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As time progressed, the convention was modified for inflation and
to take into account varying and more specific information and
fees.
Respondent agrees with the postal system analogy and does
not question DHL and DHLI’s methodology, but contends that the
postal community recognized that its basic assumption was no
longer valid in 1969, whereas petitioners essentially ignored the
imbalance until they were forced to change their imbalance or
transfer practices. Respondent contends that DHL and DHLI
changed their practices in 1987 only after those practices were
brought into question by a regulatory agency and/or an
administrative law judge.
We agree with respondent on this point--it was reasonable
for petitioners to fashion their imbalance and transfer approach
after that used in the postal community, but that does not
explain why it was appropriate to wait until 1987 to address the
imbalance. In addition, we cannot accept petitioners’ argument
that it would have been difficult to quantify any imbalance or
transfers because of the manner in which their records were kept.
There is no doubt that petitioners would have found some
reasonable way (as respondent’s expert did) to determine the
imbalance or transfer costs if they were dealing with an
unrelated third party with whom a reciprocal agreement existed.
Accordingly, we proceed to decide the arm’s-length percentage
compensation that would have been charged by independent parties.
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