N.Y. Transportation Law § 142: Rate bureau regulation

§ 142. Rate bureau regulation. 1. For the purpose of achieving a

stable rate structure through regulated competition, the commissioner

shall establish rules and regulations with respect to collective

ratemaking procedures for all motor carrier transportation services over

which the commissioner has jurisdiction. Any common carrier of property

or passengers by motor vehicle subject to regulation by the commissioner

and party to an agreement between or among two or more carriers relating

to rates, fares, classifications, divisions, allowances or charges,

including charges between carriers and compensation paid or received for

the use of facilities and equipment, or rules and regulations pertaining

thereto, or procedures for the joint consideration, initiation or

establishment thereof, may, under such rules and regulations as the

commissioner may prescribe, apply to the commissioner for approval of

the agreement, and the commissioner shall by order approve any such

agreement if it is found that, by reason of the transportation policy

declared in section one hundred thirty-seven of this article, the relief

provided in subdivision seven of this section should apply with respect

to the making and carrying out of such agreement; otherwise the

application shall be denied. The approval of the commissioner shall be

granted only upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner may

prescribe as necessary to carry out the purposes of this article.

2. Each conference, bureau, committee or other organization

established or continued pursuant to any such agreement approved by the

commissioner under this section shall maintain such accounts, records,

files and memoranda and shall submit to the commissioner such

information and reports as may be prescribed by the commissioner and all

such accounts, records, files and memoranda shall be subject to

inspection by the commissioner or department representatives.

3. The commissioner shall not approve any such agreement which is an

agreement with respect to a pooling or division of traffic, or service,

or of gross or net earnings, or of any portion thereof.

4. The commissioner shall not approve under this section any agreement

which establishes a procedure for the determination of any matter

through joint consideration unless it is found that under the agreement

there is accorded to each party the free and unrestrained right to take

independent action either before or after any determination arrived at

through such procedure.

5. The commissioner is authorized, upon complaint or upon the

commissioner's initiative without complaint, to investigate and

determine whether any such agreement previously approved under this

section, or terms and conditions upon which such approval was granted,

is not or are not, in conformity with the standards set forth in

subdivision one of this section, or whether any such terms and

conditions are unnecessary for the purposes of conformity with such

standards, and, after such investigation, the commissioner may by order

terminate or modify any approval of such agreement, or modify the terms

and conditions of such approval, if such action is necessary to assure

conformity with such standards. The effective date of any order

terminating or modifying approval, or modifying terms and conditions,

shall be postponed for such period as the commissioner determines to be

reasonably necessary to avoid undue hardships.

6. No order shall be entered under this section except after

interested parties have been afforded reasonable notice and opportunity

to be heard.

7. Parties to any such agreement approved by the commissioner under

this section and other parties are hereby relieved from the operation of

section three hundred forty of the general business law with respect to

the making of such agreement, and with respect to the carrying out of

such agreement in conformity with the terms and conditions prescribed by

the commissioner.

8. Rate conferences, by regulating collective ratemaking under the

supervision of the department, have established a system of pricing

actively supervised by the department which fosters competition through

approved rate levels and the right of independent action while

furnishing a responsible transportation service to the public. Continued

departmental supervision of proposed rate filings by such conferences

will continue to yield advantageous transportation rates which, although

they may tend to displace competition in the classical sense, in

actuality foster responsible, competitive motor carrier transportation

service to the public, while concurrently developing and approving

competitive rate levels among motor carriers in furtherance of the

transportation policy contained in section one hundred thirty-seven of

this chapter. The dangers inherent in a consumer's selection of a motor

carrier on the basis of price alone will also be discouraged.