The Chartwell Chronicles: Trucking
Case In Point: Recent Developments in Employment Law
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued another important ruling for brokers, upholding that a claim for negligent hiring against a freight broker was preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration...more
While the U.S. Supreme Court has made a number of headlines this term, flying under the radar was its refusal to consider whether California’s controversial worker classification law should be blocked by a federal law that...more
The trucking industry is experiencing an unprecedented driver shortage. The American Trucking Associations estimates that the industry is short a record 80,000 drivers, a figure that is currently projected to double by 2030....more
With Governor Pritzker’s signature to Senate Bill 1480 on March 23, 2021, the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) now prohibits any employer’s use or reliance on a criminal conviction to support an adverse employment action...more
Executive Summary: On June 5, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) granted a waiver (effective from June 5, 2020 to September 30, 2020) from certain pre-employment testing requirements applicable to...more
As we have written here, the day before California’s controversial AB 5 was set to go into effect, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law as to...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction blocking the State of California from enforcing AB 5 against motor carriers. The court provided a fulsome analysis demonstrating that the Federal...more
As we recently wrote here, just hours before California’s controversial AB 5 went into effect, a federal court in San Diego issued a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) to enjoin enforcement of the independent contractor...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On the heels of last week’s federal court order temporarily blocking enforcement of AB 5 by the State of California, a California state court in Los Angeles reached the same conclusion, finding the Federal...more
Following the challenges to AB 5, California’s controversial new independent contractor law, can be a difficult endeavor. Every day seems to bring a new development....more
As readers of this blog know, three separate groups have filed lawsuits seeking to block or overturn California’s AB-5, the new law that raises the bar to make it very difficult for businesses to classify workers as...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Effective January 1, 2020, AB 5 implements the mandatory “ABC” test for determining whether a person is an independent contractor or employee under California law. Specific to motor carriers, AB 5 presumes...more
Employers of drivers who hold commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) have been subject to U.S. Department of Transportation drug and alcohol testing requirements for over twenty-five years....more
As businesses throughout the State of California continue to grapple with the potential implications of AB5, a new law designed to make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors, the...more
Frank Sinatra certainly was not thinking about freight brokers when singing this Grammy-winning song back in 1966. However, the title of the song definitely resonates for freight brokers in 2018. In addition to capitalizing...more
Wrapping up a whirlwind weekend, California Governor Jerry Brown just signed several pieces of legislation that will create new employer obligations in the areas of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Specifically,...more
• According to a California statute set to take effect in January 2019, ocean carriers, marine terminal operators (MTOs) and shippers engaging port drayage motor carriers (PDMCs) that default on obligations to pay employees...more
What’s Happening?: Potential Joint Liability for Drayage Carrier Customers - California retailers and shippers beware. In another move by California lawmakers to deter companies from classifying truck drivers as...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) may overhaul how it evaluates the safety of the carriers it regulates following the release of a new study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and...more
A critical but unresolved issue for the motor carrier industry is the continuing viability of the independent contractor truck driver model, which is under siege by state and federal regulatory agencies as well as private...more
Experts are predicting a 95% chance of heavier-than-usual seasonal rainfall this year in Southern California based on the phenomenon known as “El Niño.” Did the California Legislature and its Governor produce a comparable...more
The California Legislature adjourned its 2015 regular session early last Saturday morning. It is now up to Governor Brown to sign or veto the last of the Legislature’s 2015 work product. He has until Sunday, October 11, to...more
On July 8, 2015, a federal district court judge held that a section of the Massachusetts Independent Contractor law, as applied to same-day delivery services, is preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization...more