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Jan 18, 2016

Building the shipper customer base for freight * USA: TRUCKING INDUSTRY

* California - Shipper to owner-operators: Come on down!

-- Ron Hazel is traffic manager for GEA, Inc., a manufacturer of milking products and other freight, typically moved in dry vans, that wrote in following release of this month’s cover story on building relationships with shippers for long-term success... Hazel’s query was directly related to how exactly to find owner-operators willing to serve his freight needs. Turns out, he prefers dealing with the businessman in the cab to several experiences he’s had getting burned by large asset-based carriers over-promising on service only to turn around and not deliver, putting him in a bind... Dealing directly with owner-operators without a broker middleman, too, leads to better rates for both his operation and the owner-operator’s, he believes. Better service, too... For better margins, and long-term health, doing the hard work on relationship building with direct shippers will pay off in the long term. There are plenty more folks out there just like Hazel, no doubt... 
(Photo: “Owning a business is all about solving someone else’s problems” Henry Albert)  --  Tulare, California, USA - OverdriveOnline/CHANNEL 19. by Todd Dills - January 14, 2016

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Oct 16, 2015

INDEPENDENT TRUCKER * USA: Better paid than employed ones

* California - Independent truckers may have it better than company-employed ones

(My Trucking Life - Trip 31 Day 9 - REFUSED! 2000 miles for nothing - Video by Trucker Josh VLOGS - Originally published on Mar 15, 2014: I'm Josh, a simple man from Manitoba Canada. I document and video blog (vlog) about my life and situations I find myself in on a day to day basis. Hit that subscribe button and follow me and my dog Diesel on our daily journey travelling across all North America.)

-- California truckers who own and operate their own vehicles have the flexibility to set their own hours and can earn more than company-employed drivers, according to a report released Wednesday... The Owner-Operator Driver Compensation 2015 report was compiled by Inland Empire economist John Husing with input from the American Transportation Research Institute... Some have claimed that independent owner-operators (IOO) are underpaid. But Husing said that’s not the case... The report shows that the median annual wage for IOOs in Los Angeles County during the first quarter of 2015 was $40,165 ($19.31 an hour)... The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the 2015 median annual pay for employed drivers working 2,000 hours is $40,411 in the combined Los Angeles and Inland Empire markets of Southern California... The report tallies up the various costs drivers must pay to operate their rigs... In 2013, the highest paid independent owner/operators in the top 25 percent of drivers grossed a median annual salary of $171,233 a year. But $40,363 of that went to fuel costs, $11,786 was used for repairs, $7,632 paid for insurance and $5,855 went toward other expenses... That reduced their earnings by $65,636, bringing their median annual net income to $93,290... Taking those same expenses into account, the second highest earning group of independents earned a median annual salary of $63,929. The next 25 percent of IOOs cleared $48,296 a year and the bottom rung earned just $31,239 a year... Those earnings are largely a reflection the number of miles driven... The top earning tier of independent drivers who netted $93,290 a year drove 160,989 miles to earn that income. By contrast, the lowest ranking earners drove 101,428 over the course of a year... 
San Gabriel, CAL, USA - The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, by Kevin Smith - 14 Oct 2015

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Jul 3, 2015

TRUCKING INDUSTRY * USA: Independent contractor model under attack

* California - Trucking Cos. try new approach at congested ports, buying trucks and hiring drivers as employees

-- A handful of companies are betting the days of truck drivers owning their own vehicles is coming to an end... Operating primarily in Southern California, the firms are buying trucks and employing drivers full time to haul goods the short distance between ports and nearby rail yards and warehouses, a key link in the national supply chain known as drayage trucking... The new outfits include a startup backed by private equity firm Saybrook Capital LLC and others that converted from independent contractor models, where drivers own or lease their own trucks. While all-employee drayage companies account for less than 5% of the more than 10,000 drivers at Southern California ports, that’s double their share a year ago, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which is working to organize the employee drivers... Some trucking experts see the domestic drayage market, estimated by research firm FTR Transportation Intelligence as generating $12 billion in annual revenue, as ripe for a shakeup. Large ports from Long Beach to Newark are growing more congested amid a general trucker shortage, creating an opening for companies that promise to use reliable labor and equipment to operate more efficiently... The independent contractor model, where drivers own or lease their trucks, is also under attack... 
(Photo from BLOOMBERG NEWS - Trucks wait in line at the Port of Los Angeles in February. Congestion at the nation’s ports is spurring some companies to hire truck drivers as employees)  --  Los Angeles, CAL, USA - The WSJ, by ERICA E. PHILLIPS - July 1, 2015

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Jun 5, 2010

Independent Driver * USA - Contracts Are Under Fire, Lawyer Says

Legal warning comes as owner-operator status for port drivers under fire from agencies, labor

Sacramento,CAL,USA -The Journal of Commerce Online, by Bill Mongelluzzo -May 26, 2010: -- Work rules spelled out in contracts between owner-operator truckers and drayage companies may not provide the legal grounding to maintain the truckers’ status as independent contractors at U.S. ports, according to a Southern California labor attorney Robert Roginson, a partner in Atkinson & Assoc. firm... The independent status at ports is coming under growing fire, with the federal government, state governments and organized labor seek to demonstrate the drivers are direct employees of harbor trucking companies... The attacks on several fronts carry significant taxation and cost consequences for drayage company executives who believe their contracts with owner-operators provide adequate protection... The issue reaches beyond the ports, however, since several industries that use independent contractors, especially trucking and courier companies, are targets... Federal and state agencies are openly investigating the status of independent contractors with the assumption that tax revenues are being lost due to possible misclassification of workers... If owner-operator drivers are-classified as employees, harbor drayage companies face huge costs in terms of liability for minimum wages, overtime pay, and failure to pay worker’s compensation and employee benefits, Roginson said ... Harbor trucking companies attempt to maintain an arm’s length relationship with owner-operators by allowing them to leeway on work rules, including allowing them to drive for whichever companies they choose, reject any job assignments they don’t want and determine work hours... But many federal and state government agencies concerned about employee classification have varying definitions of what constitutes an independent contractor, Roginson said, and the issue is further complicated by the courts, which likewise vary in their definitions...

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Nov 1, 2009

Owner-Operators * USA - Unemployed Truck Drivers Find Answers To Recession

While the future looks bleak for some drivers, others are taking advantage of a new trend in trucking and becoming owner-operators

Auburn Hills,MICH,USA -Detroit dBusiness News -Oct 27, 2009: -- More than 165,000 truckers driving for companies have been let go, laid off or fired this year. Difficulty in meeting employment standards, such as needing at least 12 months of experience driving with no violations or accidents, eliminates about one-third of the driver pool. While that makes the future look bleak for some, others are taking advantage of a new trend in trucking and becoming owner-operators instead... As freight indexes adjust to the recent economy, larger companies find themselves forced to cut costs while increasing productivity. As a result, they are bringing on independent truck owner-operators to fill in the gaps and meet their needs... Wholesale Truck and Finance is now working with Class A licensed truck drivers to finance and locate their own reliable transportation to compete in the job market during these difficult times. One way to battle the recession is to reduce the number of jobless people by getting them into the self-employed work force. Those with credit scores as low as 550 are able to make the transition... (Photo from professionalcarriersinc: side owners operators)

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Oct 8, 2008

Trucking Companies * USA - States, Congress and Irs Move to Restrict Independent Contractors Owner/Operators

Their Customers and the Economy Face New Threat - SOURCE: Coalition for Independent Contractor Freedom

Dallas,TX,USA -MarketWatch/Sommerfield Communications, Inc. , by Adria Greenberg -Oct 08, 2008: -- The trucking and delivery industry, central to the U.S. economy and already hit hard by recession and soaring gas prices, is now facing new dangers, as independent contracting comes under attack by state governments, the IRS and proposed legislation in Congress... Some of these actions -- which compel employers to "reclassify" their contractors as full-time employees -- seem intended to protect truckers. But according to J.R. Gonzales, the former Chairman of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and founding chairman of the Coalition for Independent Contractor Freedom ( www.cficf.org), they are likely to have the opposite effect -- limiting employment and denying truckers and trucking companies the flexibility they need to stay cost-effective and competitive in the face of a major recession.
Mr. Gonzales can discuss:
-- Why independent contractors play a critical role in the U.S. trucking industry...

-- How attacks on independent contractors are putting the industry -- and the economy -- at risk... The IRS is on a sustained drive to force the companies that use independent contractors to turn them into employees...

-- What's at stake -- not just for the trucking industry but for the U.S. economy. The trucking industry is critical to the performance of the U.S. economy. But the risk to the economy is still greater because the attack on independent contractors stretches across industries -- and affects a startling number of U.S. workers and businesses...

-- Why independent contracting needs to be protected. Across the board, independent contracting allows workers to find new work quickly and flexibly after layoffs and restructuring -- especially important when full-time jobs are scarce...

The Coalition for Independent Contractor Freedom (CFICF), formed and run by independent contractors, is a voice for independent contractors who want to stay that way. The independent contractor's way of doing business is under attack from a variety of sources. For the 10 million Americans who enjoy being independent contractors, it's time to speak up -- on behalf of freedom, owning a business and being responsible citizens making independent decisions...

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Oct 22, 2007

"Independent Worker" * Canada - BC owner-ops likely separate from new definitions of

Surrey,BC,Canada - Today's Trucking -21 Oct 2007: -- Changes that WorkSafeBC has made to the definitions and policies for "workers, employers and independent operators," likely won't affect owner-operators in the trucking industry, reports the B.C. Trucking Association... Under the new policy, truck owner-operators will still likely be considered independent operators because one of its defining characteristics will be whether the operator legally or beneficially owns a piece of major equipment and contracts to supply personal labor and the piece of major equipment, notes BCTA... The changes, which take affect Jan. 1, 2009, affects whether an employee is automatically covered by workers’ compensation or whether it is voluntary, as in the case of owner-ops...

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