(a) Terms. When used in this section, the following terms will have these meanings:
(1) Amendment means any change to a service contract which has prospective effect and which is mutually agreed upon by the service contract parties.
(2) Correction means any change to a service contract which has retroactive effect.
(3) Cancellation means an event which is unanticipated by the service contract, in liquidated damages or otherwise, and is due to the failure of the shipper party to tender minimum cargo as set forth in the contract, unless such tender was made impossible by an action of the carrier party.
(b) Amendment. Service contracts may be amended by mutual agreement of the parties to the contract. Amendments shall be filed electronically with the Commission in the manner set forth in § 530.8 and appendix A to this part.
(1) Where feasible, service contracts should be amended by amending only the affected specific term(s) or subterms.
(2) Each time any part of a service contract is amended, the filer shall assign a consecutive amendment number (up to three digits), beginning with the number “1.”
(3) Each time any part of the service contract is amended, the “Filing Date” will be the date of filing of the amendment.
(c) Corrections. Requests shall be filed, in duplicate, with the Commission's Office of the Secretary within one-hundred eighty (180) days of the contract's filing with the Commission, accompanied by remittance of a $97 service fee, and must include:
(1) A letter of transmittal explaining the purpose of the submission, and providing specific information to identify the initial or amended service contract to be corrected;
(2) A paper copy of the proposed correct terms. Corrections shall be indicated as follows:
(i) Matter being deleted shall be struck through; and
(ii) Matter to be added shall immediately follow the language being deleted and be underscored;
(3) An affidavit from the filing party attesting with specificity to the factual circumstances surrounding the clerical or administrative error, with reference to any supporting documentation;
(4) Documents supporting the clerical or administrative error; and
(5) A brief statement from the other party to the contract concurring in the request for correction.
(6) If the request for correction is granted, the carrier, agreement or conference shall file the corrected contract provisions using a special case number as described in appendix A to this part.
(d) Electronic transmission errors. An authorized person who experiences a purely technical electronic transmission error or a data conversion error in transmitting a service contract filing or amendment thereto is permitted to file a Corrected Transmission (“CT”) of that filing within 30 days of the date and time of receipt recorded in SERVCON. This time-limited permission to correct an initial defective service contract filing is not to be used to make changes in the original service contract rates, terms or conditions that are otherwise provided for in paragraphs 530.10(b) and (c) of this section. The CT tab box in SERVCON must be checked at the time of resubmitting a previously filed service contract, and a description of the corrections made must be stated at the beginning of the corrected service contract in a comment box. Failure to check the CT box and enter a description of the correction will result in the rejection of a file with the same name, since documents with duplicate file names or service contract and amendment numbers are not accepted by SERVCON.
(e) Cancellation.
(1) An account may be adjusted for events and damages covered by the service contract. This shall include adjustment necessitated by either liability for liquidated damages appearing in the service contract as filed with the Commission under § 530.8(b)(7), or the occurrence of an event described below in paragraph (d)(2) of this section.
(2) In the event of cancellation as defined in § 530.10(a)(3):
(i) Further or continued implementation of the service contract is prohibited; and
(ii) The cargo previously carried under the contract shall be re-rated according to the otherwise applicable tariff provisions.
[64 FR 11206, Mar. 8, 1999, as amended at 64 FR 23793, May 4, 1999; 67 FR 39860, June 11, 2002; 68 FR 43327, July 22, 2003; 70 FR 10330, Mar. 3, 2005; 81 FR 59144, Aug. 29, 2016; 82 FR 16296, Apr. 4, 2017; 83 FR 50294, Oct. 5, 2018; 85 FR 38089, June 25, 2020; 85 FR 72578, Nov. 13, 2020]