Opinion ID: 299349
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: To ICC The Venture Illegal

Text: 14 On such facts, the ICC found that shippers were jointly operating as interstate motor carriers for compensation without possessing the necessary licenses. 103 M.C.C. 18; 107 M.C.C. 76-78. Considered together, the findings of the Division and the entire Commission establish that shippers were not merely carrying their own goods but rather were jointly providing compensation for each other — in the sense that term is used in the statutory definition of a common carrier by motor vehicle, 49 U.S.C.A. § 303(a) (14), or contract carrier by motor vehicle, 49 U.S.C.A. § 303(a) (15) — particularly by relieving each other of the cost of returning an empty truck to the point where their respective goods originated for shipment. By thus avoiding or reducing their individual transportation expenses through the joint arrangements, the shipper groups were in effect performing for-hire motor carriage for each other, with the reimbursement of expense constituting `compensation'. The Commission, after pointing out that its decision fully comported with earlier ICC decisions reaching the same result, 103 M.C.C. 530, also declared that the solicitation by Keller of the other shippers in the scheme was completely irreconcilable with the private carriage concept envisioned by the statutory scheme of regulation, and that if these joint motor activities were not regulated, they would inevitably be detrimental to the public interest, 107 M.C.C. 78. 13