Double Yellow's Company Driver to Independent Thread

Yeah, there are 2 things.

The first question is: is it legitimate 1099 work? There is nothing wrong with 1099ing an independent contractor. Hell, the IRS will probably pay me this reward on a 1099.

Factors that indicate someone is an employee and not a 1099:

1) Scheduling: Does the employer control when & how long the contractor works?
2) Independence: Is the contractor free to work for other people? Does he use company tools & equipment or does he provide his own?
3) Profitability: Is the contractor primarily in control of generating a profit or loss? For example: can you fuel wherever you want?
4) Is the employer dependent on this type of work on an ongoing basis? Is this just a short term contract/temporary overflow of work? Or would the employer cease to exist without this category of contractor?
5) Benefits: Does the employer offer retirement, health plans, or other benefits to entice workers to stay long-term?

As you can imagine, there are lots of gray areas. Landstar, for instance, checks some of those boxes but (imo) it is legitimately 1099ing their contractors. Sure, they would be decimated if all the 1099 workers left, but they would still have a brokerage doing mostly the same job it does now. Landstar drivers have to meet Landstar requirements and abide by Landstar policies, but they are fairly loose and mostly for legal/safety reasons.
What makes them contractors is that Landstar drivers provide their own equipment and can mostly do what they want with it. They can work if and when they want. They can fuel and repair where they want. They can pick which individual jobs they want to do.

In contrast, the company I reported owned the trucks and told the drivers where to fuel and where to get repairs done. They told the drivers when to work and when they could take off (2 weeks on, 2 days off). They told the drivers what jobs to do. They did not have a brokerage and did not have w2 drivers so if the 1099 "contractors" stopped showing up, they would no longer have a business...

The 2nd thing to consider when making a report is whether an understaffed IRS will care enough to look into it. A company with 5 trucks probably isn't worth the time/money to investigate because the penalties wouldn't even cover the cost of the investigation. A company with 50+ trucks probably would start to get their attention.

Ha no, but I'm sure you could find a few there.

This one was out of Sacramento proper. It seemed to have expanded almost overnight to 100 trucks, but is now gone (or has chameleoned). They did a lot of CA to Chicago and had the feeling of a reincarnated Chicago company.

The fact that they are now gone is what makes me wonder how much, if anything, I'll actually collect. Guess we'll find out for sure October after next...

 

I know right? My timing never has been good...

I miss it sometimes. If I had my truck, trailer, and authority all active and ready I'd probably find myself taking some loads.

But I don't miss it enough to start over. With dozens of automated platforms I still think the 10+ year time horizon doesn't look so hot - at least for the unspecialized.

But guys like Blair will probably still be doing well pulling 100' rocket sections for SpaceX or something...