The U.S. Surface Transportation Board last week denied two petitions seeking reconsideration of agency rules that establish a streamlined approach for pleading market dominance in rate reasonableness proceedings.
STB adopted the rules more than two years ago.
At the time, the STB said, “if demonstrated by a complainant, [it] would constitute a prima facie showing of market dominance.”
The factors the STB said it would consider in such cases include the movement has a revenue-to-variable cost ratio of 180 percent or greater; the movement would exceed 500 highway miles between origin and destination; there is no intramodal competition from other railroads; there is no barge competition; there is no pipeline competition; the complainant has used truck for 10 percent or less of its volume (by tonnage) subject to the rate at issue over a five-year period; the complainant has no practical build-out alternative due to physical, regulatory, financial, or other issues (or combination of issues).
The petitions for reconsideration were filed by several trade organizations representing railroad shippers.
Their petition claimed the STB “committed material error regarding four aspects of its final rule adopting the streamlined approach.
Also seeking reconsideration was the Association of American Railroads.
In denying the petitions for reconsideration, the STB said the petitioners had “failed to demonstrate material error, but instead merely disagree with the Board’s decision on these issues.”