Letters: Rhode Island Tolls, Driver Shortage
These letters appears in the Sept. 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
Rhode Island Tolling Is a Losing Situation
I don’t normally get irked enough to write anything, but this Rhode Island toll business should upset everybody.
OK, other states have tolls, not 14 tolls on such a small piece of real estate and not for trucks only. The people who think this is fair have a microscopic idea of how the world works in regards to trucks.
Heavy trucks are already taxed to death. We pay upwards of $2,000 just to register our trucks, then there’s the Unified Carrier Registration, heavy-duty road tax ($562), excise taxes, diesel tax (varies state by state) and quarterly highway use tax, not the mention the exorbitant cost of the initial commercial driver license with all its endorsements and your $150.00 or so for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC card, in case your job requires you to get into Rhode Islands ports!
Now tell me where is the fairness in all of those dollar signs?
This is an industry that is required for people to live, eat, have shelter and just enjoy life: It all comes by truck, everything. Whats going to happen when the trucks don’t want to come to Rhode Island? You can’t make them, all you can do is offer more money as incentive, right?
Now, where is that money coming from? Do you really think Wal-Mart is going to shoulder that burden? Umm … No, I don’t think so. Thats going directly to the consumer, you.
Domino principal, the state is going to get money from trucks but you, my friends, are going to be the ones who pay. Ask California. The tolls shouldn’t happen but if the Rhode Island governess, in her infinite wisdom, thinks this is a wise move then it has to be a toll across the board, for everybody.
Granted trucks are going to be taxed a little higher, but lets keep it reasonable. The George Washington Bridge is around $90 for a 5-axle truck to get into New York City, and cigarettes are $16. (or higher) a pack, that is directly correlated.
If you’re going to let the governess make your bed make sure its one you can lie in.
Drivers will fight the tolls by either: stopping delivering altogether to Rhode Island; raising the delivery rates across the board to make up for the tolls in Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Delaware and soon Rhode Island, which will be passed to the end consumer on every product that is delivered; or bypassing the tolls entirely by congesting city streets in the vicinity of the toll booths.
That means a longer commute for you to work, to Wal-Mart, to Stop and Shop, etc.
This is a game that can have no winners, only losers to varying degrees — except the state, which isn’t going to be losing. State officials will never know the difference. It won’t affect the people who create the problem nor will they solve the problem.
Dave Keiser
Operation Manager
Kiwi Logistics Inc.
Looking for an Answer to Driver Shortage
Most companies in trucking are small, which, of course, is not news.
Smaller companies are not at lib- erty to hire drivers without experience, even if they’ve completed school. It strikes me there should be some innovative ways to reach out to prospective hires beyond the traditional recruiters, Craigslist and newspaper ads, which have decreasing effectiveness.
I thought that might be a good research article and not just restating the obvious, such as, “Driver shortages continue.”
By the way, I don’t have the answer, either.
Tom Doty
Owner
Glory Transportation Inc.
