Are Shippers Associations regulated, licensed, or bonded?
No. Shippers’ Associations have been subject to little or no government regulation since the government commenced regulating the transportation industry in the last century. Shippers’ Associations were first statutorily recognized in 1942, as an exemption to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act regulating surface freight forwarders, and were essentially unregulated in the domestic market. The Shipping Act of 1984 explicitly recognized them as a separate legal entity in the international trades. The federal government and the judiciary have consistently adopted policies designed to avoid encumbering the operations of Shippers’ Associations.
