AB 5 and What It Means for Motor Carriers and Their Independent Contractors
This post is part of a series sponsored by IAT Insurance Group.
For the last two-and-a-half years the entire nation has been tracking California Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), which changed the definition of who is considered an independent contractor (IC) across many industries.
Recently the injunction to keep AB 5 out of the trucking sector was lifted. This decision is impacting the approximately 70,000 ICs in California already faced with a myriad of challenges, including increased regulation, rising fuel costs and other supply chain demands.[1]
Up until the 2019 California court decision that changed the definition of who is an IC across industries, the Borello test was used to determine the common law relationship between a business owner and an IC. With the new decision, workers are now presumed employees unless the business-to-business exemption is met, or the trucking company can prove all three “prongs” of the ABC