By Will Robinson, Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal; May 24, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. — There were no mixed messages from the more than 40 rail shippers who addressed the Surface Transportation Board, a federal regulator, in two days of hearings this week: Railroads are ramping up fines against shippers, unilaterally imposing impossible-to-follow rules and auto-invoicing fines without investigating fault, the shippers said in testimony and written statements.
This “outcry from customers,” in the words of STB Chairwoman Ann Begeman, did not fall on deaf ears.