Posts tagged owner-operator truckers
‘We Are Hopeful’ Q&A with Patrice Onwuka and Kim Kavin
January 24, 2025 // Congress should consider enshrining the Trump-era definition for independent contractors, and/or consider ways to get ahead of the opposition to flexible work. The Employee Rights Act was a federal bill that, among many pro-worker provisions, sought to protect independent contractors as a counter to a national ABC Test in the now-defunct Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Portable benefits also provide a pathway for companies to provide independent contractors with workplace benefits without triggering a reclassification.
Drayage carrier notifies NJ independent contractors of changing business model
August 9, 2024 // In December 2023, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin filed the first lawsuit under a 2021 law that permits the state to file suit in New Jersey Superior Court against employers who have allegedly misclassified workers as independent contractors. According to the state’s complaint against STG Logistics and STG Drayage, the suit “seeks to halt the companies’ alleged practice of misclassifying drivers as independent contractors and to recover up to millions in back wages, penalties and fines for more than 300 truck drivers.”
Frisard’s Transportation v. Department of Labor
June 26, 2024 // And the rule affects far more than the 350,000 owner-operator truckers that operate across the nation. It will affect 70 million freelancers in industries across the country, pushing them towards an employment status when 80% of them want to be independent. Similar legislation in California led to a loss of over 10% of freelancers. With the help of the Pelican Institute, Frisard’s has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor, arguing that the new rule is arbitrary and exceeds the department’s statutory authority. The company asserts that the rule undermines the certainty businesses and independent contractors need to operate efficiently and is inconsistent with the Fair Labor Standards Act and precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit.
California Carrier and Freight Brokerage Ceasing Operations, Blames AB5
April 18, 2024 // “I blame AB5 for the main reasons our company is closing,” Chaul told FreightWaves on Tuesday. He said all hope that his company would survive faded in March after a federal judge in California rejected trucking and trade associations’ legal challenges to stop enforcement of AB5, a controversial state law that severely restricts the use of independent contractors. “California is a hostile place to operate a business,” he said. “This law has created a hostile operating environment and an environment of unfair competition.”
Trucking groups appeal AB5 ruling to Ninth Circuit
April 16, 2024 // California signed AB5 into law in 2019. The worker classification law is based on the ABC Test, which requires a business to demonstrate three factors are established before a worker can be deemed an independent contractor. The “B prong” of the ABC Test appears to prevent a trucking company from classifying a truck driver as an independent contractor regardless of the level of control or any other factors. The California Trucking Association and OOIDA contend that AB5 imposes undue burdens on interstate commerce in violation of the dormant Commerce Clause. In addition, OOIDA and the state trucking group have said that the law’s decisions on who it exempts violate the U.S. and California constitutions’ equal protection clauses.
New IC rule will have ‘unintended consequences’
January 23, 2024 // For Jim Burg, owner of Warren, Michigan-based James Burg Trucking Company, being an independent operator helped him build his business, and he views being an owner-operator as a potential stepping stone for others wanting to do the same. Burg started his company in 1984 with one truck as an independent contractor. His company is now a 94-truck operation with a terminal in Michigan City, Indiana. His trucks primarily haul steel for the automotive and manufacturing industries. "I drove over 1.2 million miles during the early years of my company's existence. Being an IC gave me the experience to understand the trucking industry and how to run a business, Burg recalled, "and it allowed me to gain knowledge of both as I set out to establish my own company."
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.)
Truckers protest in DTLA as city decides to end haul truck program
June 12, 2023 // "We do the streets, we do asphalt, grinding, so we build the streets, so if we don't work, you guys aren't going to have streets," said trucker Viken Mardirossian. City officials cited state legislation AB 5, which was passed in 2020 and changed the California Labor Code, classifying workers as employees rather than independent contractors. But the group of truckers who protested Thursday works directly for the city, with no middle man. "AB5 law pretty much attacks trucking brokers and that doesn't suit this particular matchup," said Vasquez.
Give Gig Workers A Real Break
November 18, 2022 // Polling data also back the idea that most gig workers want to be gig workers. In “Independent Work,” Ilana Blumsack and Scott Lincicome cite a finding that about 90 percent of survey respondents “were happier in independent work than in traditional jobs.” Only 11 percent wanted to find full-time traditional employment.
Landstar advises California owner-operators move out of state due to AB5
July 27, 2022 // Some 70,000 owner-operators in California could have their business upended depending on how the state enforces the AB5 labor law, which could reclassify independent contractors as employees. Following the Supreme Court fallout, California agencies have yet to clarify when enforcement could begin, and the governor’s office said earlier this month that it’s looking into concerns from the trucking industry. State departments haven’t returned a request for comment from Transport Dive regarding timing. Vice President and Chief Safety & Operations Officer Joe Beacom, relocate out of California or not haul California-originating loads, J.B. Hunt Chief Operating Officer Nick Hobbs,