A lawsuit brought on by eight shippers accusing the top four U.S. railroads of colluding to set fuel surcharges gained class action status recently.
The lawsuit accuses BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation of conspiring to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize prices from mid-2003 until 2008. The shippers also allege the railroads “moved in uniform lockstep to fix prices for the fuel surcharges, which bore no direct relationship to their actual fuel cost increases,” according to a statement.