[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 231 (Wednesday, December 2, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 66521-66522]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-32104]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Surface Transportation Board
49 CFR Part 1312
[STB Ex Parte No. 580]
Regulations for the Publication, Posting and Filing of Tariffs
for the Transportation of Property by or with a Water Carrier in the
Noncontiguous Domestic Trade
AGENCY: Surface Transportation Board, DOT.
ACTION: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: The Surface Transportation Board (Board or STB) proposes to
modify its tariff filing regulations to eliminate the option of filing
tariffs with the Board electronically through the Federal Maritime
Commission (FMC) Automated Tariff Filing and Information System (ATFI),
which is being phased out effective May 1, 1999. The Board will,
however, entertain special tariff authority requests by individual
carriers seeking to file their tariffs electronically.
DATES: Comments are due January 4, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Send comments (an original and 10 copies) referring to STB
Ex Parte No. 580 to: Surface Transportation Board, Office of the
Secretary, Case Control Branch, 1925 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC
20423-0001.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
James W. Greene (202) 565-1578. [TDD for the hearing impaired: (202)
565-1695.]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The ICC Termination Act of 1995, Public Law
104-88, 109 Stat. 803 (1995), transferred from the FMC to the Board the
responsibility for regulating port-to-port water carriage in the
noncontiguous domestic trade. In connection with the
[[Page 66522]]
transfer of jurisdiction, the Board entered into an interagency
agreement with the FMC and modified its requirements to allow carriers
to continue to utilize the FMC's ATFI system to file their tariffs with
the Board. This action permitted the transfer of jurisdiction to occur
without requiring the carriers to make any new tariff filings, and
comported with Congress' suggestion that the Board continue the FMC's
practice of allowing carriers to file their tariffs electronically.\1\
The recently-enacted Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998, Pub. L. No.
105-258, 112 Stat. 1902 (1998) (OSRA) will, however, eliminate the
requirement that ocean carriers file their tariffs with the FMC
effective May 1, 1999, and in these circumstances, the FMC will not be
accepting new ATFI tariff filings on or after that date.
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\1\ H.R. Rep. No. 422, 104th Cong., 1st Sess. 206 (1995).
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While ATFI has served well as an electronic filing option for STB
tariffs, its feasibility has always been predicated upon the basic
system being operated and maintained by the FMC to support its own
tariff filing requirements. STB tariff filings constitute less than 5%
of total ATFI tariff filings, and absent the 95-plus percent of the
filings accounted for by the FMC's requirements, it will not be
economically feasible to operate and maintain the ATFI system or any
similar system solely for STB tariffs.
Under the interagency agreement between the FMC and the Board, the
Board pays an annual fee to FMC to cover the Board's portion of ATFI
contract costs and certain in-house services provided by FMC, and FMC
remits to the Board the filing and access fees attributable to STB
tariffs. However, the Board's share of ATFI costs and fees is minuscule
in terms of total system cost and fees. While the drastic reduction in
tariff filings would undoubtedly reduce certain variable costs, the
fixed costs of ATFI, spread over solely STB tariffs, would require the
imposition of prohibitive tariff filing and access fees in order for
the Board to recover any reasonable portion of its out-of-pocket
costs.\2\ In these circumstances, it is clear that ATFI would not be
viable solely for STB tariff filings. Similarly, it would not be
feasible for the Board to undertake an effort to design, develop and
implement a new electronic tariff filing system geared solely to STB
requirements, given the limited scope of the Board's remaining tariff
filing requirements and the extensive staff and monetary resources that
would be required.
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\2\ We are aware that the FMC's Notice of Inquiry concerning the
implementation of OSRA (63 FR 37088) raised the possibility of
continuing to operate some portion of ATFI to provide for the
electronic filing of service contracts. An electronic filing system
geared to the requirements of service contracts, however, would not
fulfill the requirements for an electronic tariff filing system
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Although the Board's regulations will no longer routinely provide
for electronic tariff filings if the proposed revisions are adopted, we
will not rule out, and indeed will encourage, electronic tariff filing
proposals from interested carriers. ATFI filings were initially
accepted pursuant to special tariff authority granted by the Board,\3\
and we are amenable to special tariff authority requests for individual
electronic tariff filing proposals submitted by carriers. By way of
illustration in this regard, we would point out that our predecessor
organization, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), issued a
decision several years ago granting a rail carrier's request to file
certain tariffs on computer diskettes.\4\ Parties proposing alternative
tariff filing systems must, of course, explain how the proposed systems
will fulfill all of the various needs for tariff information.\5\
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\3\ STB Special Tariff Authority No. 4, served October 1, 1996,
\4\ Special Tariff Authority No. 93-12, ICC served July 25,
1994.
\5\ Our staff is available to consult informally with carriers
in this regard.
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Request for Comments
We invite comments on the proposed regulations. We encourage any
commenter that has the necessary technical wherewithal to submit its
comments as computer data on a 3.5-inch floppy diskette formatted for
WordPerfect 6.1, or formatted so that it can be readily converted into
WordPerfect 6.1. Any such diskette submission (one diskette will be
sufficient) should be in addition to the written submission (an
original and 10 copies).
Small Entities
The Board preliminarily concludes that these rules, if adopted,
would not have a significant economic effect on a substantial number of
small entities. The proposed regulations will eliminate the existing
option to file tariffs electronically through the FMC's ATFI system,
but many carriers already opt to file printed tariffs, and any cost
differences for alternative tariff filing methodologies that carriers
may propose are unlikely to be significant.
Environment
This action will not significantly affect either the quality of the
human environment or the conservation of energy resources.
List of Subjects in 49 CFR Part 1312
Motor carriers, Noncontiguous domestic trade, Tariffs, Water
carriers.
Decided: November 24, 1998.
By the Board, Chairman Morgan and Vice Chairman Owen.
Vernon A. Williams,
Secretary.
For the reasons set forth in the preamble, the Board proposes to
amend part 1312 of title 49, chapter X, of the Code of Federal
Regulations as follows:
PART 1312--REGULATIONS FOR THE PUBLICATION, POSTING AND FILING OF
TARIFFS FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF PROPERTY BY OR WITH A WATER
CARRIER IN NONCONTIGUOUS DOMESTIC TRADE
1. The authority citation for part 1312 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 721(a), 13702(a), 13702(b) and 13702(d).
Sec. 1312.1 [Amended]
2. In Sec. 1312.1(c), the definition of ``ATFI'' is removed.
3. Section 1312.6 is amended by revising paragraph (c) to read as
follows:
Sec. 1312.6 Advance notice required.
* * * * *
(c) Receipt of tariffs by the Board. The Board will receive tariff
filings between the hours of 8:30 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. Eastern time, on
workdays. Tariff filings delivered to the Board on other than a
workday, or after 5:00 P.M. on a workday, will be considered as
received the next workday.
* * * * *
4. Section 1312.17 is removed.
[FR Doc. 98-32104 Filed 12-1-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-61-U
