Summer 2018
A publication of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP’s Transportation & Logistics Group
InterConnect
www.beneschlaw.com
continued on page 2
Benesch has been ranked in the First Tier
nationally in Transportation Law in the
2018 Edition of U.S. News & World Report/
Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” ranking.
Counsel for the Road Ahead®
The Dynamex Decision: Will It Be a Catalyst
or Will It Be Contained?
Long-Awaited Win for NVOCCs
In-Bond Transport Modernization Arrives
Red Sky in Morning, Shippers Take Warning:
California’s Dignity in the Driver’s Seat Bill
Handing Over the Keys? Consider Alternate
Pricing Models for 3PL Outsourcing
Governor Appoints Jonathan Todd to
Executive Order
Recent Events
On the Horizon
The U.S. News & World Report/Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on an evaluation process that
includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys in their field, and review
of additional information provided by law firms as part of the formal submission process. For more information on
Best Lawyers, please visit www.bestlawyers.com.
The Dynamex Decision: Will It Be a Catalyst or
Will It Be Contained?
Introduction
As has been widely reported, the California
Supreme Court on April 30, 2018, issued
a decision in Dynamex Operations West,
Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles
County that rejected a long-standing flexible,
multifactor test to determine whether a
worker is an employee or an independent
contractor for purposes of Wage Orders,
deciding instead to embrace a more rigid classification test and imposing a presumption
that all workers are employees until and unless an employer can prove otherwise.1
In Dynamex, the California Supreme Court adopted the Industrial Welfare Commission’s
(IWC’s) “suffer or permit to work” definition of the term “employ” to determine the
classification of workers in the Wage Order context. Also, noting the potential difficulty in
literally applying the suffer or permit to work test, the California Supreme Court decided to
embrace the “ABC” test, utilized in a few states, to determine the classification of workers
for California Wage Order purposes.
The decision represents a sea change of significant magnitude to a tremendous number of
businesses in the largest state economy in the country including, of course, transportation,
but particularly those carriers’ operations with independent contractors in the on-demand
courier, B-2-B small package and parcel, and B-2-C last-mile segments of the
transportation industry.
The Court’s decision is arguably somewhat narrower in scope as it relates to transportation,
thus begging the question whether other courts will expand its application beyond Wage
Richard A. Plewacki Kristopher J. Chandler
