For decades, the trucking industry’s use of independent owner-operators has been a delicate, but successful, dance between the business and personal needs of motor carriers and contractors. Now, the contractor model’s future is in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The California Trucking Association is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a state independent contractor law — known as AB 5 — that it argues should be exempt from enforcement for motor carriers based on federal pre-emption.

The California Trucking Association on June 21 learned that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not reconsider its earlier rejection of CTA’s challenge to a state independent contractor law. CTA plans to appeal its complaint to the nation’s highest court.

Trade organizations representing motor carriers and independent owner-operators alike say they strongly oppose a new California law that aims to reclassify large numbers of independent contractors as company employees, according to new documents filed in a recent appellate court challenge to the law.

The California Trucking Association has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a full appellate court review of a three-member panel’s earlier decision regarding a state law that many in trucking deem unfair to the industry.

The California Trucking Association will appeal a court decision on the state’s independent contractor law that many in trucking deem unfavorable to the industry, CTA CEO Shawn Yadon said on May 3.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a lower court’s preliminary injunction that blocked the immediate implementation of California’s Assembly Bill 5 law, which motor carriers have claimed would make use of independent contractors next to impossible.

The California Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit Feb. 3 that sought to overturn a ballot measure that makes app-based ride-hailing and delivery drivers independent contractors instead of employees eligible for benefits and job protections.

A group of ride-hail and delivery drivers are suing to invalidate the California ballot measure approved in November that declared them independent contractors, the latest volley in the state’s yearslong struggle over whether gig workers are employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor on Jan. 6 issued a final rule revising its interpretation of independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act that it said will “promote certainty for stakeholders, reduce litigation and encourage innovation in the economy.”