&% Pension Benetit Guaranty Corporation PBBC u,G,.,~,a"m .,.. . 1200 K Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005-4026 

Re: 1 Retirement Plan for Employees of 

P*I*E Nationwide, Inc. ("Nationwide Plan"); Case #: 140510 

Mease accept nly apologies for the delay in responding to your correspondence relating to 

our April 5,2002 decision on your February 26,2002 appeal. That decision found no basis for 

changing PBGC's February 19. 2002 determination that you are entitled to a Nationwide Plan 

henefit of $14.25 per month, or $171.00 annually, payable as a Joint and 100% Survivor Annuity 

beginning on your actual retirement date of May 1, 1994. The Appcals Board agreed to review 

the additional infom~ation you submitted and has concluded that PBGC's determination is correcl. 

Your 2002 appeal objected to PBGC's use of an accrual factor under the Plan's "alternate 

benefit formula" hecause you believed that the accrual factor did not apply to participants like you 

with more than 20 years of service. My 2002 decision dealt only with the alternate bcnefit 

formula and explained why the accrual factor did apply to your benefit (see Enclosure 1). After 

receiving this decision, you submitled (1) an undated Ryder/P*I*E Benefits Bulletin summarizing 

the Plan's "regular," "alternate" and "minim~im" benefit formulas for salaried en~ployees and (2) 

a page from a September, 1981 hooklet with a more detailed explanation of these three formulas. 

Using the data from PBGC's 2002 benefit statement, which you did not dispute, you calculated 

a benefit of $125.51 per month under the regular formula. We explain below that your regular 

benefit is actually lower than the $14.25 Plan benefit PBGC determined. 

As explained on page 2 of the 2002 decision, P*I*E and its affiliates, including Kyder 

Truck, adopted the Nationwide Plan on June 10, 1986 to continue retirement benefits for hourly 

and salaried en~ployees whose prior Ryder/P*l*E plans had terminated, effeclive August 16, 

1985. Ryder Truck had also sponsored the "Ryder Plan," which terminated about 1969. 

On March.13, 1990, P*l*E adopted amendments to the Original Nationwide Plan that 

resulted in higher benefils for some parlicipants and lower bellefits for others. If the new benefit 

formulas increased a participant's benefit (as they did in your case), page 2 of the 2002 decision 

explained that PBGC cannot guarantee any of the increase hecause of ERISA's "phase-in" limit. 
While PBGC had to compare five different formulas (the regu1ar;alternate and minimum 

formulas under the Orignal Plan and the 1.6% and flat formulas under the Amended Plan) to 

determine your guaranteed benefit, PBGC's 2002 benefit statement showed calculations for only 

the last four for~nulas. Although PBGC determined that the 1.6% formula produced the highest 

benefit before offsets as of your May 1, 1994 retirement date (see Enclosure 2, line 19). as noted 

above, PBGC cannot guarantee any increase under the Amended Plan. Your alternate benefit is 

the highest under the three Original Wan bencfit formulas (Enclosure 2, line 18). 

The 1981 document you included with your correspondence' describes the Plan's regular 

benefit as the sum of: 

(i) For Credited Service prior to January 1, 1969, the henefit you accrued 

under any predecessor plan of the Company, plus 

(ii) For each year and fraction of a year of your Credited Service accrued afler 

January 1, 1969. a benefit of % of 1 % of your Average Final Salary up to 

your Average Social Security Earnings Limit plus 1% % of your Average 

Final Salary jn excess of your Average Social Security Earnings Limit. 

You calculated your regular benefit using the formula in paragraph (ii) and ?oral Credited Service 

(Enclosure 3). However, paragraph (ii) applies only to service affer January 1, 1969. 

Records PBGC's auditors obtained from the former IJlan Administrator show that you wcre 

first covered under a much older Ryder plan that tenni~mted. Ryder continued pension coverage 

for those employees under a separate Ryder plan and began crediting service under the new plan 

on January I, 1969. Ryder computed the benefits of employees covered under the older plan as 

of December 31, 1968 and added that benefit (which represented pre-1969 service) to the post1968 benefit under the new plan. This formula eventually became the "regular" benefit formula 

undcr the RyderlP*l*E and Nationwide Plans. Plan records show that you have a pre-1969 Ryder 

Plan benefit of $494.00 per year (see Enclosure 4). 

You also calculated your regular benefit using the "Estimated Social Security Offset at 

DOTE' of $12,228 from PBGC's 2002 benefit statement. That amount, however, is used only 

for the Wan's alternate benefit formula. The regular fortnula uses a different measure: thc 

"Average Social Security Earnings I,iniitu which is also known as "Covered Compensation." As 

defined in the Social Security Act, Covered Conlpensation is the average annual compensation that 

would he credited to the individual at age 65 if, in all years of recognized covered employment, 

Alrhough the docurt~et~ts you subn~i~led relatc to the terminated Rydcr/P*lCE Plan, the Original 

Nationwide Pian kept the same benefit for~~~ulas. 
the individual's annual compensation was at least equal to the prevailing taxable wage base. The 

Covered Compensation amount for a particular participant dews on the participant's year of 

birth and the year his or her employment for pension purposes ended (which is 1991 in your case, 

the year the Nationwide Plan terminated). Your Covered Compensation amount is $28,092.00 

(see Enclosure 5). PBGC did not show this amount on your benefit statement because PBGC did 

not show your regular benefit calculation. 

For your informarion, Enclosure 6 lists the data PBGC used to compute your Nationwide 

benefit, describes all five benefit formulas and provides detailed benefit calculations. Page 6-3 

of Enclosure 6 shows that the regular formula does not increase your benefit. 

Having applied the law, PBGC policy and the Plan provisions to the facts in this case, the 

Appeals Board found that PBGC's February 19, 2002 determination that you are entitled to a 

Nationwide Plan benefit of $14.25 per month, or $171.00 annually, as a Joint and 100% Survivor 

Annuity beginning May 1, 1994 is correct. This is the Agency's final decision on this matter and 

you may, if you wish, seek court review. 

If you have questions about your benefit, please call PBGC's Customer Service Center at 

1-800400-7242. 

Sincerely, 

Linda M. Mizzi 

Member. Appcals Board 

Enclosures (6)