As noted here a couple of months ago, the Antiplanner volunteered to take part in Oregon’s mileage-based user fee experiment. I promised an update on the program, but so far all I can say is that it seems somewhat disorganized.
Since the state was only accepting 5,000 volunteers, I signed up almost as soon as the web site began accepting applicants on July 1. It turns out I needn’t have rushed: after more than a month, only 700 people had volunteered.
A few days after signing up, I received two devices similar to the one shown above. These were designed to plug into the on-board diagnostic (OBD) 2 port of a car. These ports have been mandated by the federal government since 1996 and are primarily designed to aid local air quality testing, but can also be used to test engine performance in other ways. Effectively, Oregon’s supplier Azuga was piggy-backing on the power provided by this port to plug its GPS devices into the car.
I soon learned that 1994 vehicles didn’t have an OBD-2 port and so one of my cars wasn’t eligible for the program. Other people who signed up older vehicles received that puzzling message that their vehicle-identification number wasn’t in the state database; what the message should have said was that the VIN was for a car that was too old to work with Azuga’s device.
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My other car was newer than 1996 so it worked fine. Azuga asked me to return the other device, which I did, which hasn’t stopped them from sending me daily messages reminding me to install it in my car.
Azuga asked me to deposit some money to cover the initial miles driven. I paid $20, which at 1.5 cents per mile should be enough for 1,333 miles. Although I’ve driven more than that number since then, they’ve never asked me for more money. Nor has anyone told me how I am to get a credit for the gas taxes I pay when I fill up my gas tank.
After about a month, I received an email saying I had 8 null days and if I reached 10 null days they would start charging me. I quickly figured out that a “null day” was a day without any driving, and since I work at home, there are a lot of days like that.
I called them to find out if this meant they were going to charge me for not driving. They said I would only have a null day if I removed the device or if I stored my car outside of cell phone range. Since we don’t get cell service here, I assured them that was the problem, and they agreed not to charge me for not driving.
So that’s it so far. I’m still paying gas taxes; I paid $20 but haven’t been billed for more; and even though only 700 people signed up, the state and/or Azuga don’t seem to have things well organized. I hope to provide a more upbeat report soon.
This, from the Azuga Company History page, might explain the incompetence you’ve experienced:
“The Azuga team is comprised of industry veterans assembled from General Motors…”
It appears that once again a heralded new government program is fraught with incompetence and unforeseen problems. A private sector company start up run like this would quickly fail and go out of business, but government can and will simply throw more tax money at it as they say it’s entirely the contractors fault and it was just a learning experiment anyway. They surely believe that their incompetent oversight is not a factor at all. Of course that’s all if any of these problems, and surely there are way more, are reported by the left wing media at all.
OBD-II wasn’t mandated until 1996, although my 1994 Camry was OBD2 compliant. I just ordered State Farm’s Big Brother OBD2 cellular monitor, which they claim will automatically guarantee my less-than 7500 mile discount. It also brings up many invasive aspects such as GPS/speed monitoring i.e., will they refuse to pay a claim if I get into an accident when the monitor shows that I was traveling 37mph in a 35 zone at the point of contact? And will the car accident attorneys that advertise on daytime TV have legal access to said data?
Inquiring minds want to know. I can’t wait for autonomous cars.
Oregon is again sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong. I drive a lot, and probably pay more because I am unwilling to let Big Brother tag along in my car. That is worth it as far as I’m concerned. The state of Oregon is known to act punitively when it insists upon managing our behavior, when they can’t effectively even manage themselves.
The Antiplanner wrote:
After about a month, I received an email saying I had 8 null days and if I reached 10 null days they would start charging me. I quickly figured out that a “null day” was a day without any driving, and since I work at home, there are a lot of days like that.
You should report them to Portland Metro for “inducing” demand for highway capacity!
I called them to find out if this meant they were going to charge me for not driving. They said I would only have a null day if I removed the device or if I stored my car outside of cell phone range. Since we don’t get cell service here, I assured them that was the problem, and they agreed not to charge me for not driving.
That is a major technical flaw. There are significant areas of my (mostly suburban and urban and relatively small) state of Maryland with little or no cell coverage. West of the Blue Ridge, (only three counties, but they have Interstate highways that run east-west linking them to southern Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia and the rest of Maryland) the cell service that’s there is provided by a company other than my “normal” carrier, and incurring data use charges there gets expensive – quickly, unless a driver has an account with that other carrier.