A wage lawsuit against a mega carrier that was cited in the Truck Leasing Task Force’s report to Congress about predatory lease-purchase agreements is headed for a settlement.
In 2020, truck driver Eric Brant filed a lawsuit against Schneider National Carriers, claiming that he was misclassified as an independent contractor and was paid less than the minimum wage.
Brant hauled loads for Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider as an “owner-operator” from December 2018 until August 2019. He claimed that Schneider violated Truth-in-Leasing regulations, as well as minimum wage requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Wisconsin law.
During a week in May 2019, Brant claimed he received zero net pay after driving 3,000 miles to haul five shipments for the mega carrier.
Case dismissed?
In 2021, the district court granted Schneider’s motion to dismiss the case, pointing to the company’s contract as evidence that Brant was in control of his business.
A year later, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit determined that the district court had erred.
Despite the contract, the Seventh Circuit said that Brant’s “economic reality” told a different story.
According to Brant, Schneider controlled his personal appearance and limited him to driving no faster than 70 mph even when the posted speed limit was faster.
The appeals court said the contract’s “theoretical ability to hire help can bear little weight if it was not consistent with the economic reality of his control over his work.”
The Seventh Circuit’s decision kicked the case back to the district court.
Truck Leasing Task Force
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act established a Truck Leasing Task Force to evaluate lease-purchase agreements in the trucking industry.
In these agreements, a carrier leases a truck to a driver but still largely holds control over the operation, including the driver’s ability to pay off the loan. Truckers relayed their horror stories about being coerced into signing the agreement and owing the motor carrier money at the end of some pay periods.
The task force said it “conservatively estimated” that more than 200,000 truck drivers have been negatively affected by predatory lease-purchase deals.
The Truck Leasing Task Force used its findings to deliver a report to Congress in December 2024 that called for a ban on the lease-purchase model.
Brant’s case against the mega carrier was cited in the report.
“Leased operators for Schneider were paid at most 65% of the carrier’s load revenue,” the task force wrote in the report. “In other words, if an owner-operator generated typical revenue for the firm, they would generate around $2,267 per week on average or about $63,492 less per year than (provided revenue estimates). Since many of the costs lease-purchase drivers incur are fixed, like truck payments and insurance, this means that drivers were going into these lease-purchase programs with figures that likely suggested take-home earnings more than twice what the average truck in Schneider’s lease-purchase program could produce.”
Settlement
About six years after the lawsuit was filed, the parties have agreed to a settlement with Brant, two other named plaintiffs (Thomas Campbell and Brian Minor) and 128 drivers who opted in to the case.
On June 26, the plaintiffs filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin a memorandum in support of an unopposed motion for final approval of a settlement.
Schneider agreed to a global settlement of $350,000.
“After deducting any service awards for the named plaintiffs and deposed plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ counsel attorney’s fees and costs, the net settlement of at least $200,000 will be distributed to the settling plaintiffs on a pro rata basis,” the court filing stated. “Plaintiffs’ recovery under the settlement is significant, with plaintiffs recovering on average, after accounting for fees and costs, over $1,500, representing over 90% of their unpaid minimum wages.” LL
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