own tariff. Not so, however, with interactive filing, which requires access to the item desired to be changed by the casual filer. While some comments suggest that interactive filing could be dispensed with, the Commission believes that this feature will be extremely helpful to the small operators, especially NVOCC's. The comments do not mention a very important fact. Conference tariffs are filed by conferences, not the carrier members; yet the carrier member is required by law to charge the conference tariff rate. Even though the carrier may have voted for the rate change at a conference meeting, it would not immediately know when the rate was actually filed or became legally effective, unless it had access to the conference tariff. The arguments against allowing carriers remote access to their own or their conference tariffs lead to the same dilemma as the argument against remote retrieval itself. The carrier on the West Coast could not access its tariffs; but the public and competing carriers in the Washington, D.C., public reference room could. Commercial firms now provide and will continue to provide services which provide tariff information to the shipping industry and the public. Some of the commenting, shippingindustry firms indicate that such services will satisfy their needs when ATFI becomes operative. Again, the Commission encourages commercial firms to provide tariff services for the carriers, conferences, freight forwarders, terminal operators, and shippers who want them. On the other hand, some commenters urge the Commission to retain ATFI'S remote retrieval feature. The few commercial shippers, represented in the comments, were all in favor of the Commission retaining the function. The Commission has to be and is most concerned about the shipper who is the real customer of tariffs. If shippers want the remote retrieval function, then the Commission should provide it for them. D. CONCLUSION The Notice of Inquiry on Tariff Automation was published in the Federal Register on December 22, 1987 (52 FR 48504). In this outreach effort, the Commission provided opportunity for comment by anyone whose business operation may be affected by the basic functionality of the FMC's Automated Tariff Filing and Information System (ATFI), as described in the Notice, so that the final Request for Proposals can set forth the necessary specifications for the best possible system. Nineteen, comments were submitted by representatives from Government, the Congress, carriers, conferences, shippers, freight forwarders, information industry and associations. the Based on the comments submitted, the Commission has reconsidered how ATFI may affect industry and the public. As further explained in this report, the Commission has decided to continue with the basic functionality of ATFI as described in the Notice. This includes all originally planned methods of providing access to tariff data, such as the availability of the full data base tapes, and on-line access to the data base, both remotely by modem, as well as in the public reference room. The specifications for the system are contained in a draft Request for Proposals which were submitted to potential offerors beginning on March 18, 1988. The Commission has decided to provide remote retrieval of tariffs by modem, given the policies underlying the Freedom of Information Act and the shipping statutes, and the estimated, relatively low cost of providing that service. As described in the Notice, members of the general public using this feature would be able to perform only relatively rudimentary retrievals, and essentially no analysis of the data. This means retrieval of only one tariff at a time, in its full format. To retrieve a tariff, the public user would have to specify the specific tariff of a particular carrier that is desired; the public user would not be able to search by keys, e.g., by route or commodity. In making this decision, the Commission was also impressed by the fact that the few commercial shippers represented in the comments all urged the Commission to retain this function. Shippers are the primary users of tariff data and are the major beneficiaries of the tariff laws. Otherwise, some commenters indicated that commercial tariff services would meet their needs. The Commission encourages the continuation of such "third-party vendors" and the use of their services by those that desire them. Throughout its development and eventual operation, the Commission continues to invite comments on ATFI. By the Commission. Jough C. Packing Joseph C. Polking AUTOMATED TARIFF FILING AND INFORMATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE [ATFI) Summary of Minutes of Meeting Held in Hearing Room No. 1 of the Federal Maritime Commission, at 1100 L Street, N.W., Washington, D. C., on November 19, 1986 MEMBERS OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE PRESENT * [From the Federal Maritime Commission]: John Robert Ewers, FMC, Executive Secretary of ATFI. * (Absent: Commissioner Edward J. Philbin, Chairman, ATFI Advisory Committee, who designated Vice Chairman James J. Carey to preside at the meeting.) [Representing Freight Forwarders]: Stuart Stone, National Customs and Forwarders Association of Frank Dausz, George S. Bush & Co., Inc. [Representing Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carriers (NVOCCs)]: (Position at pp. 20-21) W.E. Reinke, President, Zephyr Container Line. * (Absent: Hellmuth M. Dieterle, Vice President, Harper Robinson & Co.) [Representing Port Interests]: Robert Leighton, Virginia Port Authority (Appointed in May, 1986 to succeed J. Stanley Payne). Thomas J. Tomasco, Manager, Transportation and Regulatory * (Absent: Roger L. Peters, Traffic Manager, Port of San Francisco and Chairman, Tariff and Practices MEMBERS OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE PRESENT * (Contd.) [Representing Exporters and Importers]: John R. Berkery, American Association of Exporters and Importers. Gerald M. Hanson, Materials and Logistics Department, E. I. DuPont De Nemours and Company. * (Absent: Thomas R. Dirmyer, Manager, International Logistics, B.F. Goodrich Company.) [Representing Information Service Firms]: Douglas C. Tucker, President, Tariff Resources, Inc. J.W. Sullivan, Vice President, Distribution Publications, Inc. David Peyton, Director, Government Relations, Information Industry Association. [Representing Vessel Operating Common Carriers]: V. P. Staunton, Staff Vice President, Regulatory Services, D. A. Grandt, Manager, Pricing Services, American President Lines (Appointed in May, 1986 to succeed William Sink). Preben Hein, sitting in for Robert L. Cerrato, Manager, Customer Service, U.S.A., Moller Steamship Co., Inc. [Representing Steamship Conferences]: Harvey Flitter, U.S. European Carrier Associations. Linda DiSabatino, sitting in for John J. Powers, Executive Thomas J. Conroy, Chairman, U.S. Atlantic and Gulf/Australia-New Zealand Conference.) |