Summary: In response to a congressional request, GAO: (1) assessed the merits of retaining or eliminating certain Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) trucking regulatory functions; and (2) estimated the budgetary impact of deregulation on ICC.
GAO found that: (1) ICC had eight ancillary trucking regulatory functions, for which it spent about 483 staff years in fiscal year (FY) 1985; (2) the ICC labor effort has decreased by 13 percent and is expected to decrease an additional 5 years in FY 1988; (3) the budgetary effects of deregulation would depend on which functions Congress eliminated and how other agencies met those responsibilities; (4) while there is broad support for continued Department of Transportation (DOT) regulation of the trucking industry's safety practices and insurance coverage, there is little evidence of how ICC improves safety through its limited monitoring role; (5) the existing disparities in insurance coverage requirements for private carriers and for-hire carriers may not have merit, since insurance requirements promote safety; (6) there was no consensus on the continuing value of ICC promulgation and enforcement of rules regarding liability responsibility for cargo damage; and (7) neither DOT nor the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plan to collect the needed truck data if Congress eliminates the ICC data-gathering role.
