An organization representing most big and small trucking companies across Pennsylvania prefers an across-the-board increase in diesel fuel and gas taxes instead of more tolls.

"This way, everybody pays," said Jim Runk, long-time president of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, with 2,200 members. "We believe it's the fairest way to raise more money for roads and bridges."

His remarks came at yesterday's meeting of the PMTA's Southwest Chapter, held in the Strip District corporate offices of Pitt Ohio Express, one of its biggest members with a fleet of 1,200 trucks.

Mr. Runk suggested raising the gas tax enough to generate an additional $800 million a year for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

That would be equivalent to about another 12.5 cents a gallon on diesel fuel and gas on top of the state's current 31.2 cents tax. And that's exactly what a special Transportation Funding and Reform Commission recommended in November 2006 to address the state's deteriorating roads and bridges.

Instead, the General Assembly passed a controversial Act 44 last summer, and Gov. Ed Rendell signed on, to raise Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls by 25 percent starting next year and about 3 percent a year thereafter and to convert Interstate 80 to a toll road.

Mr. Runk said the Legislature acted too quickly, that Act 44 could backfire if the Federal Highway Administration rejects tolling I-80 and that borrowing money that must be repaid later is bad business.

"Raising the liquid fuels tax doesn't require establishing a new state commission of building toll gantries," he said. "It will provide a steady stream of income and there will be no interest to pay on $15 billion in loans that none of us will see paid back in our lifetime."

His recommendation comes despite the fact that truckers and truck companies are already paying more for diesel than car owners are paying for gasoline, about $4 a gallon compared to about $3.15 to $3.20 a gallon for unleaded regular gas.

And when truckers pull up to a pump, they shell out about $800 to fill a pair of 100-gallon tanks on the average 18-wheeler, which gets about five to six miles per gallon.

Trucking is Pennsylvania's fourth-largest industry, with about 420,000 people employed in trucking-related occupations. Statistics show the industry paid 39 percent of all federal and state user fees while accounting for 12 percent of all vehicle miles.

Mr. Runk said some car owners have options, like car-pooling, taking transit, driving less or buying smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Truckers don't have such options, other than fuel surcharges that companies use to leverage better deals. At the same time, fuel surcharges have meant chaos for some owner-operators and cut profit margins razor thin and even forced truckers to park their rigs.

High tolls, and tolling I-80, could adversely impact the trucking industry and force many companies to converge on the few alternative toll-free, east-west routes such as 22, 322 and 422.

"I guarantee you that'll happen," said John Perfetti, owner of Perfetti Trucking Co. in Blairsville. "You'll have garbage haulers coming from New Jersey who'll be traveling close to people's backyards."