Arkansas Code
Subchapter 4 - Freight — Railroads
§ 23-10-437. Intrastate freight — Rules

(a) The Arkansas Department of Transportation is authorized and empowered, as to all freight carried wholly within this state and the cars used therefor:
(1) To make and establish all needful rules, general and special, which may be different according to the circumstances and conditions of different railroads and localities and for different kinds and classes of freight and cars, providing for the time, place, and manner of demanding cars for or giving notice of shipment of such freight and the time, place, and manner and the order in which the cars shall be furnished to shippers for the purpose of shipping freight between points in this state; and
(2) To prescribe rules for:
(A) The furnishing, exchanging, and interchanging of cars, loaded and empty, by railroad companies as between each other;
(B) The time, place, terms, and conditions upon which cars shall be furnished and interchange shall be made, and, in the absence of an agreement of such railroad companies, the reasonable compensation to be paid by each railroad company for the use, loss, injury, or destruction of the cars of another railroad company in the transportation of freight;
(C) The time within which and the manner by which railroad companies shall give notice or make demand upon each other for cars to be furnished by one railroad company in exchange for loaded cars or to have its cars returned, the reasonable free time to be allowed the shipper for the loading of cars without incurring liability for demurrage, and the free time which shall be allowed to the shipper or consignee in which to unload freight without incurring any liability for demurrage; and
(D) A schedule of reasonable demurrage charges, reciprocal or otherwise, for the use of cars, irrespective of damages or penalties provided in this subchapter, which may be different for different railroads and different traffic and localities to be paid by shippers for the detention or use of cars, either in loading or unloading or paid by the railroads for failing in a reasonable time to furnish cars or to make delivery of loaded cars, subject to the penalties and damages provided in §§ 23-10-432 — 23-10-436 and the rules with respect thereto.


(b) The department, whenever it may deem it necessary in order to secure the prompt transportation of freight and preservation of property, shall be authorized to prescribe the minimum speed at which freight shall be moved when being transported between points within this state, including the time for transfer and delivery between connecting railroads.
(c) It shall be the duty of every such railroad to conform to all the rules and orders of the department made in accordance with this section. The failure of any such railroad company to observe the rules of the department, or to comply with the provisions of this section and §§ 23-10-401, 23-10-432 — 23-10-436, and 23-12-605 as to freight carried wholly within this state, shall be deemed an abuse subject to correction by the department and shall subject the railroad company to the penalties provided in §§ 23-10-432 — 23-10-436.

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