Job Lot Delays $50m Expansion over Truck Toll Concerns

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI—Ocean State Job Lot announced that it is putting its expansion plans on hold in response to the increasing likelihood that state lawmakers will pass bills to toll large trucks on state highways.

In a statement issued Saturday morning, the company’s executive director, David Sarlitto, said that a plan to build a new 500,000 square foot distribution center is on hold and “pending review and discussion with the state regarding business practices.”

Job Lot, which owns a fleet of tractor trailers to shuttle tons of product between its discount stores across New England, is one of several companies in Rhode Island that operates a fleet of tractor trailers and has complained loudly about the proposed truck toll plan, which is due for votes in the House and Senate next week.

The company CEO, Marc Perlman, told members of the House Finance Committee on Friday that Job Lot would end up facing $1 million in toll costs if the RhodeWorks legislation is approved. He told lawmakers that the company’s fleet of trucks does 16,000 truck trips in and out of its distribution center in Quonset and third parties deliver 7,000 trucks in and out.

The RhodeWorks legislation, in its current form, would cap the tolls at $20 in one direction with a $40 daily limit.

In comparison, Perlman said, the cost of all toll fees for the company throughout Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and New Jersey totaled just $160,000.

“The Rhode Island toll structure is simply out of proportion with our neighboring states,” Perlman said.

An earlier version of the plan included a proposed 70 percent rebate for Rhode Island-based trucking companies but questions about its legality caused it to be nixed from the current RhodeWorks proposal. Perlman said that the rebate would have made the cost of tolls “bearable.”

The 500,000 square foot distribution center, which would have required a $50 million investment to build, would be the largest building in Rhode Island.

“The project is now on hodl because there is no clarity for what the final legislation will be and how it will affect our company, particularly in regard to the rebate,” Perlman said.

The announcement came during the company’s already-scheduled ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony at its newest retail store in North Kingstown.

The RhodeWorks proposal has been through multiple iterations since Governor Gina Raimondo announced the plan last year under a decrepit highway overpass in East Providence. Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello was unwilling to let the legislation move forward last year, citing concerns raised by Rhode Islanders about the possibility of the tolls eventually being used to target passenger cars, among other concerns.

The new version of the bill has the ardent support of the speaker, who said that provisions that would require a ballot referendum to expand tolls to passenger cars alleviated the concern.

Supporters of the plan say the state’s roads and bridges, ranked 50th out of 50 states, are in desperate need of additional funding.

The current version of the plan would install 14 toll gantries on state highways.

A fact sheet can be found HERE.