Posts tagged Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
Top 10 trucking policies likely to be affected by Trump’s return
November 7, 2024 // Resetting standards for truck emissions and independent contracting expected to be on the agenda
End of an era: California Trucking Association dropping appeal against AB5
August 23, 2024 // The high-water mark of CTA’s fight came on New Year’s Eve 2019 when Judge Roger Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California handed down an injunction blocking AB5’s enforcement against trucking in the state. But from that point, the CTA suffered a series of losses. An appellate court in a 2-1 decision overturned the injunction in April 2021. The CTA took the appeal to the Supreme Court, which denied review in June 2022 and kicked the case back to the District Court.
AB5 specifically targets interstate truckers, OOIDA says
August 8, 2024 // “AB5’s blanket prohibition of leased owner-operators constitutes an unreasonable burden on interstate commerce in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution under the test established by the Supreme Court in Pike v. Bruce Church Inc.,” OOIDA wrote. “Under Pike’s balancing test, AB5’s burden on leased owner-operators is absolute, and the benefits to the state are minimal, if not illusory. There is no cost truckers can incur or administrative hurdle they can overcome to keep their independent contractor small businesses as leased owner-operators.”
Groups lose latest court attempt to block California’s AB5 from state’s trucking sector
March 20, 2024 // “Remedying complexities and perceived deficiencies in AB5 are the kind of work better left to the soap box and the ballot box than to the jury box,” Benitez wrote in his decision. “If sufficient political or economic pressure can be brought to bear by [CTA and OOIDA] and their supporters, the more onerous provisions of the statute can be amended. The courts, on the other hand, are not the proper bodies for imposing legislative amendments.”
Further appeals to block AB5 from California trucking seen as a long shot
March 19, 2024 // Appeals are possible of the decision Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California that emphatically rejected all the arguments by the California Trucking Association (CTA) and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. But several observers of the legal battle that has gone on for more than four years said that may prove too big a challenge to proceed. “I’m sure that some will advocate for the appeal and exhausting all efforts, but I’m certainly not bullish on the likelihood of success in the 9th Circuit,” an attorney who is not representing any of the parties and requested anonymity said of possible future CTA/OOIDA action. “It is time to ‘move on’ absent the political will to change.”
Commentary: Julie Su again headed toward DOL confirmation, trucking still opposed
February 28, 2024 // "No matter how many times she’s renominated, Julie Su’s record remains a huge red flag for our industry and any senator concerned about radical policies from California becoming federal law," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "The independent contractor rule she just finalized as acting secretary undermines the livelihoods of 350,000 professional truck drivers across our country who choose to run their own small businesses, and she needs to answer for it."
OOIDA lends support in case against AB5
January 30, 2024 // The two trucking groups argue that the law eliminates the independent contractor driver business model in the trucking industry and that it violates the U.S. and California constitutions. OOIDA, which is serving as an intervenor in a case against the state’s worker classification law, told the court in its Oct. 27 reply brief that AB5 needlessly causes genuine independent contractors to be reclassified as employees. “AB5 discriminates against and imposes undue burdens on interstate commerce in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause, and the disparate treatment of AB5’s business-to-business and construction exemptions violates the U.S. and California constitutions’ equal protection clauses,” OOIDA wrote
Trucking groups slam DOL’s new worker classification rule as ‘un-American’
January 10, 2024 // The coordinated release of this rule with the renomination of Julie Su to lead the Department of Labor is proof positive that the Administration is doubling down on destructive policies that eliminate choice and opportunity for our workforce. Had Su actually taken the time to talk to independent contractors, she’d know firsthand what a misguided rule this really is. That is exactly why we opposed her nomination before and why we will continue to oppose it now. Radical California agendas have no place in federal policy.” Spear vowed that the ATA “will work with members of Congress and other stakeholders to defeat this ill-advised rule.” In a statement, the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) called the new requirements “burdensome,” adding that they “significantly limit the use of independent contractors in the trucking industry and threaten to force the reclassification of over 80 percent of intermodal drayage drivers that currently enjoy independent contractor status.”
Lawyers will square off on California trucking’s latest AB5 exemption request
November 12, 2023 // AB5 is a state law that seeks to define independent contractors through the ABC test. For trucking, the B prong in the ABC test is a particular burden, as it defines an independent contractor as one who “performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” A trucking company hiring an independent owner-operator to move freight could be challenged under the B prong. The various participants in the case have filed briefs in recent weeks laying out their arguments that will be reiterated in court Monday. The last year has seen revised complaints from CTA and OOIDA, widening the scope of their arguments. Those revisions and the state responses have provided extensive documentation on the positions each side is taking in the case, which is formally known as CTA v. Bonta, after Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general. (The original defendant in the case was then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, now the Biden administration’s secretary of Health and Human Services.)
AB5 needlessly reclassifies genuine independent contractors, OOIDA says
November 8, 2023 // OOIDA, which is serving as an intervenor in a case against the state’s worker classification law, told the court in its Oct. 27 reply brief that AB5 needlessly causes genuine independent contractors to be reclassified as employees. “AB5 discriminates against and imposes undue burdens on interstate commerce in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause, and the disparate treatment of AB5’s business-to-business and construction exemptions violates the U.S. and California constitutions’ equal protection clauses,” OOIDA wrote.