“I don’t want to move, and I won’t be a company driver.” Ivan Mikhov, a 34-year-old owner-operator based in Sacramento, Calif., faced grim prospects about the future of his California-based one-truck business in the waning months of 2019.
The state had enacted a law establishing rigid criteria, dubbed the “ABC test,” for determining whether a worker could be hired as an independent contractor, widely interpreted as banning fleets from contracting with owner-operator truckers.
Mikhov, who lives near family in Sacramento, told Overdrive in December he was weighing a move to Oklahoma as a way to keep his business alive. With his 2013 Volvo, Mikhov is leased to Landstar, one of many high-profile fleets to tell California-based owner-operators late last year that, because of the ABC test law, they need to leave the state or find a new fleet.
Court decisions in recent weeks, however, have turned the tide in trucking’s favor — and given those like Mikhov a tinge of hope.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez issued a preliminary injunction Jan. 16 against California’s act, Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5), forbidding the state from enforcing the law on carriers and owner-operators until a pending lawsuit brought by the California Trucking Association is heard and decided.
Opponents of the law believe it won’t hold up in appellate courts because of a 1994 act, the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA or F4A), which forbids states from enacting laws that “interfere with prices, routes and service” of motor carriers. In layman’s terms: The federal government, not states, regulates interstate trucking operations.
“I’ll be an owner-operator, even if I have to move,” says Mikhov. “But as of right now, the judge says we’re exempt, so I’m going to stay and wait on a decision.”
