§ 142. Rate bureau regulation. 1. For the purpose of achieving a
stable rate structure through regulated competition, the commissioner
shall establish rules and regulations with respect to collective
ratemaking procedures for all motor carrier transportation services over
which the commissioner has jurisdiction. Any common carrier of property
or passengers by motor vehicle subject to regulation by the commissioner
and party to an agreement between or among two or more carriers relating
to rates, fares, classifications, divisions, allowances or charges,
including charges between carriers and compensation paid or received for
the use of facilities and equipment, or rules and regulations pertaining
thereto, or procedures for the joint consideration, initiation or
establishment thereof, may, under such rules and regulations as the
commissioner may prescribe, apply to the commissioner for approval of
the agreement, and the commissioner shall by order approve any such
agreement if it is found that, by reason of the transportation policy
declared in section one hundred thirty-seven of this article, the relief
provided in subdivision seven of this section should apply with respect
to the making and carrying out of such agreement; otherwise the
application shall be denied. The approval of the commissioner shall be
granted only upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner may
prescribe as necessary to carry out the purposes of this article.

2. Each conference, bureau, committee or other organization
established or continued pursuant to any such agreement approved by the
commissioner under this section shall maintain such accounts, records,
files and memoranda and shall submit to the commissioner such
information and reports as may be prescribed by the commissioner and all
such accounts, records, files and memoranda shall be subject to
inspection by the commissioner or department representatives.

3. The commissioner shall not approve any such agreement which is an
agreement with respect to a pooling or division of traffic, or service,
or of gross or net earnings, or of any portion thereof.

4. The commissioner shall not approve under this section any agreement
which establishes a procedure for the determination of any matter
through joint consideration unless it is found that under the agreement
there is accorded to each party the free and unrestrained right to take
independent action either before or after any determination arrived at
through such procedure.

5. The commissioner is authorized, upon complaint or upon the
commissioner's initiative without complaint, to investigate and
determine whether any such agreement previously approved under this
section, or terms and conditions upon which such approval was granted,
is not or are not, in conformity with the standards set forth in
subdivision one of this section, or whether any such terms and
conditions are unnecessary for the purposes of conformity with such
standards, and, after such investigation, the commissioner may by order
terminate or modify any approval of such agreement, or modify the terms
and conditions of such approval, if such action is necessary to assure
conformity with such standards. The effective date of any order
terminating or modifying approval, or modifying terms and conditions,
shall be postponed for such period as the commissioner determines to be
reasonably necessary to avoid undue hardships.

6. No order shall be entered under this section except after
interested parties have been afforded reasonable notice and opportunity
to be heard.

7. Parties to any such agreement approved by the commissioner under
this section and other parties are hereby relieved from the operation of
section three hundred forty of the general business law with respect to
the making of such agreement, and with respect to the carrying out of
such agreement in conformity with the terms and conditions prescribed by
the commissioner.

8. Rate conferences, by regulating collective ratemaking under the
supervision of the department, have established a system of pricing
actively supervised by the department which fosters competition through
approved rate levels and the right of independent action while
furnishing a responsible transportation service to the public. Continued
departmental supervision of proposed rate filings by such conferences
will continue to yield advantageous transportation rates which, although
they may tend to displace competition in the classical sense, in
actuality foster responsible, competitive motor carrier transportation
service to the public, while concurrently developing and approving
competitive rate levels among motor carriers in furtherance of the
transportation policy contained in section one hundred thirty-seven of
this chapter. The dangers inherent in a consumer's selection of a motor
carrier on the basis of price alone will also be discouraged.