Fines for owner operators by the companies for violations

There are many like you that come on here everyday insisting they know what they're talking about, yet don't even have experience in what they think they "know". Don't worry, play by your own rules while under lease and see how long you last.

 

Spanking not allowed. Warning then cut lease. Simple you will only have to cut one lease the rest will take heed

 

Exactly. I feel this guy just wants indentured servants anyway. I'm not buying the nice guy routine.

 

Ok, tell that to the IRS, FedEx and countless others who attempt to dictate how an Independent Contractor does his job. The safest, fairest and least likely to lead to litigation manner to handle OP's situation is as previously mentioned...a warning then sever business ties.

 

You're wrestling a pig in the mud

 

When you are leased to a carrier ( not talking about a lease purchase) the trucking liability is carried by the carrier by law.

 

Yawn ... you guys and your guessing of crap.

A few things that I read in this thread really got me pondering how in the hell can some of you stay in business.

First thing is this - primary liability insurance is not a carrier responsibility when it comes to independent contractors (IC), carrier have to carry cargo insurance. The IC has to provide proof that they are insured.

Second is this fact, you can not tell an IC some things because of the nature of the relationship. They can not be told how to drive, how to load or a number of other things. They are contracted to take that load to its destination.

Third - to the OP, and others, your driver getting a 1-5 over violation is a trivial issue. It is trivial not because of the points but because the fact that they didn't find anything else wrong. The question I have to the OP is this - was this a road side inspection or just a plain ticket? I think I already asked this.

A side note - here in my state, the Michigan state police have specially trained officers to handle trucks, they are the same as regular MSP troopers and can write speeding tickets, but this does not mean other cops and other entities (like county sheriffs) can't pull a truck over and scale/inspect them and issue a violation for things they find.

Fourth is that many miss something, you can't just create a policy manual and have them sign it as if they are employees, they can legally refuse to sign it because they are not employees. I can NOT stress this enough, the contract and only the contract is what sets up the relationship and it is the only thing that tells them what they can and can't do. YOU can revise the contract but then there is an issue with the signing of the contract during the term of the original one - unless there is a clause in the contract that says you can revise it, then you have to wait until the renewal of the original contract to get them to sign the revised one. Anything else opens you up for legal issues.

Fifth, your liabilities with having owners leased to you are greater than what you think. there are a number of laws and court cases that dictate what you can and can not do, and also there are a lot of side issues - breech of contract - that have been settled in and out of court on IC/lease holder issues both in Trucking and IT.