C&K Trucking settles truth-in-leasing lawsuit for more than $3M

Chicago Ridge, Ill.-based C&K Trucking has reached a settlement in a class action truth-in-leasing lawsuit.

On Feb. 22, a judge in an Illinois federal court granted final approval of a lawsuit settlement between C&K Trucking and owner-operators it hired. The trucking company is to pay $3.35 million to a class of nearly 1,000 drivers.

The lawsuit claims the trucking company took illegal deductions from owner-operators’ paychecks and violated the Truth in Leasing Act.

Allegations against C&K Trucking

The lawsuit accuses C&K Trucking of violating the Truth in Leasing Act, breach of contract and fraud.

Some of the allegations include:

• Quoting specific rates for loads and then paying less.
• Promising a certain pay structure in its standardized contracts and then failing to honor that structure.
• Unilaterally lowering the price for loads without informing owner-operators ahead of time and without their consent.
• Agreeing to honor specific rates for specific loads in response to pay disputes and then failing to honor such agreements.
• Promising higher rates for regional, as opposed to cross-town, loads but then underpaying and/or paying lower, cross-town rates.
• Misrepresenting that pay would be provided within a certain time frame and then failing to provide some or all of it.

Valinda Stephens and Bernard Shurn contracted with C&K Trucking in May 2019 under the business name BNVS Transport.

Stephens frequently found that her pay did not match up with quoted rates. That was when she was able to obtain quotes, which was not always guaranteed.

According to court documents, Stephens did not receive itemizations or documentation explaining charge-backs. In the rare instance when Stephens would receive such documentation, the itemizations often would be less than was actually deducted from her pay.

The lawsuit alleges that when Stephens would contact C&K Trucking management about these discrepancies, she was mostly ignored. When Stephens would get a reply, answers to her questions were “opaque, contradictory and misleading,” according to the complaint.

Additionally, plaintiffs accuse C&K Trucking of violating the Truth in Leasing Act. Specifically, the company is being accused of frequently taking longer than 15 days to pay drivers for loads.

Stephens also claims that the trucking company consistently did not provide her with the rates up front. In cases when Stephens was given the rate ahead of time, C&K Trucking would frequently pay her local rates rather than regional rates.

In other cases, the trucking company would unilaterally change the rate without the owner-operator’s knowledge. For example, Stephens was quoted a rate of $615 to haul a load for Berco. However, C&K Trucking allegedly lowered the rate for Berco without informing Stephens. Consequently, she was underpaid by hundreds of dollars.

By settling, the trucking company does not admit guilt to any of the claims. LL