Trucking News and Briefs for Thursday, 26th June 2024:
Another funding bill that could rein in contracting regulations
Appropriations for fiscal year 2025 continue Thursday, with the House Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee passing a bill that sets funding levels for covered agencies for next year.
One of the provisions in the bill would prevent the Department of Labor implementing its Independent Contractor Rule. was finalized, and went into effect this year.
As reported previously, the rule codified six factors for determining whether an individual is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Greg Feary is the president and managing partner at transportation law company Scopelitis. He said that such a test was a “multifactor balancing” test. If more factors lean towards one classification, then the test will result in that. This is a very different test from the ABC test, as was seen in California’s AB 5 law . If you fail to meet one of the three criteria, the worker will be classified as an employee.
[ Related to Are leased owners-operators really “independent contractors”?]
The six factors of the new DOL rule
- Profit or loss depends on the managerial skill
- Both the employee and the employer can invest in the future.
- The degree of permanence of a work relationship
- Nature and degree control
- The extent to which the work performed is integral to the business of the potential employer
- Skill and initiative
Members of Congress and members of the trucking industry have been closely scrutinizing this rule. The American Trucking Associations are part of a coalition of groups that is suing DOL for the rule.
“When the U.S. Department of Labor changed a straightforward definition of independent contractors into an opaque and deliberately confused standard, it put the livelihoods of independent trucks nationwide at risk who have spent years, or even decades, building their own small business,” said ATA president & CEO Chris Spear.
Spear said that stopping the implementation of the rule would “respect the wishes of over 350,000 truckers, who select this employment pathway because of the economic opportunities it creates and flexibility it provides.”
The bill will now be sent to the full House Appropriations Committee. The bill must pass through the committee, then the House and Senate before it can be signed by the President.
[ Related to DOL final independent contractor rule under attack from Congress, lawsuit]
Uber Freight partners up with another autonomous truck developer
The Uber Freight broker announced this week that it is partnering up with autonomous truck developer Aurora Innovation in order to launch Premier Autonomy. This program aims to allow carriers to purchase and board autonomous trucks within the Uber Freight System.
The companies claim that the new program “will enable carriers to improve utilization and business efficiency through autonomous technology.”
Uber Freight is also one of Aurora’s initial customers on its Dallas to Houston freight route. The companies expect “driverless hauls” for shippers by the end of 2024. In a press statement announcing the partnership the companies warn that there are uncertainties and risks that could lead to different outcomes and timelines.
“Uber Freight” and Aurora “see a tremendous opportunity for carriers of any size to democratize autonomous vehicles, enabling them drive more revenue, scale up their fleets and strengthen their bottom line,” said Lior R., founder and CEO, Uber Freight. He added that he believes auto trucks “will make moving goods much more efficient”, and aims to speed up deployment of such vehicles.
Aurora is Uber Freight’s second autonomous partnership. The company announced in 2022 that it was working with Volvo Autonomous Solutions in order to deploy Volvo’s autonomous tech in its network.
Uber Freight and Aurora announced their new Premier Autonomy Program will offer carriers:
- Aurora Driver subscription for autonomous freight hauling
- The company says that it will offer up to 1 billion “driverless miles” by 2030.
- High utilization of autonomous vehicles via planned integration of the Aurora Driver in the Uber Freight platform
Uber Freight and Aurora have hauled millions pounds of cargo together, since autonomous pilot movements began in 2020.
interested carriers can join the Premier Autonomy waitlist here.
[ Related: An “autonomous trap”: The limits of technological illustration]
FMCSA renews brake-light exemption for tanker fleet
Groendyke Transport can continue to use an amber brake-activated, pulsating light on the rear of their trailers, in addition to the steady burning brake lamps required by Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. This is after the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration renewed its exemption.
The FMCSRs require that all exterior lamps be continuously burning, except for turn signal lamps and hazard warning signals, school bus warning lights, amber warning lights or flashing warning lamp on tow trucks or commercial motor vehicles transporting oversize loads.
Groendyke was granted an exemption by FMCSA in 2019 for the use of pulsating, amber brake-activated light to increase visibility on its approximately 1,440 tanker trucks hauling hazardous materials.
Groendyke, in applying for the renewal of the five year exemption, reported a significant reduction in rear-end accident since the waiver was granted.
The provisional extension is valid for six months, retroactively to April 26, 2024 through October 26, 2024. FMCSA has said that if no evidence of inadequate safety is presented to the agency, it will grant a full 5-year exemption at the expiration of the provisional exemption.
A separate exemption granted to the National Tank Truck Carriers Group in 2020 permits any fleet to install red or amber brake activated pulsating lamps in the upper middle position or upper dual outboard positions on the backs of tanker trailers in addition to steady-burning brake lights required by the FMCSRs.
[ Related to Large Fleet Gets Waiver to Install Pulsating Brake Lights on Back of Tankers]
Four fleets receive waivers for Intellistop brake module
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has granted waivers to four fleets for the use of Intellistop, which pulses brake lights when the brakes are applied.
Fleets eligible for the waiver include:
- Brent Higgins Trucking Inc. (29 trucks)
- DJS Fundraising (5 trucks)
- JM Bozeman Enterprises (223 trucks)
- Meiborg Brothers Inc. (170 trucks)
Gemini Motor Transport (the fuel transport arm of Love’s Travel Stops) was recently granted an exemption by FMCSA to use the Intellistop Module.
The Intellistop Module pulses the required rear-clearance, identification and brake lamps four times in two second from a lower level lighting intensity to a high-level lighting intensities when the brakes apply and then returns the lights to a constant-burning state as long as the brakes remain engaged.
FMCSA, as previously reported, denied an industry-wide exception to allow all interstate motor carrier to operate CMVs with the Intellistop Module, but encouraged individual fleets apply for a waiver in order to use the module. “Exemptions with a more limited scope would allow FMCSA to ensure compliance with all relevant FMCSA Regulations because the individual exemption would be easily identifiable, and its compliance with applicable regulation could be monitored,” FMCSA stated.
The waivers for all four fleets are valid for five years, until June 28, 2029.
[ Related to FMCSA allows tanker fleets to use certain pulsating break light modules]