Opinion ID: 109122
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence as to Existing Service

Text: The applicant carriers presented exhibits showing the time in transit of selected shipments that had been consigned to appellee carriers by particular shippers during a designated study period. As the Commission acknowledged, the selection of particular shipments from those occurring during the study period had been made with an eye toward demonstrating service inadequacies. [3] These worst case studies figured in the Commission's finding that service would be improved by the entry of new carriers to the routes at issue. The appellee carriers offered studies of their own. These covered the same period and the same shippers as the applicants' presentations, but whereas the applicants had selected particular shipments to emphasize inadequacies, the appellee carriers included in their presentations all of the shipments consigned during the study period. These exhibits, argued the protesting carriers, placed the incidents cited by the applicants in perspective and demonstrated that the existing service was generally acceptable. The Commission acknowledged the appellees' presentations but concluded that they offered an inadequate rebuttal to the applicants' exhibits because (1) they relate to short periods of time or cover traffic handled for specified shippers; and (2) the studies represented service provided by appellees after the Commission had designated the applications for hearing. Herrin Transportation Co., 114 M. C. C. 571, 599 (1971). The District Court ruled that the Commission had applied inconsistent standards in reviewing the evidence of the parties, since the appellees' exhibits were based upon the same study periods and the same shippers as the applicants' exhibits. 364 F. Supp., at 1259-1260. We agree with the District Court that the first reason assigned by the Commissionthat the appellees' exhibits were based only upon short periods and particular shippers failed to distinguish the presentations of applicants and opponents. To counter the applicants' presentations, the protesting carriers chose the identical study periods and shippers but expanded the presentation to show all the shipments consigned. Since the protesters confined themselves to the periods and shippers the applicants had selected, there was no basis for an inference that the former had chosen so as to make the exhibits unrepresentative in their favor. The Commission's second reason, howeverthat the appellees' studies covered periods subsequent to a notice of hearingprovides support for the Commission's assessment of the evidence. The Commission recognized that protesting carriers might have been spurred to improve their service by the threat of competition raised by the designation of applicants for hearing. Therefore, reasoned the Commission, the protesting carriers' performance subsequent to the notice of hearing might be superior to the service they normally offered, and their exhibits, covering those periods, had to be read in light of that possibility. But the Commission was not precluded from relying upon the demonstrated shortcomings of the protesters' service during that period, for the incentive effect the Commission identified would have, if anything, distorted the performance studies in the protesters' favor. The issue before the Commission was not whether the appellees' service met some absolute standard of performance but whether the public convenience and necessity would be served by the entry of new carriers into the markets served by appellees. United States v. Dixie Express, 389 U. S. 409, 411-412 (1967). Even if the Commission had accepted appellees' exhibits at face value, it could still have concluded that the deficiencies were sufficient to justify the admission of additional carriers. Certainly the Commission was entitled to regard the appellees' studies as possibly nonrepresentative of the usual service afforded, [4] to reason that the shortcomings were probably greater than these studies showed, and to conclude that service would be improved by granting the applications.