Trucking news and briefs for Thursday, July 24, 2025:
OOIDA: Contractor bill could impact leased owner-ops’ independence viz a viz 'safety' techs
A bill making its way through the U.S. House could potentially lead to motor carriers requiring leased owner-operators to use safety tech on their trucks and still be allowed to classify the worker as an independent contractor.
The Modern Worker Empowerment Act passed the House Committee on Education and Workforce by a 19-16 vote on Wednesday.
The bill would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act to clarify the standard for determining whether an individual is an employee or independent contractor. Under the provisions of the bill, an individual would be classified as an independent contractor and not an employer of another person if:
- Such other person does not exercise significant control over the details of the way the work is performed by the individual, without regard to any control the other person may exercise over the final result of the work performed
- While performing such work, the individual has the opportunities and risks inherent with entrepreneurship, such as the discretion to exercise managerial skill, business acumen, or professional judgment
The bill also includes factors that cannot be used in determining a worker’s classification status:
- Whether the prospective employer requires the individual to comply with legal, statutory, or regulatory requirements
- Whether the prospective employer requires the individual to comply with health and safety standards that are more stringent than otherwise applicable health and safety standards
- Whether the prospective employer requires the individual to carry insurance of any kind
- Whether the prospective employer requires the individual to meet contractually agreed-upon performance standards, such as deadlines
According to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the second provision could prove problematic for some owner-operators leased to motor carriers. OOIDA felt it could open the door for requirements for use of techs that aren't mandated by law, such as driver-facing cameras, speed limiters and more, jeopardizing "independent truckers’ control over their work," the association noted. The provision "would allow corporate motor carriers to micromanage their operations and rolls back significant progress that small-business truckers have made with the Department of Transportation and President Trump.”
Allowing employers to require more stringent safety standards for contracted workers might result in carriers giving leased owners a “long list of ‘safety’ measures, such as speed limiters, inward-facing cameras, blinker-use monitoring, mandatory monthly remedial training and others that they must comply with” as a condition of the contract, OOIDA added.
With the DOT officially withdrawing the speed limiter proposals of the last decade, OOIDA said this bill “would create a backdoor loophole to force speed limiters on independent truckers anyway -- as long as a megacarrier, and not the independent contractor, says it is good for safety.”
The bill will now move to the full House for a vote and would need to pass there and in the Senate before moving to President Trump’s desk for a signature.
[Related: Automated tech's trucking role divides industry interests in Senate hearing]
DOT Secretary Duffy visits Schneider
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday visited the headquarters of Schneider National in Duffy’s home state of Wisconsin.
In a post on X, Duffy said the DOT is working on “Making Trucking GREAT Again.”
“This administration listens to the American people to drive policy and we’ll have more to come from my meetings with this 90 year old company’s leadership and their drivers. Stay tuned!”
[Related: Near-miss at rail crossing a wake-up call for regulators?]
Truck tonnage declined in June: ATA
Trucking activity in the United States slipped in June as freight markets eroded during the last two months of the second quarter, according to the American Trucking Associations.
Specifically, truck freight tonnage decreased 0.4% after falling 0.1% in May, according to ATA’s advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index.ATA
“After a strong start to the second quarter, with tonnage levels increasing sequentially and from a year earlier in April, freight levels eased in May and June,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.
Costello noted that in the second quarter as a whole, truck tonnage was mostly flat, increasing just 0.2% from the first quarter. Tonnage was down 0.2% from Q2 2024, however.
“Freight levels have been helped recently by small gains in factory output and retail sales, but weaker construction activity, especially for single-family homes, has been a drag on volumes,” Costello concluded.
In June, the ATA advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index equaled 113.3, down from 113.8 in May. The index, which is based on 2015 as 100, slipped 0.1% from the same month last year after falling 1.3% in May. Year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2024, tonnage was up 0.1%.
The not seasonally adjusted index, which calculates raw changes in tonnage hauled, equaled 114.9 in June, 1.1% below May’s reading of 116.2.
Trucker receives Highway Angel recognition for helping unresponsive truck driver
Jeanine Reinhad, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based truck driver for Halvor Lines, has been named a Highway Angel by the Truckload Carriers Association for stopping to help a truck driver who was unresponsive and blocking traffic at a weigh station.
Jeanine Reinhad
“I said, ‘Are you okay?’,” Reinhad said. “He couldn’t talk; I said, ‘Do you need medical attention?’ It took me forever to call 911. Can you believe 911 never answered?”
Reinhad was able to contact state police in another county, who then transferred her to the help she needed. She waited for first responders with the challenged man, who she said was on oxygen in his truck.
First responders were able to get the man out of his truck, and Kentucky state troopers moved the vehicle out of traffic.
“He was an older gentleman -- hopefully he was okay,” Reinhad said.
