Rhode Island has a major problem. Their bridges and roads are amongst the most in need of maintenance and repair in the entire nation. To try and fix this issue however, they may end up with an even bigger problem. Rhode Island has announced a new Truck Only toll for almost two dozen of its busiest bridges that will cost commercial drivers around $100 million a year.
Governor Gina Raimondo announced the truck only toll as part of the state’s RhodeWorks plan. RhodeWorks is a ten-year plan that hopes to fund the repair of the state’s rapidly deteriorating infrastructure. In addition to improvements and maintenance to roads and bridges however, the RhodeWorks plan will also set aside money for “providing increased bus and rail service as well as funding for bike lanes and accessible sidewalks.”
Backlash against the plan was swift and fierce from both local and national trucking groups and the state has had to backpedal to try to keep the plan moving forward. Instead of placing a toll on all commercial trucks, it now plans to remove the toll from class 6 and 7 trucks and only toll class 8-13. Unfortunately, this means that big rig drivers will still be subject to the tolls. The RIDOT has further amended the rule to make it so that vehicles can only be tolled once per day, per bridge, per direction. That’s good for drivers who go back and forth over the same bridge multiple times a day, but not at all helpful for anyone else.
While there has been no official final cost published for each toll, it is estimated that trucks would have to pay around $6 per toll in order for the plan to generate $100 million for the state every year.
“This plan to toll only trucks is quite literally highway robbery – stealing from our industry to paper over Rhode Island’s budget issues,” Said ATA President and CEO Bill Graves.
According to Governor Raimondo however, there’s a good reason trucks – and large trucks especially – are being soloed out for new tolls.
“The fact of the matter is, those are the trucks that cause 90 plus percent of the damage to our highways and bridges,” Raimondo said according to The Day. “They also benefit the most from well-maintained bridges and roads.”
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Source: fleetowner, overdrive, gobytrucknews, truckinginfo, overdrive, overdrive, providencejournal, theday
My thoughts exactly Zoran Spacic!! If we don’t go to Rhode Island then how they gonna eat and put on clothes,clean their butts,wash clothes with out the stuff trucks bring?How about making it fair and charge everybody like everywhere else if you have to have a toll at all?? I don’t run the East Coast ,Thank God!! I make enough money I don’t have too so if the rest of the drivers stop going to Rhode Island then they will hopefully figure it out! Texas is just as bad with tolls. They are putting in a brand new Grand Parkway!! We were supposed to be done with tolls after we paid for them and now we did,they give us more? Really!!!
This is so stupid. Yes,the roads in RI are in need of repair and yes trucks did have a major part in destroying them but if they were repaired when they first broke then they wouldn’t be in such despair. The street in front of my house has had a pothole issue since Feb.and the town says its a state problem but the state says its a local problem . I bought a few bags of cold patch and filled the hole but its opened again. I live on a street that has a truck restriction on it so if trucks didn’t make the hole then them autos did .I drive all the highways of RI and they are fine to me anyway but if you go to the neighboring states the roads aren’t much different. Its the secondary roads,now we’re talking about repair. If all truckers are like me I try to avoid all potholes . Not only to avoid damage to the roads but to avoid damage to my truck . If this passes then trucks will be paying for non truck routes to be repaired and the truck routes will be neglected. I SAY leave it as is and fix them as needed . Repair them properly and don’t procrastinate as to whose responsibility it is. And yes ,I live in RI.
a week or so without deliveries to that cesspool will change their minds..
If you think this money is going into the politican’s pockets,and NOT the road repair,you’ll have gotten it right ! The government has been using the laws they pass..to steal from the rest of us for years.
Been running as OO for past 6 years and been to RI once. Doesn’t really affect the OTR drivers that much just the locals. I worry more about the message this sends to the neighbouring states.
They need to go back to the old way, the highway trust fund. Now they are doing to the road funds what they did to Social Security…… one big rape. This moron blames the damage to the roads on trucks and thinks truck should have to pay for it. Well trucks have been paying for it for many years in the form of road use taxes, which is considerably more than what the four wheelers are paying. We have the same issue where I live, their crying for more road funding taxes and what do they do, they build a frigging bike path that very few people use. If they were to pay for that bike trail by taxing the ones that use it it would be well over $4000. But then again I happen to live in the far left wing socialist Mecca so that’s to be expected.
Great! This is awesome! Now, after the obvious hike in cost of EVERYTHING in RI, maybe they’ll get a clue that dumping the costs on Truckers isn’t such a great idea! We’re just going to pass the cost back on to the delivery, anyway.
What’s more important? Biker paths or roads? These politicians take money meant to build and repair roads and bridges and use it to build bike paths and hiking trails. Scrap that junk and build the infrastructure.
The law is unconstitutional; everyone using the bridges (or whatever the State of Rhode Island decides to put a toll on) contributes to the wear and tear on said structures and is responsible for their fair share of the burden. As for those of you who decided to go there; there is no part of New England that makes me gag like I do when I’m going through parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, the Carolinas, …
So bill the shipper or cosignee because they’re the one sending your big road destroyers out your way.
I don’t go past PA and Jersey. I tore those map pages out of my map book years ago that show NY and above. Its just too expensive and too truck unfriendly for me to travel up in those states. If they want goods delivered to them they’ll have to get another fool to take it up there. I’m a very happy camper driving big circles in the midwest while skillfully avoiding Chicago most of the time.
What happen to all the tax money on gasoline and diesel. I thought that was supposed to be for road work?
Answer,….stay away from ri, let them come to ct,ma or ny for their freight….its called a boycott…maybe your not old enouph to remember this but it has worked in the past…send a messg to the governor, no way!!!!!!
Well as with any Goverment, all the taxes collected never go to the right place. Tax,tax& more tax in my opinion all truck traffic that can should avoid Rhode Island. I doubt that will happen but maybe it would help send a message.
let them locals go out of state to get all their household and personal needs.And let the companies in that state ship their freight on trains and see how that works.I’m sick of us truckers getting hit with all these fees.There will be no rhode island freight on this owner operators truck.
The governor is aa politically genius. He needs money for neglected bridge repair. OK, what governor doesn’t have budget issues. He probably doesn’t have the political clout to raise the sales tax, or income tax. The RI voters would hate that… so he finds another sacrificial lamb to stick with the tax. The AmericaTrucker. Why not, they’re the ones destroying our bridges and roads, right? Sure they are, and that will win at the ballot box.
Of course the RI citizens will indeed pay for their own bridges. Drivers will pass the toll to the “company” who will raise the rates, the shippers will raise the cost of goods that the RI sheeple will buy. The governor needs funds and found a way to get them from his constituents without their knowledge.
If the shipper won’t pay the tolls, the load gets dropped in front of the bridge… or it doesn’t get hauled. Loads could be dropped before getting to the bridges and local trucking companies who have paid the one time/day toll can finish the job.
Like all States if they did not missapropriate their fuel taxes which were intended for road repairs they would not have this problem. Members of Government both Federal and State have a bad habit of just dipping into tax payer revenues for their own financial backings agencies agendas. What would happen if the trucking agencies just decided to no longer deliver goods to this state.
when will these issue become personal to us?
I don’t think I even know where that is????? Is it near Houston?
fuel tax,road tax and even gas tax for cars were supposed to take care of this for ALL states.and if th trucks are destroying the road then maybe they should build better roads to withstand the pressure!AND,1 thing they seem to misunderstand,the highway system was NOT designed for cars but rather for the transporting of goods!States want more money?Try taxing the cars a little more for driving on OUR(the truckers) freaking highway!!!!