Is there a reason why many of these drivers can't just go from being independent to salaried?
It's about costs and the rules for doing so in California.
For one thing if they’re independent they have their own equipment and need to keep up payments. Presumably they’re independent because the make enough more money to keep up the payments on their equipment
My brother in the Hollywood Knights of Columbus is a truck driver, independent.
The “mainly” trucking companies (you dont own your rig) pay sh*t (his words), more rules, and routes which takes them away from their normal routes. Plus, they sometimes deduct stupid stuff such as “overnight break time”.
From the article:
To be considered an independent contractor, there are conditions to be met. First is that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; second, it posits that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and third is that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business that is of the same nature as the work performed.
Most legal analysis of the ruling agrees that the test sets an impossible standard for most motor carriers using the independent contractor-owner operations.
The guys have a ton of $$ invested and have built a business based on the rules in place at the time, and shouldn't have to start over at the government's whim, IMHO.
Is there any reason a self employed plumber can’t give up their job and work for Wal Mart?
Pretty much the same thing here.
Is there a reason why many of these drivers can’t just go from being independent to salaried?
@@@@@@@@@
Freedom of private business ownership and the associated tax benefits. Freedom of independence to own one’s time and effort along with the wages personally negotiated as an owner operator.
Or one can be legislated into a life of servitude trading one’s hours for dollars with no control over work schedule or hours of work as a slave of the state.
WWG1WGA!
They can go from independent to salary. But they didn’t want to.
There are some platforms for hiring independent contractors - like an uber for shippers type thing. But they are not as easy to use as uber/lyft etc and most shippers like to work with one or two carriers. The carriers are the ones who then sub-contract to independent drivers with their own rigs.
Now they can’t do that.
Let me see:
I have (at a minimum) close to half a million dollars invested in my CHOSEN method of earning a living, and some putz thinks I should just park it and take a position with what was my competition.
That way I become totally dependent on someone else’s scheduling, priorities and workload.
Sounds like a really good idea.
NOT!
They have truck payments to make.
Is there a reason why many of these drivers can’t just go from being independent to salaried?”
Go from being free and independent to grow their business as they see fit to becoming a wage slave?