Puget Sound Truck Lines, Inc. v. The United States of America and the Interstate Commerce Commission

Puget Sound Truck Lines, Inc. petitions, under 28 U.S.C. §'2342(5), for review of an Interstate Commerce Commission cease and desist order entered on February 11, 1975, which prohibits it from performing certain motor common carrier operations along Interstate Highway 1-5 in Washington. Petitioner contends these operations are authorized under the ■ Commission’s “superhighway rules,” 49 C.F.R. § 1042.3 . In its report and order, 120 M.C.C. 892, the Commission held inter alia that petitioner’s superhighway operations do not qualify under the superhighway rules because they and petitioner’s authorized route deviate from one another by more than 25 miles. On this basis we deny the petition.

Puget Sound is a Washington corporation which holds ICC operating authority for the transportation of general commodities be tween Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington, but only by a circuitous route: it holds “regular route” authority running north along Interstate Highway 1-5 from Portland to Chehalis, Washington, and thence west to South Bend, Washington; between South Bend and Aberdeen, Washington, to the north, it operates pursuant to “nonradial irregular-route” authority which allows…