Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is on the right track when he says he’s considering imposing tolls for big trucks moving on state roads in order to help fund his ambitious 30-year, $100 billion transportation plan.

Malloy is taking his cue from Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, who is in the midst of implementing truck tolls to help that state rebuild its battered highways and bridges, over the objections of the national trucking lobby.

The Federal Highway Administration is currently considering Rhode Island’s plan, while the trucking lobby seeks to block the program in the federal bureaucracy or in court.

Large trucks do serious damage to roads and bridges, with some analysts saying they are responsible for as much as 99 percent of the wear and tear, even though they represent less than 10 percent of total traffic volume.

All states are finding themselves short of cash to fund their highway programs since the major revenue source, the federal Highway Trust Fund, has been suffering as the fuel efficiency of cars and trucks has been rising. Trust fund revenue is generated mostly by fuel taxes; as mileage gains have accrued, Congress has refused to raise the per-gallon fuel levies since 1997, which stand at 18.4 cents for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel even as inflation has devalued the cash going to the fund.

If Connecticut proceeds to toll trucks, it is likely that the trucking industry will try and stir up anguish among state motorists by warning that if tolls are levied on their rigs, car tolls are surely just around the corner. But the reality is that trucking hasn’t been paying its fair share for decades. One Washington think tank 10 years ago said that if trucking were to cover all of its direct expenses, including congestion, pollution and highway damage, the per-gallon federal diesel tax would have to be 69 cents (compared with today’s 24.4 cents) and trucks would also have to pay between 7 and 20 cents for every mile traveled.

When the national highway system emerged after World War II, no one envisioned the traffic volumes of today or that most commerce would move by large trucks over roads designed primarily to move people in cars between home and work.

While trucks are vital to our consumer-driven economy, that shouldn’t exempt them from helping pay to maintain the very infrastructure that allows that industry to dominate the freight delivery business. Trucks carried some $11 trillion worth of freight during 2012, compared with $550 billion worth by railroads, its primary competitor.

Consumers will end up paying for those tolls through increases in the cost of the products they buy. But the highway damage will occur in any event, and allowing truckers to pulverize state roads without paying tolls unfairly shifts the total burden to state taxpayers. Just as in Rhode Island, the majority of the trucks that travel Connecticut’s roads are simply passing through on the way to somewhere else, but leave behind huge repair bills for state taxpayers.

Opponents of tolling plans warn that truckers will switch to alternative, free roads to get around tolling stations, but that ignores that speed has become a primary requirement in today’s gotta-have-it-now distribution system. Perhaps a few truckers will take the time to get around tolling stations, but most will simply grumble and pay.

Connecticut officials also should not be swayed by what has become the trucking industry’s standard counteroffensive, beginning with a call for higher fuel taxes. The fact is, most freight contracts allow motor carriers to pass fuel costs directly to their customers, so raising the diesel tax wouldn’t really cost truckers anything, but would simply represent another indirect cost added to the price of goods. Far more equitable is to charge a toll, which is a use tax; that is, a fee levied on companies only when they use the road.

Tolling trucks is a fair and reasonable way to get the vehicles that cause most of the wear and tear on Connecticut’s roads to pay to maintain them.

Howard Abramson is a freelance writer and former reporter for several Connecticut newspapers. He was a senior executive at American Trucking Associations for 15 years. He splits his time between Rhode Island and New Hampshire.