§13701 Requirements for reasonable rates, classifications, through routes, rules, and practices for certain transportation

Summary

Requires that rates, classifications, rules, and practices for some kinds of transportation must be reasonable. That includes moves of household goods, water-carrier moves in noncontiguous domestic trade, and rates motor carriers make together under approved agreements. Through routes and divisions of joint rates for those services must also be reasonable. If the Board finds a violation or needs to stop one, the Board must set the rate, rule, or division to be used. People may file complaints with the Board about rates in noncontiguous domestic trade. For motor-carrier service in noncontiguous domestic trade and water-carrier port-to-port service there, a rate or division is reasonable if it is no more than 7.5 percent above or no more than 10 percent below the rate in effect one year before the new rate takes effect. That percentage is adjusted by the change in the Producers Price Index (Department of Labor) for the most recent one-year period before the rate first took effect. If a rate falls outside that range, the Board will decide its reasonableness when a complaint is filed. If the Board finds a violation, it must order repayment to shippers of any amounts collected above the reasonable rate, and, after a government complaint, return amounts plus interest to shippers as practicable.