[The Truth Will Make You Free]

One thing not mentioned is that trucks cause most of the wear and tear on roads. Cars cause almost no wear at all. Without trucks, the only real damage to roads would be caused by weather and natural disasters.

A quick search of "trucks vs cars road wear" found that an 80,000 18-wheeler causes 9,600 times the damage as a 4,000 pound car! Source

The article states the damage is exponential. The weight doubles 4.322 times from 4,000 to 80,000. (See MATH NOTE below.) The increased damage from one doubling is 8.345 times. So even an 8-ton (16,000 pound) truck would cause about 70 times the damage as a 4,000 pound car (8.345 x 8.345)!

If fuel taxes were actually based on road wear caused, trucks should pay almost all the tax. As usual, anything politicians and government do is messed up.

MATH NOTE: The doubling factor would at first appear to be 4.25 since 4,000 --2x--> 8,000 --2x--> 16,000 --2x--> 32,000 --2x--> 64,000 --1.25x--> 80,000. However, since the change is exponential 2^4.322=20, which is the ratio needed for 80,000/4,000.

[Hulka]

“If fuel taxes were actually based on road wear caused, trucks should pay almost all the tax.”

And that cost will be passed along to the consumer, as most trucks are transporting goods for consumers.

[Fai Mao]

“If fuel taxes were actually based on road wear caused, trucks should pay almost all the tax. As usual, anything politicians and government do is messed up.”

I have no doubt you are right about this.