PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — A federal judge ordered the American Trucking Associations to pay the state of Rhode Island $200,000 on Friday, March 27, 2026. The ruling came as the ATA tried to recover attorney’s fees from the state — and lost.
The decision is the latest chapter in a years-long legal battle over Rhode Island’s truck-only toll program. The ATA led a lawsuit against the state alongside trucking companies, arguing the tolls were unconstitutional. In 2022, a judge agreed. The court ordered the tolls stopped within 48 hours.
“Trucks accounted for 3% or less of the total traffic but were paying 100% of the tolls,” said Reginald Goeke, attorney for the ATA at the time. “That is clearly not a reasonable allocation or approximation of their usage of these facilities.”
The win didn’t last. In 2024, another court overturned the ruling. It allowed Rhode Island to resume truck-only tolls and removed the daily caps that had limited how many times a single truck could be tolled in one day. The court found those caps discriminatory toward out-of-state carriers.
The ATA then sought to recover its legal fees from the state. The court rejected that effort entirely and ordered the ATA to pay Rhode Island $200,000 instead.
Despite the 2024 ruling reinstating the tolls, Rhode Island has not yet resumed collecting them. The state says both the equipment and billing systems need upgrades before the program can restart.
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