RUC meeting minutes - September 2026

Technical Advisory Committee on Road Usage Charge meeting

Michigan Department of Transportation
Aeronautics Building
2700 Port Lansing Rd.
Lansing MI 48906

Monday, Sept. 28, 2026
1-2:30 p.m. EST

Meeting notes:

• MDOT Updates
  • External Presentations – Presented to Farm Bureau. Will be presenting in December to CRA.
  • Peer Exchange Participation
  • MDOT RUC podcast – August 27 Talking Michigan Transportation did a podcast on the RUC.
  • Media Coverage – 8% Positive, 20% Negative, 72% Neutral based on 84 news articles.
• CDM Smith Updates
  • Project Schedule – CDM gave an update on where we are at in the schedule. Pilot design, Campaign Planning, Materials design and development. Next up is the Pilot development and Testing along with a soft launch (test).
  • Communications – Logo design has been chosen, MiRUC (Michigan Road Usage Charge), dropping the term study and will use “pilot” moving forward, Michigan Road Usage Charge Pilot. Project website will be hosted on the Michigan.gov platform. CDM Smith will provide information and updates. Outreach Strategy and Plan will help define how it will be conducted, create shared understandable goals, principles, and provide a foundation of implementation of the outreach campaign.
  • Planning Document – Concept of Operations document will define how the system works, create a shared understanding and provide a foundation for detailed requirements and validation. This document was reviewed by MDOT and the TAC and was finalized in early September. It has been shared with the pilot vendor, GeoToll.
    • Data Management Plan document will define how the data will be collected, managed, protected, and disposed of. This was reviewed by MDOT, the State of Michigan Chief Privacy Officer and the MDOT Enterprise Information Management Team. All their comments have been addressed and document was finalized last week.
    • Evaluation Plan will define how the pilot success will be measured across participant experience, acceptance and data accuracy, security & privacy and operational scalability. This is currently under TAC review and will be finalized early October.
    • Legislative Engagement Plan will establish a coordinated approach for when, how and with whom to engage policymakers. This will build understanding and support to inform decision making of RUC in Michigan. This will be finalized in early December.
    • Pilot Design – Per-Mile Rate Setting Approach, revenue neutral and a single rate for all pilot participants. They will take the 2027 Michigan gas tax rate and divide by 23 mpg (average fuel economy) to equate to the pilot per mile rate. 2027 gas tax rate should be available in November.
      • MiSAP process - Data classification is completed, up next is the document system information which is in progress.
    • Next Steps – Focus groups will move forward, key audience interviews, website development and outreach materials.
  • Public Comment
    • Electric Vehicle association – very supportive of this study and EV owners are willing to pay their fair share for transportation.