William O. Douglas

“ In our view, the District Court exacted a standard of compliance with procedural rules that was wholly unnecessary to provide an adequate record to review the Commission's decision.
The Commission is entitled to a measure of discretion in administering its own procedural rules in such a manner as it deems necessary to resolve quickly and correctly urgent transportation problems. It is argued that the rules were adopted to confer important procedural benefits upon individuals ”

“ They go to the heart of the issue in a temporary authority proceeding. The significance of the rules does not depend on whether, in the Court's words, they 'confer important procedural benefits upon individuals.' but rather on the fact that they are designed to elicit information crucial to determining whether in light of congressional policies a particular factual situation warrants the grant of a temporary authority. Nor is the question in this case, as the Court assumes, whether the ICC erred in failing to require 'strict' compliance with the rules. ”

“ Again, the unsatisfactory carriers are not identified; their reasons for not improving are not reported; and the 'experience' on which DOD bases its assessment of them is not specified.
In sum, the DOD statement fails to supply that concrete evidence of the inability of particular existing carriers to provide the needed service that would enable protestants and ICC to make an informed assessment of AFL's application. Of course, DOD was not called upon to supply the specifics of innumerable instances of inadequate or unavailable service or of every effort to obtain improved service. ”

“ The statement explains that it is often necessary to coordinate arrival of inbound shipments with production schedules at factories. As an example, it cites a situation in which only one of the currently certificated carriers has proven able to meet the delivery schedules, even though other carriers were made aware of the need for 'timed' deliveries. The one satisfactory carrier cannot transport the entire load. However, the statement does not identify the carriers whose service has been unsatisfactory; it does not say what efforts were made to have them improve their service ”

“ Several traffic studies reveal that common carriers have lost considerable traffic which they formerly handled and, at the same time, have been unable to share proportionately in the additional traffic generated by the Nation's expanding economy. ”

“ Thus there is no reason to exempt this case from the general principle that ' (i) t is always within the discretion of a court or an administrative agency to relax or modify its procedural rules adopted for the orderly transaction of business before it when in a given case the ends of justice require it. ”

“ By virtue of § 203 (b) (5) of the Interstate Commerce Act, 54 Stat. 921, as amended, 49 U.S.C. § 303 (b) (5) , AFL may transport freight for its members without obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity from the ICC. In 1965 § 203 (b) (5) was construed to exempt from the certification requirement any freight transportation by an agricultural cooperative for shippers other than its own members to the extent that such nonmember transportation is incidental and necessary to its principal transportation activities. See Northwest Agricultural Cooperative Assn. ”