[Claim for Additional Freight Charges]

A trucking firm requested review of a General Services Administration (GSA) decision which denied its claim for additional freight charges, and it asserted an overcharge on a mixed truckload shipment. GSA treated the shipment as two separate shipments, applying a less-than-truckload rate to one shipment and a truckload rate to the other. The applicable truckload mixing rule permits a shipper to treat a mixed shipment as two separate shipments for rate purposes under specified circumstances. In this case, GAO concluded that, in applying a less-than-truckload rate to one shipment, GSA improperly ignored the provisions of the applicable tariff. Concerning the second shipment, the carrier failed to show that GSA erred in its tender application. The agency was not required, as the protester contended, to apply a certain linear foot rule to the combined length of the shipment. The mixing rule did not require GSA to apply a minimum weight rule to the combined shipment. In the absence of evidence that any provision of the tender was ignored or violated, GAO found that the GSA action concerning one shipment was proper. GSA should recalculate the charges on the other shipment, applying the provisions of the applicable tariff. Accordingly, the protest was denied in part and sustained in part.