FOR RELEASE
Contact: Janie Sheng (202) 245-0221
06/16/2000 (Friday)
No. 00-29


FedRelay 1 (800) 877-8339
www.stb.gov
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD MODIFIES CARLOAD WAYBILL SAMPLE REPORTING REGULATIONS




SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD MODIFIES CARLOAD WAYBILL SAMPLE REPORTING REGULATIONS



Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced today that the Board has issued a decision modifying its existing regulations governing railroad reporting of the annual Carload Waybill Sample (Waybill Sample) data to require all railroads to identify contract movements. The Board also has established a 30-year time limit on Waybill Sample confidentiality.



Railroads annually terminating 4,500 or more carloads (or five percent of their carloads in any state) are required to report to the Board various shipment data, including revenues, on individual movements drawn from a sampling of their traffic waybills. The Waybill Sample is used for a variety of purposes by the Board, by parties appearing before the agency, by federal and state agencies, and by the general public. Because of the current widespread use of confidential transportation contracts in the industry, the Board has revised Waybill Sample reporting requirements to ensure that accurate and representative data on contract movements are reported. At the same time, the confidentiality of sensitive contract information is protected by allowing railroads to encrypt revenue data via Board-approved "masking factors" that will not reveal actual revenue information to any party except the Board.



The Board also has modified its regulations to set a 30-year limit on the confidentiality of the Waybill Sample. This confidentiality limit has been set to enhance the usefulness of the Waybill Sample by allowing access for future researchers and to conform to requirements of the National Archives and Records Administration for historical record storage. The Board has selected the period of 30 years to ensure that proprietary information concerning railroad shipments and contracts are not released to the public prematurely.



The Board's decision was issued in Modification of the Carload Waybill Sample and Public Use File Regulations, STB Ex Parte No. 385 (Sub-No. 4). A printed copy of the decision is available for a fee by contacting: Da-To-Da Office Solutions, Room 405, 1925 K Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006, telephone (202) 466-5530. The decision also is available on the Board's web site at www.stb.dot.gov. For further information, telephone H. Jeff Warren at (202) 565-1533.



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