1K more parking spots coming to network | Lawsuit against DOL over Biden contractor rule dismissed

Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025:

Fleet’s court challenge to Biden-era contractor rule ends with dismissal

A federal district court earlier this month dismissed a New Mexico-based trucking company’s lawsuit against the Biden Department of Labor challenging the 2024 independent contractor classification rule for Fair Labor Standards Act purposes.

Colt & Joe Trucking sued DOL last April following Biden's rollback of a Trump-era contractor classification rule and implementation of a “totality-of-the-circumstances analysis” that considers the worker’s “economic reality” through six factors weighted equally.

The first Trump administration’s DOL, as one of its final acts in January 2021, published a rule that included a test to determine if a worker was independent or an employee that relied on five factors, but put greater emphasis on two “core factors” -- the nature and degree of the worker’s control over the work and the worker’s opportunity for profit or loss.

In its lawsuit, Colt & Joe Trucking said it “routinely hires owner-operator truck drivers as independent contractors as part of its business.” It said the January 2021 rule was “a clear standard for when an individual … may be classified as an independent contractor, as opposed to an employee subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act’s wage and hour requirements.”

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The lawsuit alleged that DOL “abruptly and arbitrarily reversed course" with the new rule in its January 2024 publication. “The new rule further replaces the simple and objective control-and-opportunity standard with an open-ended balancing test that obscures the distinction between contractors and employees, making it impossible for businesses” like Colt & Joe “to hire independent contractors without risking FLSA liability.”

[Related: ATA, OOIDA split on bills that could guarantee overtime pay for employee drivers]

Because of the changes in the 2024 rule, the lawsuit claimed Colt & Joe Trucking “must spend more time and resources analyzing whether drivers with whom it contracts are properly classified as independent contractors or employees.” This resulted in the end of a working relationship between the company and one of its independent contractors. The company also claimed it was not able to hire a replacement driver “in part due to greater uncertainty and regulatory burdens created by the 2024 rule.”

In a response to the claims, the DOL argued that Colt & Joe Trucking lacked standing to challenge the rule under Article III of the Constitution. Article III requires that a plaintiff prove that he or she has personally suffered as a result of the opposing party’s actions.

In a Jan. 9 opinion, the U.S. District Court for New Mexico denied Colt & Joe’s claim and granted a motion to the DOL to dismiss the case. The court said it found that Colt & Joe “has not sufficiently demonstrated that they have Article III standing to challenge the 2024 rule.”

The court added that “merely alleging that a regulation creates a chilling effect is not sufficient to give rise to standing.”

The court also found that the 2024 IC rule was not “arbitrary and capricious,” therefore finding that the rule was not unlawful.

[Related: Are leased owner-operators truly independent contractors for fair-labor-law purposes?]

Love’s plans further expansion in 2025

Love's fuel island, driver walking awayAnother 1,000 parking spaces are expected in Love's 50K-plus network this year.

Love’s Travel Stops is coming into 2025 with plans to continue its expansion.

The travel stop network aims to build 20 new locations this year, while beginning to update 50 existing locations under the company’s Strategic Remodel Initiative (SRI). With new locations and SRI efforts this year, more than half of Love’s 655 locations will be newly constructed or remodeled by 2035. 

The company also plans to add approximately 1,000 new truck parking spaces to its network to take it above 50,000 spaces nationwide, either with new builds or adding spaces at existing locations. Love’s also plans additions to its network of Truck Care locations with 12 new maintenance bays and six new roadside-emergency trucks.

For its truck wash business that launched last year, Love’s will add three-five to its 11 existing locations this year, and the company will double down on veteran hiring, pledging to increase by 10% the number of military veterans hired in 2025. Likewise, Love's will be launching a hiring program for military spouses.

[Related: FMCSA gets an earful on truck parking

Accounting firm adds transport consulting, profit analysis to service

The Forvis Mazars, LLP, public accounting and consulting firm recently launched a tech-enabled Profitability Analysis & Network Management consulting service line, now available to its trucking industry clients. Underpinning the service is a new Freight Network Navigator tool designed primarily for carriers to identify potential areas for improvement to enhance profitability. Insights from the tool, together with the consulting capacity of the team, hope to provide help for carriers seeking to improve their bottom line, the company said.

The service is led by a trucking-industry veterans on the company's team with long experience helping carriers achieve sustainable growth, strengthening freight networks and pricing. “I’m thrilled to lead this new consulting service and collaborate with our clients to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in the industry,” said the new service's lead consultant, Chuck Jorgenson. “By identifying areas of underperformance and creating targeted, actionable plans, we can help companies drive profitability, streamline operations, and stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing market.”

Freight Network Navigator was developed by the EDGE Innovation Lab within Forvis Mazars, which worked closely with Jorgenson in building the tool. 

[Related: Know your costs? Evaluate the profit potential in any load with Overdrive's Load Profit Analyzer]

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