sanef/IMS, which includes a basic mileage reporting device that only reports miles driven and fuel consumption, while Azuga and Verizon Telematics also offer GPS-enabled features that can help drivers save time and money.

"Oregon is leading the nation to develop a fairer, more sustainable way to fund road maintenance and improvements," said ODOT director Matthew Garrett.

Several states - including Washington, California, Idaho, Colorado and others - are considering similar pay-by-the-mile road usage charge systems. Oregon has already conducted two pilot projects to test road usage charging, which led the 2013 Legislature to create the OReGO program and launch it statewide with up to 5,000 volunteer vehicles starting on 1 July.

"Oregon and other states know that the gas tax drivers pay at the pump isn't cutting it anymore," said Garrett. "As newer cars squeeze more miles out of each gallon of gas, and more hybrid and all-electric vehicles are sold, paying for road use by the mile instead of by the gallon ensures that everyone pays their fair share - no more, no less," he said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Improving the positional accuracy of GNSS road user charging
    July 23, 2012
    The European GINA project is intended to address and overcome many of the institutional, technical and public acceptance hurdles currently faced by satellite-based road user charging schemes. Dave Tindall and Denis Naberezhnykh, TRL, and Laure Dezes, ERF, write. Pay-as-you-drive Road User Charging (RUC), whereby demand (or congestion) is managed by applying appropriate tariffs in order to encourage drivers to make their journeys at less busy times, on less congested routes or even on different modes, could
  • IntelliDrive and HOT lanes - the next generation?
    January 30, 2012
    Janet Banner, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Christopher Hill, Mixon Hill, Inc., outline efforts to explore the use of IntelliDrive technologies in HOT lane applications. On 21 October last year more than 100 transportation professionals came together for a workshop, either in person or via a webinar, to discuss the potential role of IntelliDriveSM technologies in enhancing the operations of High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. The discussions focused on a White Paper, commissioned by the Metropoli
  • Internet-connected cars their functionality and safety challenges
    February 27, 2013
    Internet-connected cars are poised to flood the market in the near future. Pete Goldin considers the functionality they offer, the technology they use and the challenge they represent in terms of driver safety. Many vehicles on the road today offer some sort of inter­net connectivity and experts agree that this capability will become a competi­tive differentiator in the automotive industry in the next few years. The era of the digital vehicle, it seems, has started. “We clearly see that cars in the near f
  • Mobile communications could revolutionise traffic management
    February 1, 2012
    Rudolf Mietzner looks at how machine-to-machine technologies and applications will affect the automotive sector in the coming years