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A Cape Cod construction company is proposing a new freight service between New Bedford and Nantucket.
The proposed service would carry recyclables, tires, construction equipment, and other materials two to three days a week, using freight boats that the company bought from the Steamship Authority last year. It would use Steamship Authority dock space for loading and unloading on Nantucket. Boats would load and unload at the company’s facility in New Bedford Harbor.
Robert B. Our Co. submitted an application to the Steamship Authority in January, asking for a licensing agreement to operate the service as Offshore Tug and Transportation, LLC.
New Bedford has a “longstanding concern” about garbage and recyclables from the islands flowing through its port, New Bedford Port Authority Director Gordon Carr said at a Steamship Authority Port Council meeting on Tuesday. Any solid garbage waste would be a “nonstarter” for the port, he said.
But Carr didn’t dismiss the proposal. He said Robert B. Our Co. is taking “thoughtful approaches,” like using enclosed vehicles to transport the materials.
In a text message to The Light on Wednesday, Carr said the proposal “is in the early stages, with multiple steps to go.” He declined to comment further, citing his role on the Port Council and saying he didn’t want to speak publicly outside the license application process.
It’s not clear where Nantucket’s recyclables would go. The final destination of the materials wasn’t specified in application documents available on the Steamship Authority website.
Nantucket Communications Manager Florencia Rullo told The Light in an email on Friday that the island’s waste is currently “transported off-island via existing freight providers and sent to specialized facilities based on the type of waste,” but she did not specify which ports the waste flows through or where it eventually ends up. She did not respond to follow-up questions sent Friday afternoon.
A representative for Robert B. Our Co. did not return phone calls seeking comment on Wednesday and Thursday.
Nantucket is interested in the service because it would help transport the town’s recyclables to the mainland, Steamship Authority General Counsel Terence Kenneally said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Kenneally noted that the U.S. Coast Guard hadn’t yet certified the company’s boats, but company representatives said they expected that the certification was “imminent.”
Robert B. Our III said his family’s company already moves “tens of thousands of tons” of equipment and supplies between the mainland and island regularly.
“It’s another tool to continue what we’re doing now,” he said of the proposed service.
The company doesn’t have a hard timeline for starting the service, Our said. Steamship Authority Manager Robert Davis said the authority would work with the company on the final details of its proposal and come back to the council later with a recommendation.
Email Grace Ferguson at gferguson@newbedfordlight.org
Editor’s note: This story was updated on June 17, 2025, to correct the location where loading and unloading would take place in New Bedford.
They need to add daily UPS service out of the Warwick facility. That effort shaves 1 day off many packages to the island and saves 2 unnecessary moves through other sorting buildings
Other than a refuse transfer station, Nantucket wants nothing from New Bedford! The plan fits nicely with that recycling facility at the New Bedford Industrial Park. Why doesn’t New Bedford seek permits to send our waste out to Nantucket? Our land fills are almost full. There is a lesser threat to densely populated areas on the mainland than Nantucket. Looks like the citizens of New Bedford be walkin’ while Nantucket’s money be talkin’!
Agree. We don’t have space for our own trash and old tires, we don’t need theirs. Sorry friends of Nantucket. Hope this plan kicks the bucket.
What possible benefit to New Bedford would come from this scheme? And how does this fit in with the tourism and recreational redevelopment of State Pier? Just this- lines of stinking garbage trucks is what’s called for to add that aura of authenticity to New Bedford’s waterfront.
Now Nantucket is dangling freight, but we’re going to have to take the garbage! The ship that brings out the freight brings back the garbage! How efficient! How about cars and people on a grander scale than the “Fast Ferry”? The City suddenly has some leverage in negotiations. I hope they don’t squander it! Can you simply imagine the backdoor deals that are going to take place?
Wishful thinking. I imagine City Hall fancies this to be the thin edge of the wedge that will pry open the long closed issue of car carrying ferries from New Bedford. Fat chance that Falmouth and Hyannis would part with the lucrative tourist trade. They just want to get rid of freight and freight haulers and will play New Bedford as a hard up sucker.
Always in the city and in the school system, time we stop it. We can’t get permits for our own needs and we’re going to give them a permit, I don’t think so!
Thanks but No Thanks Nantucket! Unless of course, you accept building a small nuclear power plant on your island, that provides power to the mainland with less risk to our population centers! We may not be “beautiful people” like your Summer residents, but we are people too!