Groups Private Car Rules Revised

Four groups that represent private freight car owners want the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to launch a rule making process to work toward updating the demurrage and accessorial rules governing the railroads’ use and handling of their equipment.

The petition to the STB asks regulators “to promulgate regulations governing the use by the nation’s Class I railroads of freight rail cars supplied to them by rail car owners, shippers, and other non-railroad entities. [A]n update to the rules governing the railroads’ use of private rail cars is long overdue because the railroad industry has evolved to the point that approximately 73 percent of the rail cars in service today nationwide – approximately 1.2 million rail cars—are no longer owned by railroads, but are . . . purchased, or leased, and maintained, by non-railroad entities at little or no cost to the railroads that use them.”

The groups involved are the North America Freight Car Association, the National Grain and Feed Association, the Chorine Institute and the National Oilseed Processors Association.

They say that current STB rules failed to adequately protect the enormous investment private rail car owners have made in their property because the rules fail to provide sufficient incentives for the Class I railroads to use private rail cars efficiently.

The petition said Class 1 railroads are using private cars in irregular service and holding on to them for too long.

Tags: demurrage, private freight cars, Private rail cars, STB rulemaking, STB rules, STB rules and regulations, U.S. Surface Transportation Board