On 1 July 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform and Modernization Act (MCA). The act significantly reduced the control of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) over the trucking industry and truckers. The trucking industry had been regulated by the ICC since Congress passed the Motor Carrier Act of 1935. That act required new truckers to seek a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the ICC. The MCA made it considerably easier for a trucker to obtain these certificates, by shifting the burden of proof needed to receive a certificate from the applicant to the party challenging the issuance of the certificate. It also gave the trucking industry greater freedom to set rates, by creating a zone of reasonableness, meaning that truckers could increase or decrease rates from the 1980 levels by 15 percent without challenge. The act forced the ICC to eliminate many of their restrictions on the kinds of goods that could be carried, on the routes that truckers could use, and on the geographic region they could serve. Passage of the MCA was part of a wave a deregulation beginning in 1978 of numerous areas of transportation including air freight, air passengers, and railroads.

Bibliography

Barrett, Colin. Shippers, Truckers, and the Law: How to Live With the New Motor Carrier Act, 1980. Reston, Va.: Barrett, 1980.

McMullen, B. Starr, ed. Transportation After Deregulation. Amsterdam, N.Y.: JAI, 2001.

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