“It is extremely unfortunate that this Court couldn’t see through their own political agenda to identify the obvious preemption that exists under the F4A,” he wrote in an email to FreightWaves. “This ruling will have far reaching impacts that will upend the industry as we know it. Tens of thousands of truck drivers will be driven out of established business relationships within a week. No doubt this will further stress the supply chain.”
Bloch was asked what would be the impact on freight movement in lanes away from the ports — specifically an example in which an independent owner-operator moves freight between Riverside County outside of Los Angeles and Northern California. What might that person’s legal status become?
“It’s a good question,” he said. But he came back to the issue of misclassification. “I don’t really care what sector of the trucking industry you’re in, I would be concerned about misclassification.”
Bloch added that “what we’ve seen is that every time the laws change, the industry finds some way to adapt.”
CTA issues blistering statement
Not surprisingly, the statement issued by the CTA after the SCOTUS non-action held little back.
“Gasoline has been poured on the fire that is our ongoing supply chain crisis,” the organization said. “In addition to the direct impact on California’s 70,000 owner-operators who have seven days to cease long-standing independent businesses, the impact of taking tens of thousands of truck drivers off the road will have devastating repercussions on an already fragile supply chain, increasing costs and worsening runaway inflation.”