[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 170 (Friday, September 2, 1994)]
[Notices]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-21762]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: September 2, 1994]


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INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION

[Ex Parte No. MC 221]

 

Tariffs of Carriers Whose Operating Authorities Have Been Revoked

AGENCY: Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).

ACTION: Notice of the Commission's intention to treat as cancelled the 
tariffs of carriers whose operating authorities have been revoked and 
remain inactive for one year.

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SUMMARY: The ICC announces that, effective immediately, it will treat 
as cancelled the tariffs of any carrier whose operating authority is 
revoked and remains inactive for a one-year period. This will permit 
the Commission to reduce its storage costs for tariffs, and will avoid 
misleading the public by having meaningless tariffs included in the 
active tariff library.

DATES: Comments are due on October 3, 1994.

ADDRESSES: Send comments (an original and 10 copies) referring to Ex 
Parte No. MC 221 to: Interstate Commerce Commission, Office of the 
Secretary, Case Control Branch, Washington, DC 20423.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James W. Greene, (202) 927-5597. TDD 
for hearing impaired: (202) 927-5721.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In recent years, a significant number of 
carriers have had their operating authorities revoked and gone out of 
business without canceling their tariffs. In the absence of formal 
cancellation action by the carriers, we have retained these tariffs in 
the active tariff library. In our view, the retention of such tariffs 
in the active tariff library should be discontinued since it imposes 
unnecessary storage costs and can mislead the public by indicating the 
availability of service and pricing that no longer exist.
    The Interstate Commerce Act does not permit a carrier to file 
tariffs covering service which it is not authorized to provide. Thus, 
once a carrier's operating authority is revoked, there is no lawful 
basis for the continued existence of any effective tariffs covering 
service formerly authorized by the revoked authority. We believe we can 
treat such tariffs as cancelled whether or not the carrier whose 
operating authority is revoked takes formal action to cancel 
them.1

    \1\Carriers whose operating authorities are revoked are 
sometimes included as participating carriers in tariffs issued by 
agents or other carriers who remain in business; however, the 
tariffs published by others can be, and generally are, promptly 
revised to exclude the carriers whose authorities have been revoked.
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    There are numerous instances each year in which the Commission 
revokes carriers' operating authorities because they fail to maintain 
insurance coverage as required by the Commission's regulations. In many 
instances, once the carriers realize that their operating authorities 
have been revoked, they reinstate the required coverage and request 
that their authorities be reinstated. As a matter of practice, the 
carriers have been allowed to reinstate operations without being 
required to file new tariffs. In these revocations and reinstatements, 
however, the entire process is typically completed within a few months, 
so the procedures announced in this notice, which provide that tariffs 
will be deemed cancelled after 1 year of inactivity, will not affect 
current tariff reinstatement practices.2

    \2\The Commission currently keeps cancelled tariffs at the 
Commission for three years after cancellation for use in resolving 
rate disputes for past traffic. The tariffs are then stored for an 
additional seven years at the Federal Records Center to satisfy 
Federal records retention requirements and to be further available 
for rate dispute resolutions. The tariffs of a carrier whose 
operating authority has been revoked will be treated in the same 
fashion; the information contained in them will be available for 10 
years after the carrier's authority has been revoked.
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Environmental Statement

    This action will not significantly affect either the quality of the 
human environment or the conservation of energy resources.

    Decided: August 18, 1994.

    By the Commission, Chairman McDonald, Vice Chairman Phillips, 
Commissioners Simmons and Morgan.
Vernon A. Williams,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 94-21762 Filed 9-1-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE FR-7035-01-P