David vs. Goliath: Disputing pay with large carriers

Lease-on agreements with large carriers are pretty airtight, but that does not mean truckers have to roll over when a pattern of loads going wrong starts costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Leasing on to a mega carrier has its advantages. Owner-operators get access to a wide network of clients and are relieved of some of the administrative burdens of being an independent contractor. However, when something goes wrong at the loading dock, causing a trucker to miss out on a load, the driver is at the mercy of the contract.

Losing a scheduled load with little to no warning happens in the industry. But when it happens consistently, it can cost an owner-operator a significant amount of income. Sometimes, a carrier will compensate drivers for missing a load beyond their control. However, leased-on truckers may find themselves in a situation where the carrier claims to owe them nothing. That may be true … or it may not.

Fighting for pay under lease-on agreement

Mark Johnson found himself in a situation where the carrier did not compensate him for lost loads that ended up costing him thousands of dollars over a one-year period.

An over-the-road truck driver for more than two decades, Johnson signed a lease-on agreement with a large carrier in August 2021. It took only a few months for the problems to begin. After arriving at the shipper’s facility, Johnson was unable to haul loads for a variety of reasons.

In one instance, the trailers Johnson and three other drivers were supposed to carry were not there. There were several situations where the load was not ready until the next day or was completely canceled. In those situations, Johnson was not informed about the delay or cancellation until he arrived at the facility.

According to Johnson, unexpectedly missing out on a load could cost him thousands of dollars in missed opportunities. Although he received his loads through the carrier’s load board, he hired a third-party dispatcher to book them. To maximize the miles and dollars, the dispatcher would book several loads in advance, with the next load relatively close to the receiver of the last load. Consequently, if Johnson missed a load, he would either have to deadhead a long distance to pick up the next booked load or reschedule his entire week.

Worst-case scenario: One missed load could cause an owner-operator to lose several days of work that otherwise would have been scheduled with jobs.

“When I lost the load, it wiped out three loads at a time. It was thousands of dollars,” Johnson said. “And then again, (the dispatcher) would have to go back to the blackboard and start from scratch, because the idea is to keep you moving. You don’t deliver a load and then look for another one.”

Johnson claims that when he addressed the issues as they happened, there was a lot of finger-pointing but very little accountability. The carrier claimed the shipper was responsible for the loads, while the shippers pointed out that they were not responsible for driver compensation.

Once Johnson began to notice that these long delays and cancellations were becoming more commonplace rather than a few one-offs, he began documenting. Eventually, enough was enough, and he took the carrier to small claims court.

According to court documents, Johnson’s claims involved nine separate situations dealing with a missed or delayed load. In its final judgment, the court ordered the carrier to pay Johnson for three of the nine claims, including compensating him for missing a scheduled load following an unexpectedly canceled load.

Johnson may not have come out victorious on most of the claims, but winning on some of them shows owner-operators that there may be some recourse when the actions of the carrier start affecting their bottom line.

Preparing to fight

Johnson’s experience could encourage other drivers to fight for pay they feel they are entitled to, but they will need to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s in order to be successful.

First and foremost, truckers should know their contract. Most lease-on agreements will include sections dedicated to compensation, including what the owner-operator is entitled to and deadlines to dispute pay. The contract will likely be the controlling piece of evidence to settle claims.

Contracts can be lengthy and hard to decipher. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association’s Business Services will review contracts for members. There are other services, including attorneys specializing in contracts, that will break down a contract for a fee.

Although large carriers do a good job of covering all bases with their contracts, Paul Torlina, OOIDA’s government affairs counsel, said situations like Johnson’s may be open for dispute.

“How clear is that contract language? Because if it’s unclear at any time, you’re leaving it to a court to interpret it,” Torlina said.

If the contract leaves the dispute open for debate, truckers need to make sure that every incident in dispute is well documented. That doesn’t mean a phone call or one-on-one conversation with the shipper or carrier.

Lease-on agreement pay disputes need to be documented in writing so that the owner-operator can produce proof that he or she addressed the issue within the allotted amount of time provided in the contract.

Make sure that those written documents are well preserved. Emails and text messages are oftentimes autodeleted after a certain amount of time.

Armed with the contract and proper documentation, the next step is to know which court to file in and to know the rules. Torlina advises truckers to expect a carrier’s attorney to intimidate them by bringing up court rules and procedures, such as filing deadlines, format, etc. The good thing about small claims courts is that the judges and magistrates typically give pro se plaintiffs some slack compared to more formal district court cases.

Lastly, prepare to look for another job. There is a distinct possibility that somewhere in the contract lies a provision giving the carrier a way out of the contract. In Johnson’s case, his lease-on agreement was severed a few weeks after he filed his claim.

This all sounds like a lot of trouble, but if thousands of dollars are being left on the table, many owner-operators may feel it’s worth it. They may lose their job in the process, but do they really want to stay with a carrier that is costing them money?

“It’s not your life; it’s your livelihood,” Johnson said. “You can go somewhere else.” LL

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