N.Y. Independent-Contractor Bill Moves Toward Passage

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is expected to sign a bill next month that classifies independent-contractor truck drivers as employees, the New York Post reported.

While the Post reported that the bill specifically exempts employees of FedEx Ground, its exceptions apply to all owner-operators.

Both the state’s trucking industry and the Teamsters union supported the measure after industry and labor representatives negotiated the bill’s terms.

The bill allows truck drivers to skip a three-prong test in favor of one specific to the trucking industry.

It allows owner-operators to lease their trucks from carriers on long-term contracts while listing a number of factors that must be considered to show that the trucker is acting as an independent business entity.

A 2012 report by the think tank Drum Major Institute said that of the 160,000 truck drivers in New York, about 41,600 are classified as owner-operators.

But 28,800 of those owner-operators are misclassified because their carriers exert control over them as if they were employees, the report said.