Opinion ID: 429424
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Motor Carrier Act

Text: 9 The ICC regulates only a portion of this country's motor carrier business. That portion includes common carriers and contract carriers. 2 The nine cases here on appeal all involve common carriers. For a particular trucker to obtain permission to haul goods over additional routes or to carry kinds of freight which it is not presently authorized by the Commission to carry, the motor carrier must petition the ICC for a CCN. Under the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, the petitioner must show the ICC two things to make out a prima facie case: (1) that it is fit, willing and able to perform the proposed services, and (2) that the service proposed will serve a useful public purpose, responsive to a public demand or need. 49 U.S.C. Sec. 10922(b)(1) (Supp. V 1981); 3 Steere Tank Lines v. ICC, 687 F.2d 104, 105 (5th Cir.1982) (Steere II ); J.H. Rose Truck Line, Inc. v. ICC, 683 F.2d 943, 950 (5th Cir.1982). Any trucking firms opposing the petitioner's proposed new authority may file formal protests with the Commission. Once the petitioner makes out its prima facie case, however, a presumption is created that the new authority will be consistent with the public convenience and necessity and the burden of proof is shifted to the protestants to show that it will not. Steere Tank Lines, Inc. v. ICC, 714 F.2d 1300, 1303 (5th Cir.1983) (Steere V ); C & H Transportation Co., Inc. v. ICC, 704 F.2d 834, 842 (5th Cir.1983); J.H. Rose Truck Line, 683 F.2d at 950. If the protestants fail to convince the Commission that the proposed new service is inconsistent with the public convenience and necessity, the new authority will be granted in the form of a CCN. Steere V, 714 F.2d at 1304. Any party dissatisfied with the ICC's initial decision may file an appeal within the administrative agency and may seek judicial review in the United States Courts of Appeals after the appeal before the Commission has been exhausted. 28 U.S.C. Secs. 2321, 2342 (1976). 10 Steere filed protests to all nine of the petitions involved here and exhausted its administrative remedies. 4 On appeal to this Court, Steere does not argue that any applicant failed to make its prima facie case. Rather, it contends that it rebutted each case by showing inconsistency with the public convenience and necessity so that the CCNs should not have been issued. Steere maintains that the ICC was required to analyze the relevant motor carrier market, assess the cumulative effect on Steere's operations of a series of grants of authority, and, if it concluded that the multiple grants were consistent with the national transportation policy, 49 U.S.C. Sec. 10101 (Supp. V 1981), explain why. Note 4--Continued 11 The petitioner contends that the ICC's action was arbitrary and capricious because it applied an inappropriate standard in determining that the applicants' new trucking services would not be inconsistent with the public convenience and necessity and because it declined to make findings on the cumulative effect of the new services on the market. In arguing that the ICC's method of evaluating any protestant's proof of inconsistency with the public convenience and necessity violates the national transportation policy, Steere insists that under current Commission policy it is impossible for a protestant to demonstrate that inconsistency. Steere points to the absence of any decision in any case within the past two years in which an applicant established its prima facie case pursuant to 49 U.S.C. Sec. 10922(b)(1) (Supp. V 1981) but was denied a CCN due to proof by a protestant of inconsistency with the public convenience and necessity. Thus, we are asked to decide whether the ICC's decisions considered as a whole are consistent with Congressional intent in passing the Motor Carrier Act of 1980, and, if so, whether the ICC's decisions here on appeal are supported by substantial evidence. Note 4--Continued 12