The Chartwell Chronicles: Trucking
Supply Chain Disruptions with Special Guest Benjamin Siegrist, Director of Infrastructure, Innovation and Human Resources Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers
Propel: Gearing up with Embark to transform the USD700 billion trucking industry
Automotive and Trucking Accidents in the U.S. with Foreign Defendants: What Insurers Need to Know
Butler's Thursday Tips | Little Black Box
The Increasing Visibility of Driver Health
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that employers pay certain employees one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for any hours they work over 40 in a workweek. There are, however, several exemptions from the...more
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
Seyfarth Synopsis: On December 26, 2023, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) announced they would be accepting comments from the public in response to multiple petitions requesting waivers from the...more
In the matter of Espinoza v. Hepta Run, Inc., et al. (Cal. Ct. App., Jan. 19, 2022, No. B306292) 2022 WL 167770, the Court of Appeal considered the following issue: Whether the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s...more
In the spirit of the season, we are using our annual "12 days of the holidays" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On this tenth day of the holidays, my labor and employment...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in California Trucking Association v. Bonta, has reversed the preliminary injunction staying enforcement of AB 5 (now Labor Code § 2775). ...more
On January 19, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor issued four new opinion letters. The final Wage and Hour opinion letter issued by the DOL under the Trump administration, FLSA2021-9, addressed two issues related to the...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In a case involving motor carriers, the California Court of Appeal has held that the FAAAA (Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994) does not preempt the ABC employment test California...more
On November 10, 2020, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor Standards and Statistics (Division) published the final Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards Order Number 37 (COMPS Order 37),...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Effective April 8, 2020, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) extended an emergency rule suspending “Hours of Service” rules that generally limit the number of hours certain truck...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
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
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
Wednesday, January 8th, saw a state court conclude that California’s controversial new misclassification law doesn’t apply to truck drivers, the second time in the last few weeks that a judge has come down hard on AB-5 for...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
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
On September 5, 2019, the Washington Supreme Court held that non-agricultural employees do not have to be paid a separate hourly rate for time spent on non-piece-rate activities. Further, workweek averaging, as described in...more
Since then, many in the trucking industry have been considering and evaluating alternative ways to maintain a mechanism of dispute resolution through arbitration on an individual basis so as to avoid class actions, collective...more
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California recently ruled in an employment class action regarding misclassification of trucking industry owner-operators as independent contractors. The ruling is a win for...more
Almost all long-haul drivers are exempt from overtime under the motor carrier exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, these same drivers are not exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage requirements. ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Following the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s determination in December 2018 that federal law preempts California’s meal and rest break rules, observers questioned what deference courts would...more
On Monday May 6, 2019, a Florida federal judge denied a strip club’s bid for sanctions against an exotic dancer and her lawyer who filed a so-called “cookie-cutter” Fair Labor Standards Act lawsuit, depriving the strip club...more