Motor carriers that use owner-operators in California are working to re-evaluate their operations in order to meet strict restrictions on the use of independent contractors, as labor officials at the national level push to crack down on “employee misclassification” as well.
Recent independent trucker protests that brought the Port of Oakland to a crawl gained plenty of media attention, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office indicated a lack of concern.
The truckers were protesting AB5 (California Assembly Bill 5), a 2019 law that restricts businesses from classifying workers as independent contractors if those workers are in the same business. On June 30 of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a case brought by the California Trucking Association challenging the law. That negated an injunction that had been keeping the state from enforcing the law in trucking while the case went through the courts.
According to published reports, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office said that the truckers should “focus on supporting this transition....Although it has been the subject of litigation, AB 5 was enacted in 2019, so no one should be caught by surprise by the law’s requirements at this time.”
Many motor carriers already have been taking action, or at least researching their options.
Landstar, for instance, has about 350 owner-operators (which it calls business capacity owners, or BCOs) that are potentially affected by AB5.
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