FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1996                              (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

                                 
         JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPROVES PROPOSAL TO REDUCE
           BUSINESS DISPUTES IN THE SHIPPING INDUSTRY
                                

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department today approved a
proposal by the Transportation Claims and Prevention Council,
Inc. to create new guidelines to help avoid costly legal disputes
between shippers and the companies they use to transport their
goods.
     Under the proposal, the "Shippers Bill" provided by the
carriers to their customers will contain all relevant contractual
terms to insure that shippers are clearly informed about the
terms of the contracts they enter with the motor carriers they
use to ship their goods.
     The Transportation Claims and Prevention Council has over
500 members who ship goods via motor carrier.  For many years,
motor carriers and their shipper customers have used a cumbersome
contractual document -- the Uniform Bill -- that refers to
important contract terms and conditions that are not explained in
the Uniform Bill.
     While carriers must provide the contract information to
shippers on request, they were not provided with such information
automatically, and the council asserted that, in practice, many
shippers did not know about these terms resulting in costly
disputes. 
     To remedy this deficiency, the Transportation Claims and
Prevention Council proposes to develop and publish the a
Shippers' Bill containing all relevant terms and conditions
within the body of the document.  Council members would be free
to use the Shippers' Bill with any motor carrier who agreed to
use it.  No shipper or carrier would be required to utilize the
council's standardized form.  The proposed Shippers' Bill would
not reflect any agreement by rivals as to price or price-related
terms.  The documents would contain blank spaces for price and
price-related items to allow them to be determined by the
individual shipper and carrier. 
     Anne K. Bingaman, Antitrust Attorney General in charge of
the Antitrust Division, said that "the voluntary nature of the
proposed standardized business forms and the fact that they do
not involve any agreement among rivals as to price or price-
related terms or conditions lead us to conclude that the
council's contemplated activities are not likely to cause
competitive concerns."
     Bingaman also noted that "if the utilization of a form of
contract that improves the parties knowledge and reduces the cost
of business disputes, such a result could be procompetitive".
     Under the Department's Business Review Procedure, an
organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust
Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will
challenge the action under the antitrust laws.
     A file containing the business review request and the
Department's response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit
of the Antitrust Division, Suite 215, Liberty Place, 325 7th
Street, N.W., Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.  20004. 
After a 30-day waiting period, the documents supporting the
business review will be added to the file.

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