Trucking news: NMFTA rolls out new classification procedures and organizational structure

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 10/30/2007

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The National Motor Freight Traffic Association Inc. (NMFTA) said last week that its membership has voted to adopt a new organizational structure and set of operating procedures.

The organization said this vote is in response to a ruling made last May by the Surface Transportation Board which officially terminated approval of the agreement of the National Classification Committee, which is also considered a motor carrier bureau, and stripped it of its Section 5a antitrust immunity and also ceased the practice of collective ratemaking. The STB ruling also terminated the approved agreements of all 11 motor carrier bureaus to engage in rate-related collective activities and dismissed applications by five regional authorities to operate nationwide.

The NMFTA said in a statement that its new classification procedures, which will take effect on December 6, will allow for the continued development and maintenance of the National Motor Freight Classification (NMFC) without the need for antitrust immunity while facilitating continued input from carriers, shippers and third parties.

“The most important change [with the classification procedures] was to take our carrier members out of the decision-making process,” Pugh told Logistics Management in an interview. “The procedures are structured along the lines of our former procedures in that they provide for all of the open public meetings and transparent procedures and also allow interested parties to go to our Website and find all the materials that support a given proposal.”

Pugh also noted that members can attend meetings and watch the classification decision-making process and make known their own views on them either orally or in writing. And if they are dissatisfied with the decision they can submit their protests or requests to a neutral arbitrator to review the decision.

Along with the new classification procedures, the NMFTA said it has established two new organizations to implement the procedures: the Classification Resource Committee (CRC) and the Commodity Classification Standards Board (CCSB). It said the CRC is a group made up of elected representatives chosen by NMFC participating motor carriers in North America that will provide the CCSB with advice, information, and resources.   

The role of the CCSB as an autonomous classification-making board is to oversee the responsibility of investigating, considering, and acting on classification matters, according to the NMFTA. These matters include: proposals for amending the classification of commodities, commodity descriptions, classes, rules, packaging definitions, specifications and requirements, bills of lading and any other provisions included in the NMFC.

As the faction that will be charged with making all classification decisions, “it is incumbent upon the CCSB to make sure that all interested parties are heard from,” said Joel Ringer, CCSB chairman.

“It is important to note that anyone that has an interest an any classification matter—whether it be a shipper, carrier, or third party—will have the opportunity to participate in the classification process, much as they do today, except they do not vote on the decision,” said Ringer. “Instead, they provide comments and views, and it is then left to the CCSB to re-evaluate and relate that information to establish classification criteria in the form or policy and guidelines.”

Ringer also pointed out that the criteria and principles behind the classification to determine the relative transportability to of everything that moves in commerce and put into one of 18 classes—density, stowability, handling, and liability—will not change.

“Those criteria were found to be just and reasonable and by the Interstate Commerce Commission and subsequently the STB, and there was nothing in the STB’s decision [in May] in regard to our antitrust immunity that called into question those criteria,” explained Ringer.