Opinion ID: 384692
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Adequacy of Existing Service

Text: 2 Adequacy of existing service is one of the factors the ICC may weigh in determining whether the public convenience favors the grant of new motor carrier authority. See Pan-American Bus Lines Operation, 1 M.C.C. 190 (1936). This court has recognized, however, that a finding of inadequacy of existing service is not always indispensable to sustain the grant of an application. C&H Transportation Co. v. ICC, 589 F.2d 565, 573 n.16 (D.C. Cir. 1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 911, 99 S.Ct. 1222, 59 L.Ed.2d 459 (1979). Nevertheless, Melton contends that the finding of inadequacy was pivotal to the Commission's decision in this case, and that the order under review must therefore fall unless substantial evidence supports the inadequacy finding. 3 We need not judge the centrality of the Commission's inadequacy of existing service finding. Central or not, the finding rests on substantial evidence. Twenty-four witnesses, who together ship more than 29,000 loads a year, supported the three applications. Their testimony established that, at the time the Commission considered the applications: (1) lumber production in the South was growing; (2) there was a trend to transport lumber by truck rather than train; (3) producers who shipped their goods privately preferred shipment by common carrier. Existing carriers, the testimony solidly indicated, were unable to meet the demand fueled by these three factors. 4 Complaints about existing service were not, as Melton suggests, either general in nature or confined to isolated incidents. Rather, several shippers described in detail their unsuccessful attempts to secure service from existing carriers; 2 others listed instances when existing carriers had picked up shipments late or otherwise provided poor service; 3 and some testified that the unavailability of common carriers forced them to ship goods privately, even when that course occasioned a loss for them. 4 This testimony revealed a continuing pattern of inadequate service, detailed in specific statements that do not bear the characterization, isolated incidents. 5 5 Melton contends, finally, that many of the shippers' complaints are attributable to the proclivity of lumber producers to demand carrier service on extremely short notice. Some of the testimony did indicate that short notice is common in the trade. 6 Neither the ICC nor this court, however, has a charge to restructure industry practice. If applicants have shown they can help meet an industry demand for quick pickups that existing carriers are unable to satisfy, then the public convenience is advanced by grant of the applications. In short, neither this argument nor any other Melton offers 7 weighs significantly against our conclusions that the Commission appropriately regarded the complaints in this case as illustrative of a general deficiency, and securely determined that existing service was inadequate to meet public need.