Transportation taxes in the GRT?

Well Rich was nice enough to provide the link to the GRT so I started taking a look and I found this interesting bit at page 12 (of the pdf starting at line 4)

(8) Gross receipts from the sale of transportation
services by a common or contract carrier, in proportion to
the mileage traveled by the carrier during the taxable year
on roadways, waterways, airways, and railways in this State
to the mileage traveled by the carrier during the taxable
year on roadways, waterways, airways, and railways
everywhere;

As I read it, and remember OneMan is neither an attorney nor an accountant so I may be wrong. It sounds like that any shipping that moves in this state even if it does not start here or end here is going to be subject to the gross receipts tax for a portion of the fee paid to ship something in relationship to how much of the journey crosses Illinois.

Using just using a 'trucking' definition this in some ways is going to be an accounting nightmare, let's say I ship something from Davenport, IA to Gary IN is the 'mileage traveled' based as the crow flies or actual road miles within Illinois?

What if I am shipping between two points outside Illinois but the item goes into a hub within Illinois? Is the shipper then liable for tax for the mileage within the state? Does 'common or contract carrier' include outfits like FedEx? If so than this is going to get really interesting because of the hub system they and other use.

It also looks like we are now going to be taxing the shipment of grain via barge.

Finally if 'common or contract carrier' includes airlines and bus companies, this gets even more interesting.

I may be completely reading this section wrong, if so let me know.

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