Eleven US trucking companies, including FedEx Freight and UPS Freight, face allegations before aCalifornian court that they have colluded to fix shipping rates through fuel surcharges since
2003.An agricultural equipment company, Farm Water Technological Services Inc., filed the suit inJuly, seeking damages for three times charges it and other trucking customers have incurred since30 July 2003.
The 11 LTL carriers cited in the action, before a district court in southern California, are:FedEx Freight, UPS Freight (Overnite Transportation Co. until 2005), YRC (Yellow Transportation andRoadway Express), Arkansas Best, Con-Way, Averitt Express, Jevic Transportation and its owner SunCapital Partners, New England Motor Freight, Old Dominion Freight Line, R+L Carriers and Saia.
The carriers have dismissed the allegations as baseless. “UPS Freight is prepared to vigorouslydefend itself against these allegations that we believe are without merit,” the Kansas City Starnewspaper quotes Ira Rosenfeld, a UPS spokesperson, as saying.
Farm Water Tech contends that the LTL trucking industry is highly consolidated and thatcooperation among companies is greater than in other industries. When gas prices began to risesharply in 2003, all the carriers imposed a fuel surcharge which, the lawsuit says, led to greaterrevenues and profits for the companies.
This is the latest legal antitrust pricing action against transport companies in the US inrecent months.
An Arizona company filed a lawsuit in May alleging that the five biggest railroads, includingKansas City Southern, fixed rates through fuel surcharges.
Last year the Justice Department began investigating alleged price fixing among air cargocompanies, the Kansas City Star said.
