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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by cornmaze [quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by MichaelSol How on earth did you conclude that? [/quote] Futuremodal asked rhetorically: "when was the last time anyone heard of a non-captive shipper complaining about rail rates?". His statement suggests that, historically, only "captive shippers" have ever complained about rail rates. Yet, the first post contains documentation of serious debate that took place about rail rates in 1963 -- when regulation prevented railroads from exploiting monopoly positions with regards pricing. [/quote] As my user name suggests, I like to focus on the future, not the past. That being said, yes it is a rhetorical jab. Well, you know what they say about trying to answer a rhetorical question.......[%-)] However, you seem to be under the impression that there was no competition under railroad regulation, and that's not the case. Railroads did compete with each other for business in those areas where more than one or two Class I's existed. It's just that it wasn't true market competition since the ICC oversaw all rates and services. And that's where a more comprehensive understanding of the rhetorical question comes into play. If you remember from Staggers Act discussions, rate regulation did not automatically benefit shippers, because more often than not the regulated rate was itself out of touch with the shipper's desires for responsiveness in conjuction with his market adjustments. THAT is where shipper complaints originated, aka rate regulation involved a lot of red tape that conjealed shippers' abilities to adjust to ever changing market flucuations. Thus, under regulation it can be seen that rail shippers, all rail shippers as well as all railroads, were captive to ICC madates, sometimes to their advantage, sometimes to their detriment. After Staggers, those shippers with multiple Class I access were freed of captivity, while those shippers with only one Class I connection simply had their state of captivity shifted from the ICC to their Class I connection. Again, do you have any examples of a non-captive rail shipper complaining about rail rates post Staggers?
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