Owner Operator Independent Drivers Assn. President Jim Johnston talked to truckload carriers recently about problems OOIDA members have with some owner-operator leasing contracts - problems that have led OOIDA to file several lawsuits against carriers on behalf of those members.

Speaking to the Truckload Carriers Assn.'s Independent Contractor Division annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month, Johnston talked about some of the pending legislation the group has against companies it says have violated federal truth-in-leasing regulations. He stressed that the group would rather "enter into any dialogue that will result in meaningful alternatives to costly, time-consuming litigation as a means of resolving some of the legitimate and serious problems our members experience in their contractual relationships with some motor carriers."
Johnston noted that OOIDA's Business Services department, which fields hundreds of calls each week from owner-operators, is often able to resolve disputes between the independent contractors and their carriers.
"If you are one of those companies that is honest in your dealings with owner-operators … you should be applauding our efforts," Johnston said, "because you must compete every day against those companies [that] are able to set rates below cost because they are able to generate huge profits through cheating and stealing from owner-operators."
While Johnston expressed an interest in working with the association, he chided it for supporting a carrier in an OOIDA lawsuit that he called "the lowest, most unscrupulous operator I have seen in my entire 38 years in this business." He also said OOIDA is "not interested in spending time working on some fluffy-sounding code-of-conduct type system with no teeth, like the one developed with shippers and receivers to address practices at loading and unloading docks."
Johnston suggested that TCA form a committee to meet with OOIDA to jointly develop a mutually acceptable plan as to how to address truth-in-leasing complaints.
"It is truly unfortunate that because of general suspicion or mistrust or whatever, we have not been able to work together more closely in the past on issues of mutual concern," Johnson said, such as hours of service, loading and unloading, and fuel surcharges.