Although the expert witnesses herein all agree that some type of training program is required to qualify personnel for handling the involved commodities, there is a considerable divergence of opinion among them as to the length of time needed to teach the necessary safety procedures and techniques. Cosmodyne Corporation provides a 1-day training program for drivers, while the Linde Company offers a 2-day training program followed by about 5 days of over-the-road supervision by an experienced driver. On the other hand, the National Bureau of Standards representative stated that the course of training he gave to four Asbury drivers in the handling of liquid hydrogen encompassed a period of 4 months.

APPLICANTS' EVIDENCE

All 21 applicants are common carriers by motor vehicle authorized to transport various specific liquid commodities, in bulk, in tank vehicles, over irregular routes. Each has one or more terminals in its respective operating territory, maintains a fleet of conventional tank equipment, conducts a safety program, and otherwise complies with our rules and regulations. The evidence concerning the authority, facilities, and present operations of each applicant was comprehensively and accurately set out by the examiner in an appendix to his report. Relevant portions of that appendix are reproduced in appendix II hereto.

Both Asbury and Cantlay hold temporary authority, conditioned to expire upon final determination of their respective applications herein, to transport cryogenic liquids between points in the 30State area. During the first 4 months of 1962, Asbury had gross operating revenues of $2,613,167, of which approximately $1,450,000 was derived from the transportation of cryogenic liquids. It devotes 161 tractors, valued at $1,835,000, exclusively to such transportation and employs 238 driver-technicians in its cryogenic division. It leases 21 liquid oxygen-nitrogen trailers and 1 liquid hydrogen trailer, and at the time of the hearing had 3 additional liquid hydrogen trailers on order which were scheduled for delivery in November 1962. Applicant Cantlay has more than $325,000 invested in 17 tractors assigned to its cryogenic service. It leases 11 liquid oxygen-nitrogen trailers and at the time of the hearing had three 8,000-gallon liquid hydrogen trailers on order, the first of which was scheduled for delivery in October 1962. It has operated in excess of one

million miles in the transportation of cryogenic liquids without an accident of any kind. Applicant Allyn owns two liquid oxygennitrogen trailers and has engaged in extensive intrastate service in the transportation of those commodities in California. None of the other applicants leases or owns any tank trailers suitable for the movement of the involved commodities, 5 although a number have transported such commodities and other cryogenic liquids, including liquid fluorine, in shipper-owned vehicles.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

The Department of Defense and the Air Force assert a joint need for the services of at least 2 motor carriers authorized to transport all of the involved commodities between points in the 30-State territory under consideration here, and ready, willing, and able to provide service on short notice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, between any conceivable combination of points in that territory. Liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, used mainly in the Titan I and Atlas missiles, are produced by private contractors in 75-ton-a-day generators at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. (Cape Kennedy), Watertown, Colo., and Nimbus, Santa Susanna, and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. In addition, 25-ton-a-day generators are in operation at all of the approximately 100 missile sites located within the 30-State area except at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., and Lowry Air Force Base, Colo. Shipments between such sites are made almost daily, primarily as the result of an excess of product at some sites and shortages at others. It is estimated that approximately 5,000 individual point-to-point operations are possible between Air Force bases and missile sites in the involved territory. The Air Force expects to ship 731,700 tons of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen between points in the 30-State area in 1963, 744,500 tons in 1964, and 744,700 tons in 1965. Although the Air Force witness did not specifically indicate whether any portion of this tonnage would move in 5Chemical Leaman submitted a prepared statement in which it claimed that it ''maintains equipment to provide the service under consideration," but the claim is ambiguous in that the "service under consideration" then included rocket propellant fuels in addition to cryogenic liquids and none of the 445 insulated tank trailers included in its equipment list was specifically identified as being suitable for the transportation of liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen and nitrogen. Significantly, in its exceptions to the recommended order, Chemical Leaman made no attempt to clarify the ambiguity in its testimony, nor to rebut the evident skepticism of the examiner concerning its ability to transport the involved commodities with its present equipment.

intrastate commerce, it is obvious from the tenor of his other testimony and that of the Defense Department witness, as well as from traffic studies covering shipments of the involved commodities submitted by Asbury, Cantlay, and Allyn, that a large percentage of the traffic involved will consist of intrastate shipments.

Available for the movement of all of the above traffic are 114 Government-owned, tank-truck trailers, 28 tank trailers owned or leased by for-hire motor carriers,6 and 650 rail tank cars, most of which are owned by The Linde Company. An undisclosed percentage of this traffic has moved and will continue to move by rail, but rail service is described as unsuitable for shipments of less-than-carload volume or for those moving from or to points with inadequate loading or unloading facilities. The great bulk of the liquid oxygen-nitrogen traffic under consideration will move between points west of the Mississippi River since the majority of test sites for the Atlas and Titan missiles are located in the western section of the country. All interstate tank-truck shipments available for handling between points in the 30-State area have thus far been satisfactorily transported by Asbury and Cantlay under temporary authority in either shipper-owned or carrier-furnished tank vehicles. The Air Force estimated that no rail or motor equipment in addition to that in service at the time of the initial hearing in August 1962 would be needed to meet its future transportation requirements for the movement of the above traffic, a patently erroneous estimate in view of the seeming increase in the total number of liquid oxygen-nitrogen tank trailers operated by Asbury, Cantlay, and Allyn that occurred in the interval between the time of the initial hearing and the continued hearing.

Liquid hydrogen is now produced by private contractors at Government-owned plants in West Palm Beach, Fla., Painesville, Ohio, and Bakersfield, Calif. The West Palm Beach facility is the largest of the three plants, producing about 30 tons of liquid hydrogen daily. The majority of the shipments made from these plants have been destined to Cleveland and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Huntsville, Ala., Alexandria, Va., Seattle, Wash., San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, Calif. (as well as a number of points near Los Angeles), Tullahoma, 6As of the time of the initial hearing in August 1962. At the continued hearing in October 1962, the total number of liquid oxygen-nitrogen tank trailers owned or leased by Asbury, Cantlay, and Allyn was indicated to be 34.

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Tenn., Warren, Mich., Denver, Colo., Marietta, Ga., and Patrick Air Force Base. Normally, these destinations are supplied from the nearest generating facility, but because of shortages or shutdowns it is often necessary to ship the commodity from any one of the three indicated production points to any consumption point, regardless of its geographical location or distance from the source. For example, shipments have been made from West Palm Beach to points in California and from Bakersfield to points in Florida. New production and consumption points for liquid hydrogen are expected to arise in the future, and for this reason it is requested that any service authorized herein be granted on a territorial rather than a point-to-point basis. All present shipments of liquid hydrogen are being handled by Asbury in 15 Government-owned tank vehicles. The Air Force estimates that it will require tank-truck service for the movement of 3,166,800 pounds of liquid hydrogen in 1963, 4,132,000 pounds in 1964, and 5,028,000 pounds in 1965; or, based upon a 7,000-gallon tank trailer carrying approximately 3,500 pounds of the commodity, 900, 1,180, and 1,437 tank loads, respectively. It further estimates that a total of twenty-three 7,000-gallon tank trailers will be needed to transport the above traffic.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONS

We shall first consider the extent to which the involved commodities may be handled by applicants and protestants herein under the authority presently held by them to transport "liquid chemicals," "petroleum products," "liquefied petroleum gases,' and "compressed gases." The Southern Tank Lines case is the most recent decision to consider at length the criteria to be applied in determining whether or not a particular liquid commodity falls within the "liquid chemicals" classification. Liquid chemicals are there defined as those substances or materials resulting from a chemical or physical change induced by processes employed in the chemical industry, including uniting, mixing, blending, and compounding. The report in the Southern Tank Lines case also held that there are certain liquid commodities which, although chemically produced, are excluded from the liquid chemicals category by common usage, with the following limitation:

Inasmuch as this category amounts to a deviation from the general rules of interpretation set forth herein, its application should be limited to those products which have not in fact been produced by the chemical industry; that is, by companies engaged primarily in the manufacture of chemicals or by companies which produce chemicals as a byproduct of a manufacturing process.

As seen, liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen are produced by first liquefying air and then distilling the liquefied air into its constituent elements by vaporization and subsequent condensation at temperatures reflecting the respective boiling and liquefaction points of each such element. Liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, then, are substances resulting from a physical change induced by a process (distillation) generally employed in the chemical industry. T. I. McCormack Trucking Co., Inc., Ext.-Hydrolyzed Fats, 77 M.C.C. 121, 129, and P. B. Mutrie Motor Transp., Inc., Ext.-Louisville, Ky., 88 M.C.C. 597, 600-601. Literally scores of products obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum are listed as chemicals in appendix XV to the report in Descriptions in Motor Carrier Certificates, 61 M.C.C. 209. See also Southern Tank Lines, Inc., Extension-Denatured Rum, 88 M.C.C. 594, in which denatured rum distilled from molasses was found to be a liquid chemical. As for liquid hydrogen, its production comprises two distinct manufacturing operations involving (1) the freeing of the hydrogen gas from any one of several molecular compounds in which it is locked as an element, and (2) the subsequent liquefaction of the hydrogen gas by cryogenic methods. We do not agree with Asbury and Cantlay that the methods used to produce the hydrogen gas are too remote from the liquefaction process to be considered in determining whether or not liquid hydrogen is a chemical. If the hydrogen gas is found to be a chemical, and at least one variety of it has been so classified, P. B. Mutrie Motor Transp., Inc., Ext.-Benzyl Chloride, supra, then the mere change of the material from a gas to a liquid will not cause it to forfeit its chemical identity. In our opinion, the evidence in the instant proceedings clearly establishes that hydrogen gas, whether obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, the partial oxidation of natural gas, the electrolysis of water, or by reacting oil, coal, or iron with steam, is in each instance a chemically produced commodity. Moreover, the employment of a catalyst during the liquefaction process to speed up the conversion of the hydrogen from the ortho to the para form is another clear example of the use of a process employed in the chemical industry to induce a physical change in the com