TO: ALL COMMON CARRIERS, CONFERENCES OF COMMON CARRIERS AND PUBLISHERS OF CARRIER/CONFERENCE AUTOMATED TARIFF SYSTEMS

SUBJECT: PUBLIC ACCESS TO TARIFFS AND TARIFF SYSTEMS UNDER THE OCEAN SHIPPING REFORM ACT OF 1998

Effective May 1, 1999, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 (“OSRA”) modified the Shipping Act of 1984 (“1984 Act”) to require carriers and conferences to publish their rates in private, automated tariff systems. OSRA requires these tariffs to be made available electronically to any person, without limits on time, quantity, or other such limitation, through appropriate access from remote locations, and authorizes that “a reasonable charge” may be assessed for access. See 46 U.S.C. app. § 1707(a)(2).

OSRA charges the Federal Maritime Commission (“Commission”) with prescribing requirements for the “accessibility and accuracy” of these systems; the periodic review of these systems; and the prohibition of the use of systems that fail to meet the Commission’s requirements. 46 U.S.C. app. § 1707(g). The Commission has implemented requirements intended to permit shippers and other members of the public to obtain reliable and useful tariff information. 46 C.F.R. Part 520.

The Commission has found that some tariff systems appear to limit the public’s ability to access tariffs. Therefore, the Commission is issuing this circular letter to notify carriers, conferences, and tariff publishers about the concerns listed below, and to offer assistance in having them corrected. Those involved in publishing carrier tariff systems are encouraged to resolve any access problems and to ensure that their tariffs are the information tools envisioned by OSRA. The Commission intends to enforce its regulatory requirements if these problems are not corrected.

(1) Instructions – The Commission’s rules require tariff systems to provide user instructions for access to tariff information. 46 C.F.R. § 520.9(e)(4). While some systems contain such instructions, others do not. Additionally, the instructions that are provided in others are not helpful. Consequently, tariff/tariff system instructions should be reviewed by carriers, conferences, and tariff publishers for their completeness and user helpfulness, and corrections or enhancements should be made as needed.

(2) Commodity Index/Search Features – The Commission’s rules provide that commodity descriptions in a tariff have at least one similar index entry which will logically represent the commodity within an alphabetical index for that tariff. 46 C.F.R. § 520.4(e)(3). The rules also require that a text search match for a commodity description should result in the commodity or commodity index lists. 46 C.F.R. § 520.6(b). Some tariffs do not provide an alphabetical commodity index and fail to provide any search feature which results in either a commodity description or a commodity index.

In accordance with the Commission’s regulations at 46 C.F.R. § 520.6(a)(2), most tariff systems allow a user to search for a tariff rate when the user provides the commodity description and the origin and destination. Such searches, however, often result in error messages or a notice that no such rate exists, when the user does not know the commodity description(s) contained in the tariff. Such search features unduly restrict the public’s access to tariff rate information when no alphabetical commodity index list or no instructions are provided to assist the user in locating the commodity index list.

The Commission expects all tariffs systems to contain alphabetical commodity indices as provided for under 46 C.F.R. § 520.4, and to provide commodity description searches that result in either a commodity or a commodity index as required under 46 C.F.R. § 520.6(b). The Commission expects all tariff systems to provide adequate assistance or instructions to users for accessing a commodity index.

(3) Search date capability/historic records – The Commission’s rules under 46 C.F.R. § 520.10(a) require access to historical tariff data to be kept on-line for two years. After two years, such data may be retained on-line or in another electronic form, and shall be made available to any person or the Commission upon request in a reasonable period of time.

Under 46 C.F.R. § 520.10(b), the Commission requires each tariff to provide the capability for a retriever to enter an access date so that all tariff information in effect on that date can be retrieved. This capability is required also to align any rate adjustments and assessorial charges that were effective on the access date for rate calculations and designation of applicable surcharges, as well as to align tariff objects for any governing tariffs.

Several systems appropriately comply with this requirement. The Commission is concerned though, that some tariff systems may not permit changes to the access date and others may only allow historical access to certain tariff information. Accordingly, the Commission advises carriers, conferences, and tariff publishers to verify that their tariff systems provide access to all historical tariff information. Prompt attention to any deficiency of this type is critical to ensure that historical tariff data is not irretrievably lost.

(4) Downloading/software problems – The Commission is aware that some tariff systems or the system’s software: (1) require considerable time to download or must be downloaded each time a user enters the system and/or (2) operate at exceedingly slow speeds in moving from one function to another. It is also noted that delays experienced in using tariff systems that charge on a per minute basis only add to the public’s expense and further limit the public’s access to tariffs. The Commission encourages carriers and publishers to correct software problems that unreasonably limit public access.

(5) Fees – The Commission is concerned that certain fees and/or monthly minimum requirements effectively may limit public access to certain tariffs or tariff systems, contrary to the requirements of OSRA. The Commission, therefore, soon will institute an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the matter of access fees and monthly minimum charges. Through this proceeding, the Commission will seek input from all interested parties on its initial proposal for addressing this issue.

The Commission recognizes that several carriers, conferences, and tariff publishers have published electronic tariffs that are in accordance with OSRA and the Commission’s rules. We appreciate those efforts, as well as other attempts to improve tariff publication systems. However, to the extent the foregoing access concerns exist, they must be rectified. The Commission also has encouraged public users to notify the Commission’s Bureau of Trade Analysis of any problems that they may have experienced in accessing tariff systems. The Commission intends to work with the industry to correct any problems that limit the public’s ability to electronically access published tariffs. But, if these problems cannot be remedied through cooperation, the Commission will consider other actions to improve public access to tariffs in accordance with the Congressional mandate contained in OSRA.

Bruce A. Dombrowski
Executive Director

Dated: April 6, 2000