subject: Department of Labor Legislation Affecting Truckers [print this page] Department of Labor Legislation Affecting Truckers
Today, I read an article that I just had to share with everyone. Truckinginfo.com had the original story, but I'm going to cover the pertinent points. In the incident cited in the article, Antonio Cooper was driving on Highway 152 in Oklahoma City, and noted that a driver was weaving across the lanes ahead of him. After about half a mile, he used his horn to wake the sleeping passenger, who brought the car to a stop in the median. Turns out that the driver was having a seizure, and Cooper, after stopping, called 9-1-1, and assisted in keeping the driver's airway clear.
While quite a few may focus on the sometimes misleading accident statistics available to the public, I believe that focus should be on the fact that quite a few of the truckers out there are much like Mr. Cooper. They prefer to help if they see a problem, are kind individuals, and for the most part, are just trying to get along in a rough world, something that may become a bit more difficult with the latest direction the Department of Labor's moving in.
It's latest estimates, that as much as 30% of companies misclassify employees, and their proposed efforts to crack down on misclassification could cause problems to quite a few owner-operators. Why? A fair amount of owner-operators are working under lease agreements with specific carriers, and according to the letter of a recently proposed Oregon law (HB 2890), "[T]he worker would have to have an independently established business, be free from the employer's direction and control, and be able to perform services outside the usual course of business of the employer." Both the Senate and the House are considering similar legislation.
What this means is that for one, legislators are assuming that owner-operators want to be employees. That's akin to the assumption that a few drivers have made that a trailer kingpin, given the fact that it's a thick piece of steel, and generally well lubricated, will likely not need replacement in the near future. Unfortunately, that's a fallacious assumption. Some drivers eventually will want to buy out their trucks and start their own businesses, and eventually, every trailer will need a kingpin replacement.
While a faulty kingpin can be remedied by either repair or a quick kingpin removal, there's little that we can do individually to stop this legislation. However, nothing has passed yet, and as Lana Batts, vice president of government affairs for the ATA said, "They couldn't do it in the first 12 months of the session," and it's likely that ,"they won't be able to do it in the last four months."
