Travel Costs Increase for Commercial Motor Vehicles in Rhode Island

(January 2025) - In a case that could have national ramifications, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed a district court ruling and opened the door to Rhode Island reimplementing a controversial tolling system that levies fees against tractor-trailers and larger trucks.

On December 6, 2024, the First Circuit overturned a lower court decision and reinstated Rhode Island’s statute aimed at tolling tractor-trailers. More specifically, in 2016, Rhode Island passed the Rhode Island Bridge Replacement, Reconstruction, and Maintenance Fund Act (“RhodeWorks”). Under RhodeWorks, tractor-trailers and larger trucks would have to pay a toll when they crossed any one of the thirteen bridges within Rhode Island and single-unit trucks would be exempt from paying the toll. It also established three statutory caps.  Under this regime, a truck cannot pay a toll more than once in each direction, cannot pay more than $40 per day, and cannot pay more than $20 for making a single trip from Connecticut to Massachusetts.

In 2018, American Trucking Associations, Inc. and several other trucking companies ( “ATA”) filed suit alleging that RhodeWorks violates the dormant commerce clause because it discriminates against interstate commerce and violates the “fair approximation test” by only tolling tractor trailers while other vehicles use Rhode Island bridges as well. The lower U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island ruled in favor of the ATA and decided that RhodeWorks discriminated against interstate commerce and that the statute violated the “fair approximation” test by only imposing the tolls onto tractor-trailers while other vehicles, which also impacted and damaged the roadways, were permitted to use the bridges toll-free.

However, in an opinion authored by Circuit Judge William Kayatta, Jr., the First Circuit overturned the lower court. Specifically, Judge Kayatta, Jr. analyzed two critical inquires. First, whether the RhodeWorks exemption for single-unit trucks discriminates against interstate commerce and, second, whether the tolling caps discriminate against interstate commerce. In his opinion, Judge Kayatta, Jr. ruled that the ATA failed to show a “substantial” disadvantage on interstate commerce and that states are permitted to collect fees from the bridges’ “most intensive users” without having to also collect a toll from the lesser users.

Of note, the First Circuit did eliminate the statutory caps as discrimination against interstate commerce, as they create a “privilege that is several times more valuable to a local business than to its out-of-state competitors.” As such, Rhode Island is now permitted to resume its tolling plan, as long as it removes its caps.

Trucking Associations around the nation may have to prepare for similar tolling systems that aim to exclusively charge fees to larger trucks and tractor trailers for usage of state infrastructure.

Author:

Richard Griffith, Associate