Trucking Objects to STB Ruling on Rate Immunity
A decision on rate-making handed down by the Surface Transportation Board has met with approval from shippers but has truckers protesting.
The Feb. 11 decision could threaten the means by which freight rates are established for many carriers. The ruling upholds the board’s Dec. 18, 1998, decision that found no basis for shielding from antitrust scrutiny the existing process in which rate bureaus collectively publish class rates that are almost never charged and from which actual rates are nearly always discounted (12-28-98, p. 1).
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The board ruled to temporarily extend antitrust immunity to both motor carrier rate bureaus and the National Classification Committee as long as class rates are lowered to market-based levels and shippers are given greater participation in the freight classification process.
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More than 1,800 carriers use commodity classes established by the National Classification Committee. Motor carrier rate bureaus use the classes to set rates under antitrust immunity given them by the board. The rates are based on characteristics such as value and weight per cubic foot.
