Trucking news and briefs for Friday, Feb. 27, 2026:
- More independent contractor “regulatory whiplash” upcoming?
- Fleet’s waiver for pre-CDL drivers renewed.
- Two new chain truck stops open on East Coast.
DOL's latest contractor classification determination proposal
The Department of Labor's latest installment in a half-decade back-and-forth seeks to revert employee classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to prior rules.
In a Federal Register notice published Friday, DOL’s Wage and Hour Division proposed to rescind the Biden-era rule that took effect in 2024 and roll back to the rule finalized at the end of the first Trump administration, in 2021.
Last May, the DOL issued guidance to Wage and Hour Division investigators directing them to not apply the Biden-era rule while the department reviewed the 2024 final rule.
[Related: Labor Department reviewing Biden-era independent contractor rule]
That 2024 rule officially codified, for the first time, the standard that courts have been using for decades up until the Trump Administration’s own independent contractor rule was published in 2021. The Biden DOL repealed the Trump-era rule and put its own rule in place.
The rule’s applicability to trucking, as reported when it was finalized, is limited, as it only applies to classification for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act's requirements for employers, which include minimum wage and overtime. Truck drivers remain exempt from application of the overtime pay standards, and minimum wage disputes in the industry are rare.
In DOL’s proposal to rescind and roll back the IC regulations, the department said it’s “concerned that the 2024 Rule broadens and generalizes a variation of the longstanding legal analysis in ways that complicate and frustrate its application by workers and businesses.” DOL also expressed concern that the 2024 rule’s “description of several economic reality factors could be viewed as setting a higher bar to find independent contractor status than the law requires.”
[Related: Independent contractor 'regulatory whiplash': Trucking calls for clarity, preservation of option]
The Biden IC rule established a “totality-of-the-circumstances” analysis for determining a worker’s classification and used six “economic reality” factors that are weighted equally to make the determination. Those six factors:
- Opportunity for profit or loss depending on managerial skill
- Investments by the worker and the potential employer
- Degree of permanence of the work relationship
- Nature and degree of control
- Extent to which the work performed is an integral part of the potential employer’s business
- Skill and initiative
The proposed rule focuses rather on two "core factors" to determine whether a worker is an employee economically dependent on an employer or an independent contractor in business for themselves:
- The nature and degree of control over the work.
- The worker’s opportunity for profit or loss based on their own initiative or investment.
Under the proposal, if these core factors point toward the same classification, the designation is likely to stand. Other factors, such as the degree of permanence in the relationship and the amount of skill required, would only be considered if the core factors are inconclusive.
“The tens of millions of Americans who work as independent contractors are helping drive the Golden Age of the American economy,” said Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “The department’s proposed rule seeks to protect these workers’ entrepreneurial spirit and simplify compliance for American job creators navigating a modern workplace, all while maintaining robust protections for employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.”
[Related: DOL contractor rule now in effect: Owner-operator classification maze, perspective]
Wilson Logistics gets pre-CDL waiver renewed
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has renewed an exemption for Wilson Logistics that allows a commercial learner’s permit (CLP) holder to drive without a truck without a CDL holder in the front seat, as long as the CLP holder has passed the CDL skills test.
The fleet requested the renewal in December and has held the exemption since Feb. 23, 2021. It was set to expire Feb. 23, 2026.
Despite 65 of the 74 comments received by FMCSA being opposed to renewing the waiver, FMCSA said, “if these CLP holders had passed the skills test in their home State of domicile, they could immediately obtain their permanent or temporary CDL and begin driving CMVs without any on-board supervision.”
But because they passed the skills test away from their home state, they “must obtain the physical CDL credential from their State of domicile. The exemption therefore permits these individuals who are employed by Wilson Logistics to work productively as team CMV drivers during the period between passing the CDL skills test and receiving their CDL, without requiring the accompanying CDL holders to be on duty and in the front seat.”
The renewed waiver is effective through Feb. 24, 2031.
As a registered training provider with FMCSA, Wilson Logistics administers the CDL test for prospective driver employees, which the company calls “pre-apprentices,” that have completed the company’s CDL training program. Since the initial granting of its exemption in 2021, the company has trained 1,381 prospective driver employees and successfully tested and approved 1,264, or 91.5%, of the trainees.
Wilson describes its program as a company-sponsored, hands-on, on-the-job, pre-apprentice CDL training program accessible only to Wilson Logistics prospective driver employees.
While participating in the driver training, the pre-apprentices are not employed by Wilson Logistics. Once pre-apprentices obtain their CDL, they receive an offer of employment from Wilson.
Once a Wilson pre-apprentice has passed the CDL test, a Wilson trainer accompanies the CLP holder for their first 30,000 miles. For the first 10,000 miles, the trainer is in the front passenger seat of the CMV; during the remaining 20,000 miles, the trainer is in the truck, although not necessarily in the front seat of the vehicle. Trainers also accompany the CLP holders when they return to their state of domicile to receive their CDL after having passed the test.
Current regulations require that CLP holders always be accompanied by a valid CDL holder physically present in the front seat of the vehicle next to the CLP holder.
[Related: Sleeper berth: Should more truckers be able to split as they see fit?]
Pilot opens new stops in Mass., Florida
Pilot this week announced the opening of two new travel stops locations in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and Ponce de Leon, Florida.
Pilot’s new Chicopee location, located off I-90 at 357 Burnett Rd., is Pilot’s second travel center to open in Massachusetts. The location offers 25 dedicated truck parking spaces, seven diesel lanes, a hot and cold deli and more.
The additional truck parking in Massachusetts is likely to be a welcome sight to truckers who frequent the area. In Overdrive's 2025 Highway Report Card survey, drivers ranked Massachusetts as the No. 4 overall worst state for truck parking, behind only California, New York and New Jersey.
The new Florida location, at 2923 Hwy. 81, just off I-10 at exit 96, boasts 87 truck parking spaces, eight diesel lanes, laundry facilities, a hot and cold deli and more.
The additional parking in Florida improves the state's already high standing among truckers -- the Sunshine State ranked as the No. 3 best state for parking in Overdrive's report.
