77-7-217 - Commission hearings upon reasonableness of rates of common carriers.
§ 77-7-217. Commission hearings upon reasonableness of rates of common carriers.
Any person, state board, organization or body politic may make complaint in writing to the commission that any such rate, fare, charge, classification, rule, regulation or practice in effect, or proposed to be put into effect, is or will be in violation of Sections 77-7-153, 77-7-187, 77-7-211 through 77-7-215. The provisions of this section shall not apply to common carriers of household goods.
Whenever, after hearing, upon complaint or in an investigation on its own initiative, the commission is of the opinion that any individual or joint rate, fare or charge, demanded, charged or collected by any common carrier or carriers by motor vehicle or by any common carrier or carriers by motor vehicle in conjunction with any common carrier or carriers by railroad or express, or water, or any classification, rule, regulation or practice whatsoever of such carrier or carriers affecting such rate, fare or charge or the value of the service thereunder, is or will be unjust or unreasonable, or unjustly discriminatory or unduly preferential or unduly prejudicial, it shall determine and prescribe the lawful rate, fare or charge thereunder to be observed, or the lawful classification, rule, regulation or practice thereafter to be made effective.
The commission shall, whenever deemed by it to be necessary or desirable in the public interest, after hearing, upon complaint or upon its own initiative without a complaint, establish through routes, and joint rates, fares, charges, regulations or practices, applicable to the transportation of passengers by common carriers by motor vehicle, or the maxima or minima, to be charged, and the terms and conditions under which the through routes shall be operated.
Whenever, after hearing, upon complaint or upon its own initiative, the commission is of opinion that the divisions of joint rates, fares or charges, applicable to the transportation of passengers by common carriers by motor vehicle or by such carriers in conjunction with common carriers by railroad or express, or water are, or will be unjust, unreasonable, inequitable or unduly preferential or prejudicial as between the carriers parties thereto (whether agreed upon by such carriers, or any of them, or otherwise established), the commission shall by order prescribe the just, reasonable and equitable divisions thereof to be received by the several carriers. In cases where the joint rate, fare or charge was established pursuant to a finding or order of the commission and the divisions thereof are found by it to have been unjust, unreasonable or inequitable, or unduly preferential or prejudicial, the commission may also by order determine what would have been the just, reasonable and equitable divisions thereof to be received by the several carriers, and require adjustment to be made in accordance with the order, from the date of filing the complaint or entry of order of investigation or such other date subsequent as the commission finds justified and, in the case of joint rates prescribed by the commission, the order as to divisions may be made effective as a part of the original order.
Sources: Codes, 1942, §§ 7660, 7661; Laws, 1938, ch. 142; Laws, 1995, ch. 338, § 16; Laws, 2004, ch. 501, § 8, eff from and after July 1, 2004.