Trucking industry vet calls Illinois toll hike needless punishment
Illinois toll rates are about to increase as a political favor to construction unions. That’s despite a $3 billion surplus in the road fund.
Since Zach Meiborg started running a family-owned trucking company out of Rockford, he’s seen Illinois fees and regulations increase dramatically.
“For the last three years, asset-based trucking has been operating at a loss,” Meiborg said. “We spend $150,000 a year on tolls. That additional transportation cost puts Illinois manufacturing at a competitive disadvantage, which you’d think would matter to a state that has lost so many good manufacturing jobs.”
The first year toll revenue from commercial traffic in Illinois was higher than that of passenger vehicles was 2020. It has stayed that way: not because passenger vehicles are getting a break, but because of commercial toll hikes.
Now, both trucks and cars could see an increase. If the Illinois Tollway Board does what state law will soon allow them to do, commercial rates will rise by 30% on Jan. 1, 2027. They will increase automatically with inflation every year after that.
That kind of automatic hike was applied to the state’s gas tax, bumping it from 19 cents a gallon to nearly 50 cents and costing drivers an extra $143 a year, thanks to Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The gas tax hike led to a $3.3 billion road fund surplus – more money than the state has been able to spend, but providing funds that let them bail out Chicago area mass transit.
The tollway hike is intended to add another $1 billion with no solid plan for spending it. Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch admitted the money was to appease labor unions so state lawmakers could take that $1 billion from the road fund surplus for the bailout, and the trade unions would still see the same money spent on construction.
The toll hike is expected to cost passenger vehicles an extra $329 a year. Commercial trucks will pay an additional $1,264.
Meiborg said the industry can’t handle the tolls at current pricing.
“The trouble is we are in an almost perfectly competitive market, with zero margin for the last three years. If we raise our prices by a nickel per mile, our customers are going to another provider,” he said.
“It takes take time for the market to adjust to the higher costs imposed by the state. Companies that are already struggling will not be able to eat the lag effect. They will simply go out of business.”
Meiborg is doubtful the money raised by tolls would be used in ways that help the industry.
“I have zero confidence that these funds will be appropriated to the roads. It’s unlikely the state is going to add more or better parking, and the state has repeatedly shown they aren’t interested in enforcing compliance,” he said.
Although the toll hikes were already passed by the state legislature, the Tollway Board has the final vote. Given the lack of demonstrable need, Meiborg said most of the industry believe the board should reject the toll hike. It would be unprecedented, but not impossible.
“The tolls are nothing but modern highway robbery. They’ve pillaged and plundered all the value out of the state, and the people with the means to have left,” Meiborg said.
Meiborg hopes they will refrain from collecting money for which they have no solid plans. Stopping the toll hike would provide relief for both truckers and consumers.
“The reality is Illinois is a good place to live,” he said. “We just have a horribly inefficient government.”
You can reach the Illinois Tollway Board to comment on the toll hike through this form. All the board members are directly appointed by Pritzker, who also has a place on the board.