Independent Contractors

On March 11, a new rule from the Department of Labor goes into effect. Detractors say it will wreak havoc on independent business owners and freelancers throughout the country. Save Independent Work, a coalition of independent workers and advocacy groups, announced its new campaign to overturn the rule that would reclassify hundreds of thousands of independent workers, including independent business owners and freelancers, as employees.

A new regulatory finding by the Labor Department will result in a “tangled mess” for trucking’s estimated 350,000 independent contractors, the nation's largest trucking lobby is warning.

The ongoing trucker protests in recent days over the implementation of AB5 are taking a toll on operations at the Port of Oakland. The protests are in response to the United States Supreme Court’s having denied review—or Certiorari—of the Circuit’s reversal against the injunction of AB5 (Assembly Bill 5) in California, a law governing owner-operators that potentially could be very disruptive to trucking operations in the nation’s most populous state.

Earlier this week, the United States Supreme Court denied review—or Certiorari—of the Circuit’s reversal against the injunction of AB5 (Assembly Bill 5) in California, a law governing owner-operators that potentially could be very disruptive to trucking operations in the nation’s most populous state. As previously reported by LM, truck drivers are divided on AB5, which limits when workers can be contractors instead of employees. Some local port drayage operators supported the measure which would have limited owner-operators...

The owner-operator business model in trucking, an essential part of the industry that uses upwards of 1 million independent contractors at any given time, is under attack in California and the U.S. Congress in Washington.