Captive Shippers in the Good Old Days: At Common Law and Before the Early ICC

Given their experience with prior overregulation and their revenue needs, railroads naturally oppose broad rate regulation reimposition. The balance of both captive-shipper and carrier interests, so lacking today, might be achieved through continuing market-dominant rate regulation, as presently defined, but requiring consideration of broader rate reasonableness issues, as well as service costs and carrier revenue adequacy. After providing a brief history that includes mention of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the author concludes that captive shippers consider at least two alternatives before taking their case to Congress. First, is rate regulation needed at all given common-law rate reasonableness rules? The author argues that particularly when adequate protection is provided by common-law rules governing the free market, that market is preferable to regulation, as an abstract proposition. Second, which is preferable, to modify rate reasonableness statutory criteria so that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) is required to consider a broader reasonableness factor array as being in the public interest, or to maintain the present regulatory system?

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/31144651
• Authors:
  • Emery, Robert A
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 299-303
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy
  • Volume: 74
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Association for Transportation Law, Logistics and Policy
  • ISSN: 1078-5906
  • Serial URL: http://www.atlp.org/journal.html

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carriers; Costs; Market dominance; Markets; Policy, legislation and regulation; Railroads; Rates, fares and tolls; Revenues
• Identifier Terms: U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission; U.S. Surface Transportation Board
• Uncontrolled Terms: Captive shippers; Common law
• Subject Areas: Finance; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01079988
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 25 2007 10:26AM