As March Madness gets underway, a California federal judge has called a flagrant foul and ejected the trucking industry from its ongoing battle to challenge Assembly Bill No. 5 (“AB5”)....more
3/18/2024
/ ABC Test ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Motor Carriers ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Teamsters ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Beginning January 1, 2024, California intrastate motor carriers and drivers will be required to use an electronic logging device (“ELD”) as generally required by the federal ELD regulations adopted under 49 CFR § 395, Subpart...more
UPDATE: As of October 23, 2023, the FMCSA extended the comment period by 30 days to November 29, 2023.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (“APRNM”) and request for comment on Thursday, August 29, 2023, in efforts to fulfill the Motor Carrier Safety Act...more
Air carrier liability has been governed by international convention nearly since the inception of the technology. In 1903, the Wright Brothers infamously conducted powered flight at Kitty Hawk. In 1919, the first reported...more
9/14/2023
/ Air Carriers ,
Boycotts ,
Complaint Procedures ,
Corporate Liability ,
Defense Strategies ,
DFARS ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
FMCSA ,
General Services Administration (GSA) ,
Jurisdiction ,
Mallory v Norfolk Southern Railway Co ,
Montreal Convention ,
Motor Carriers ,
Rest and Meal Break ,
Warsaw Convention
Providers and commercial users of transportation services necessarily rely upon the predictability and uniformity afforded by national laws and regulations to support the efficient and reliable supply chains that are so...more
The freight brokerage industry began humming Meat Loaf’s 1977 power ballad earlier today when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the third federal appellate court to consider the extent to which...more
7/19/2023
/ Appellate Courts ,
Brokers ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Freight Forwarding ,
Motor Carriers ,
Negligence ,
Preemption ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Split of Authority ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wrongful Death
Federal regulators—as well as the marketplace itself—have been scrutinizing the role of certain types of “transportation intermediaries” in the industry. One point of focus has been the role of longstanding models such as...more
Unfortunately, today, June 30, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a deeply disappointing loss to the transportation industry and supply chain interests throughout the country by declining to review the California Trucking...more
6/30/2022
/ ABC Test ,
B2B Organizations ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motor Carriers ,
Preemption ,
Supply Chain ,
Transportation Industry ,
Trucking Industry
On April 28, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the application of California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB5”) to motor carriers is not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration...more
The international forwarding community was not immune from headlines, advisories, and rulemaking dealing with U.S. export controls and economic sanctions in 2020 despite never-ending attention due the global COVID-19...more
While the transportation and logistics world has naturally been occupied with rapidly developing circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has delivered a...more
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) has issued an Emergency Declaration for motor carriers and drivers providing direct assistance in support of relief efforts related to the COVID-19 outbreaks. The...more
On January 16, 2020, finding that “California runs off the road and into the preemption ditch,” Judge Roger Benitez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California issued his decision granting a...more
1/17/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Borello Test ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Motor Carriers ,
Owner-Operators ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Yesterday, on January 13, 2020, Judge Benitez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California extended the temporary restraining order previously entered in the litigation brought by the California...more
1/14/2020
/ Business Model ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motor Carriers ,
Owner-Operators ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Time Extensions ,
Transportation Industry ,
TRO ,
Trucking Industry
Champagne bottles popped earlier than expected on New Year’s Eve when Judge Roger T. Benitez of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting the...more
1/2/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Commerce Clause ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Dormant Commerce Clause ,
Employee Definition ,
Employment Contract ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motor Carriers ,
Preemption ,
Transportation Industry ,
TRO ,
Trucking Industry
The Ohio Trucking Association successfully led and won the fight to enact House Bill 62 (the “Bill”) in an effort to assist its members in standardizing the administrative processes that burden motor carriers using...more
On January 15, 2019, in a very disappointing decision for the trucking industry regarding the application of arbitration provisions in motor carrier-independent contractor service agreements, the U.S. Supreme Court...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
Many outside of over-the-road motor carriers are taking notice of the looming Electronic Logging Device Mandate (ELD Mandate). We are seeing raised hands with many questions and some confusion at this very moment from a wide...more
12/11/2017
/ Blockchain ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
FMCSA ,
Misclassification ,
Motor Carriers ,
Open Source Software ,
Smart Contracts ,
Trucking Industry ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
On June 27, 2017, the National Academy of Sciences (“NAS”) released its highly anticipated report on the Compliance, Safety, and Accountability (“CSA”) initiative as mandated by Congress in the Fixing America’s Surface...more
As most readers are aware, Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. (“Hanjin”) commenced insolvency proceedings in South Korea on August 31, 2016. Shippers, motor carriers, transportation intermediaries, and others are scrambling to react...more
Introduction: Carmack Boundaries and the Blurring of Unloading Functions -
Under the Carmack Amendment, a carrier is liable for the actual loss of goods which “arrive” damaged 49 U.S.C. §4706(a)(1). But when does that...more
Shippers who are used to doing business with motor carriers often present freight brokers with a shipper-carrier agreement (often described as a “Motor Carrier Agreement”) of one kind or another to serve as the basis of a...more
8/27/2015
/ Commercial General Liability Policies ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
FedEx ,
Freight Forwarding ,
Independent Contractors ,
Maritime Transport ,
Motor Carrier Act ,
Motor Carriers ,
Shipping Cargo ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour ,
Waterborne Freight Transportation
Shippers who are used to doing business with motor carriers often present freight brokers with a shipper-carrier agreement (often described as a “Motor Carrier Agreement”) of one kind or another to serve as the basis of a...more
8/5/2015
/ Brokers ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Admiralty Law ,
FedEx ,
Freight Forwarding ,
Independent Contractors ,
Infrastructure ,
Misclassification ,
Motor Carriers ,
Trucking Industry