The California Trucking Association and two California independent owner-operator truck drivers filed an amended complaint with the US Southern District Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the employment test codified in California’s Assembly Bill 5, which was signed into law in September.
The new test denies a significant segment of the trucking industry the ability to continue operating as independent owner-operators in California, forcing them to abandon $150,000 investments in clean trucks and the right to set their own schedule and become their own boss, according to the CTA.
In the suit, plaintiffs argue that the classification test set forth in the Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court decision, and codified by AB 5, violates federal law because it is preempted by the supremacy and commerce clauses in the US Constitution and is in direct conflict with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Act and the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994.
“AB 5 threatens the livelihood of more than 70,000 independent truckers,” said CTA ‘s CEO Shawn Yadon. “The bill wrongfully restricts their ability to provide services as owner-operators and, therefore, runs afoul of federal law.”
Some professions, including lawyers and real estate agents, received broad exemptions from the new rules under the law, The Sacramento Bee newspaper previously reported. Truckers did not, although lawmakers delayed implementation for some that provide construction services.
AB 5 has implications that go beyond employment classification in California, according to Robert Roginson, an attorney for the CTA. “With more than 350,000 independent owner-operators registered in the United States, the new test imposes an impermissible burden on interstate commerce under the US Constitution’s commerce clause and infringes upon decades-old congressional intent to prevent states from regulating the rates, routes and services of the trucking industry,” he said.
The legal action from the trucking industry comes as human cloud firms including Uber, Lyft and DoorDash aim to place a ballot measure before California voters in November 2020 to counteract AB 5.
