After four-and-a-half years of litigation, the California Trucking Association (CTA) has discontinued its efforts to have Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) overturned in court. AB 5 is California state legislation which adopted the “ABC” test to determine employee classification.
The “B” prong of that test asks whether a worker “performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” For owner-operators in the trucking industry, that “B” prong usually classifies O/Os as employees, because driving a truck is part of an overlying motor carrier’s business.
CTA’s litigation effort has had its victories and losses, but now courts have ruled against CTA’s core legal arguments. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which joined CTA in this legal battle, has vowed to continue the litigation.
Adopted by the California legislature in 2019, AB 5 became effective in 2020 but the state has yet to conduct any enforcement against California trucking. During the 2020 election, California voters adopted Proposition 22, which prohibited the state from enforcing AB 5 against workers in the gig economy.
Every year, TAT (formerly called Truckers Against Trafficking) honors a member of the trucking, bus or energy industry, whose direct actions help save or improve the lives of those exploited or prevent human trafficking from taking place, with the Harriet Tubman Award
Bob Costello has indicated that the freight market has improved – but very slowly – since January. It must be said that ATA’s indices are dominated by contract freight as opposed to spot rates.
Now, however, with Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House (and, some say, the Supreme Court) I am optimistic that trucking will get a fairer shake than it has during Biden’s term in office.