Three Owner-Operators have filed a lawsuit against their carrier that they claim underpaid them and other O/Os that worked for the company to the tune of $22 million. The drivers are seeking class action status in order to move the case forward.
The truckers used to work with Benchmark Transportation Services, an oilfield services company, and Benchmark Logistics, Inc. According to the lawsuit, the company underreported their revenue to drivers by as much as 12.5% and assessed a surcharge that ended up costing their drivers more than $10,000 per trucker per year.
Putting a stop to the illegal practice is only half of what the lawsuit hopes to accomplish. The plaintiffs are also hoping to include 400-600 other drivers in their class action suit who were owner operators with leases to the companies over the past four years. This would raise the amount of damages to $15 million to $22 million.
The suit names Benchmark Transportation Services, Benchmark Logistics, and the parent company Unified Logistics Holdings as co-defendents in the case, even though Benchmark Logistics had its registration revoked by the DOT in 2013 and is no longer in operation.
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Source: gobytrucknews, overdrive
I am glad to here of somebody has brought this issue to awareness. I am retired from 35 years of driving because I could depend on not getting paid right.
I wonder…… that if an “Audit” was to be performed retroactively to a “whole bunch” of companies out there,, What would be the final outcome? I was owner Op. back in the nineties, and my dispatchers got caught swindling……all they experienced was transfers to other “far away” company terminals but they remained on the job. No LEO involved. (((One of the reasons to get out of the business))) Very Sad situation.
Good luck! I haven’t heard anything about the suit against Swift.