September 20, 2008
No To Undisclosed Charge Backs and Markups
A landmark court ruling was recently issued which was seen by the OOIDA as a groundbreaking victory in the continual battle between big businesses interest and the interest of citizens. A panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th circuit, decided that a trial court judge had in fact erred when handling an OOIDA case which had been brought against Landstar System Inc. With this ruling, it seems the judges from the Court of Appeals have made quite a bold statement about the way in which motor carriers and the trucking business are actually required by law to engage in business with owner-operators who lease their vehicles.
This case dealt with undisclosed markups and chargeback’s which Landstar System was making against the pay of their owner-operator truck drivers. The OOIDA contended for many years that the federal leasing regulations actually require that motor carriers disclose these charges and provide their employees with proper documentation detailing how they figure these charges.
The Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association CEO Jim Johnston was very pleased with the ruling. He stated that, “This ruling certainly affirmed everything that we needed affirmed in the leasing rules and overturned many of what we considered to be erroneous decisions by the lower court.” And he also said, “The important thing here is that the owner-operator be fully informed of what the costs and fees are that a carrier is going to charge.
Then you can make your decision based on having all of the information.” This landmark ruling says that, if the leases they provide their owner-operators don’t actually provide chargeback computations and the necessary documentation to back them up, then those carriers are not complying with federal regulations that require them to do so. This is a great ruling for Class A truck driving jobs and CDL truck driving jobs as well.
Dan Cullen, an attorney from The Cullen Law Firm who is handling this OOIDA case, stated, “This is a landmark ruling in which the Court of Appeals has upheld the rights of truckers to obtain complete, transparent and truthful disclosures from carriers regarding how their compensation – and deductions from that compensation – are calculated.” He also said that, “The decision, coming from one of the highest courts in the country short of the Supreme Court, unconditionally endorses the standards we have advocated in this and many other cases on behalf of OOIDA’s members.”
And both Johnston and Cohen now believe that this ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals will serve as a wake up call to all motor carriers out there and make them realize that profits from undisclosed chargeback’s and markups can no longer be made without violating federal law. All in all, it is a great day for CDL truck driving jobs and Class A truck driving jobs, too.
