§ 142. Rate bureau regulation. 1. For the purpose of achieving a stable rate structure through regulated competition, the commissioner shall establish rules and regulations with respect to collective ratemaking procedures for all motor carrier transportation services over which the commissioner has jurisdiction. Any common carrier of property or passengers by motor vehicle subject to regulation by the commissioner and party to an agreement between or among two or more carriers relating to rates, fares, classifications, divisions, allowances or charges, including charges between carriers and compensation paid or received for the use of facilities and equipment, or rules and regulations pertaining thereto, or procedures for the joint consideration, initiation or establishment thereof, may, under such rules and regulations as the commissioner may prescribe, apply to the commissioner for approval of the agreement, and the commissioner shall by order approve any such agreement if it is found that, by reason of the transportation policy declared in section one hundred thirty-seven of this article, the relief provided in subdivision seven of this section should apply with respect to the making and carrying out of such agreement; otherwise the application shall be denied. The approval of the commissioner shall be granted only upon such terms and conditions as the commissioner may prescribe as necessary to carry out the purposes of this article.

2. Each conference, bureau, committee or other organization established or continued pursuant to any such agreement approved by the commissioner under this section shall maintain such accounts, records, files and memoranda and shall submit to the commissioner such information and reports as may be prescribed by the commissioner and all such accounts, records, files and memoranda shall be subject to inspection by the commissioner or department representatives.

3. The commissioner shall not approve any such agreement which is an agreement with respect to a pooling or division of traffic, or service, or of gross or net earnings, or of any portion thereof.

4. The commissioner shall not approve under this section any agreement which establishes a procedure for the determination of any matter through joint consideration unless it is found that under the agreement there is accorded to each party the free and unrestrained right to take independent action either before or after any determination arrived at through such procedure.

5. The commissioner is authorized, upon complaint or upon the commissioner's initiative without complaint, to investigate and determine whether any such agreement previously approved under this section, or terms and conditions upon which such approval was granted, is not or are not, in conformity with the standards set forth in subdivision one of this section, or whether any such terms and conditions are unnecessary for the purposes of conformity with such standards, and, after such investigation, the commissioner may by order terminate or modify any approval of such agreement, or modify the terms and conditions of such approval, if such action is necessary to assure conformity with such standards. The effective date of any order terminating or modifying approval, or modifying terms and conditions, shall be postponed for such period as the commissioner determines to be reasonably necessary to avoid undue hardships.

6. No order shall be entered under this section except after interested parties have been afforded reasonable notice and opportunity to be heard.

7. Parties to any such agreement approved by the commissioner under this section and other parties are hereby relieved from the operation of section three hundred forty of the general business law with respect to the making of such agreement, and with respect to the carrying out of such agreement in conformity with the terms and conditions prescribed by the commissioner.

8. Rate conferences, by regulating collective ratemaking under the supervision of the department, have established a system of pricing actively supervised by the department which fosters competition through approved rate levels and the right of independent action while furnishing a responsible transportation service to the public. Continued departmental supervision of proposed rate filings by such conferences will continue to yield advantageous transportation rates which, although they may tend to displace competition in the classical sense, in actuality foster responsible, competitive motor carrier transportation service to the public, while concurrently developing and approving competitive rate levels among motor carriers in furtherance of the transportation policy contained in section one hundred thirty-seven of this chapter. The dangers inherent in a consumer's selection of a motor carrier on the basis of price alone will also be discouraged.