Sec. 19. (a) Any person or governmental entity may complain in writing to the department that any rate, fare, charge, tariff, classification, rule or practice in effect, or proposed to be put in effect by any carrier or carriers is, or will be, in violation of this chapter. When such a complaint is made, the department shall, after due notice to the carrier or carriers complained of, hear the complaining parties.

(b) If the department is of the opinion that any individual or joint rate, fare, tariff, charge, or classification being made or demanded by any common carrier or carriers subject to this chapter or by any common carriers operating in conjunction with common carriers by railroads or by water is, or will be, unjust and unlawful and unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or unduly preferential or unduly prejudicial, it shall determine and prescribe lawful maximum or minimum, and maximum and minimum rates, fares, charges, tariffs, rules, and classifications thereafter to be observed or thereafter to be made effective. The department may, on its own initiative, without complaint, whenever deemed by the department to be necessary and desirable in the public interest, establish through routes, joint classifications, joint rates, fares, charges, tariffs, regulations, or practices for the transportation of passengers or household goods by common carriers by motor vehicle or the carrier by railroad or by water, and may fix the maximum or minimum or the maximum and minimum rates to be charged and the terms and conditions under which the fares and charges shall be applied and the routes to be operated.

(c) The department may, after hearing or on its own initiative, prescribe what the just, reasonable, and equitable division of rates, fares, and charges are to be received and collected by the several carriers and require adjustment to be made between those carriers in accordance therewith. In those cases the department may require adjustment or division between the carriers from the date of filing the complaint or the entry of the order or any other date subsequent thereto as the department finds is just and reasonable, and in case joint rates are fixed by the department, the order as to those divisions may be made effective as of the date on which the investigation was ordered.

As added by P.L.99-1989, SEC.13. Amended by P.L.110-1995, SEC.15.