Employer Status Determination

Ecotrans Technologies, LLC

MAR 2 1 2003

This is the decision ofthe Railroad Retirement Board regarding the status of

Ecotrans Technologies as an employer under the Railroad Retirement and Railroad

Unemployment Insurance Acts.

Ecotrans was organized April 8, 2001, and began operations in 2002. It is a joint

venture formed by CSXT Environmental Corporation, which is a wholly-owned

subsidiary ofCSX Transportation, Inc. (CSXT), a covered employer under the

Acts, and International Road & Rail, a company unrelated to CSXT and not

covered under the Acts. CSXT Environmental owns 65 percent ofEcotrans.

Ecotrans engages in the marketing of auxiliary power units for locomotives. It

obtains the units from Teleflex, an unrelated Canadian manufacturer, and sells

them to railroads. Of approximately 921 units sold, 800 have been sold to CSXT. 

Ecotrans reportedly has no employees. Its officers perform the work for Ecotrans

and are either employees of or consultants to the two owners ofEcotrans or of

entities related to them.

Section 1(a)(1) ofthe Railroad Retirement Act (45 U.S.C. § 231(a)(1)), insofar as

relevant here, defines a covered employer as:

(i) any carrier by railroad subject to the jurisdiction ofthe

Surface Transportation Board under Part A ofsubtitle IV oftitle 49,

United States Code;

(ii) any company which is directly or indirectly owned or

controlled by, or under common control with, one or more employers

as defined in paragraph (i) ofthis subdivision, and which operates any

equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service,

casual service, and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in

connection with the transportation of passengers or property by 

railroad * * *.

Sections 1(a) and 1(b) ofthe Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (45 U.S.C. §§

351(a) and (b)) contain substantially similar definitions, as does section 3231 ofthe

Railroad Retirement Tax Act (26 U.S.C. § 3231).

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Ecotrans Technologies, LLC

Ecotrans is clearly not a carrier by railroad. However, a majority interest in it is

held by CSXT Environmental which, consequently, owns and controls Ecotrans.

CSXT Environmental itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CSXT, a common

carrier by railroad, and accordingly, Ecotrans is “indirectly owned or controlled by,

or under common control with, one or more employers * * The provision of

auxiliary power units to locomotives clearly constitutes a service in connection 

with rail transportation. See Railroad Concrete Crosstie Corporation v. Railroad 

Retirement Board, 709 F.2d 1404, 1408 (11th Cir. 1983). Accordingly, Ecotrans is

controlled by an employer and provides services in connection with railroad 

transportation. Consequently, the Board holds Ecotrans to be a covered employer

under the Acts effective as ofthe date ofits formation, April 8, 2001.

In this connection, the Board notes that section 203.2 ofthe Board’s regulations

provides in pertinent part that (20 CFR 203.2):

An individual shall be an employee whenever * * *(d) he is an officer

of an employer.

Accordingly, the individuals mentioned above, who are officers of Ecotrans,

should be reported as employees of Ecotrans regardless ofwhich company is

supplying them to Ecotrans.

Cherryl T. Thomas

V. M. Speakman, Jr.

Jerome F. Kever

1 Union Pacific Corporation v. United States. 5 F.gd 523 (Fed Cir. 1993), which held that a parent

corporation which owns a rail carrier subsidiary is not under common control with the subsidiary within

the meaning ofthe Railroad Retirement Tax Act, does not apply in this case as CSXT indirectly controls

Ecotrans.