Shippers Push to End Rail Antitrust Exemption

Shippers in the National Industrial Transportation League are firm in wanting an expected rail regulatory reform bill to strip railroads of a limited exemption they enjoy from antitrust laws, said NITL President and CEO Bruce J. Carlton.

He told The Journal of Commerce that whenever the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee offers its long-awaited rail competition legislation, it should include a change to current rules that exempt railroads from antitrust challenge on many issues while routing most disputes with customers through the Surface Transportation Board.

Carlton said “I talk to shippers and to a person they say ‘I do not enjoy any degree of antitrust immunity in my line of work.’”

(The JOC’s Nov. 9 print edition will carry a full report on its wide-ranging interview with Carlton.)

NITL’s board earlier this year backed a separate Senate bill to strip railroads of that special treatment and open them to more antitrust challenge in federal district courts. That bill was later pulled from the Senate docket, to await a broader rail regulatory overhaul by the Commerce Committee. Staff there has worked on the language for months, but has yet to introduce legislation.

On Oct. 16, an advisory panel of small railroads and shippers that meets periodically with the STB urged Congress to avoid stripping railroads of their antitrust exemption.

Carlton, however, this week said NITL still wants the upcoming legislation to address that issue “and we will wait to see what it looks like before we say whether they got it right.”

He said the League, which includes carriers in its membership, has “taken some criticism for publicly saying that the rail antitrust limited immunity should be lifted. But the League has been consistent over its history -- it’s never been a fan of rail antitrust immunity.”

Carlton said he expected the bill to appear months ago, and gets daily calls from NITL members asking about it. “The daily answer is ‘you’ll know it when we all see it,’” he said.

Carlton does not expect the measure to be completed in both houses of Congress and reach the president before yearend. He also said when the Senate bill is offered he thinks industry groups will have little chance to alter it, but must decide simply whether to accept it as offered.