The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on Thursday proposed a new rule that alter how trucking fleet managers and other employers classify workers as either independent contractors or employees.
The proposal aims to rescind a 2024 final rule and return to an "economic reality" analysis similar to the one used in 2021. For the trucking industry—where the use of independent owner-operators is a cornerstone of logistics—the move signals a shift toward a more business-friendly federal standard, though one that remains rooted in decades of legal precedent.
DOL last May issued guidance to Wage and Hour Division investigators directing them to not apply the Biden-era independent contractor classification rule while the department reviewed the 2024 final rule.
That 2024 rule, which officially took effect on March 11, 2024, officially codified, for the first time, the standard that courts have been using for decades up until the Trump Administration’s own independent contractor rule was published in 2021. The Biden DOL repealed the Trump-era rule to put its own rule in place. The rule’s applicability to trucking was limited, as it only applies to classification for purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act's requirements for employers, which include minimum wage and overtime. Truck drivers, of course, are exempt from receiving overtime pay, and minimum wage disputes in the industry are rare.
Return to 'clarity and order'
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) has long pushed for a rule that its claims protects independent truckers, numbers of which exceed 350,000 drivers. The regulatory move proposed Thursday, ATA said, restores the first Trump Administration’s definition for independent contractors "that brought clarity and order to the law in this area."
"The Trump Administration’s proposal represents a significant step forward to defend the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of truckers who choose to work as independent contractors,” added ATA President & CEO Chris Spear, adding court decisions over the last nine decades have reaffirmed the legitimate role independent contractors play in the economy.
Return to 'core factors'
The proposed rule focuses on two "core factors" to determine whether a worker is an employee economically dependent on an employer or an independent contractor in business for themselves:
- The nature and degree of control over the work.
- The worker’s opportunity for profit or loss based on their own initiative or investment.
Under the proposal, if these core factors point toward the same classification, that designation is likely to stand. Other factors, such as the degree of permanence in the relationship and the amount of skill required, would only be considered if the core factors are inconclusive.
“The tens of millions of Americans who work as independent contractors are helping drive the Golden Age of the American economy,” said Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “The department’s proposed rule seeks to protect these workers’ entrepreneurial spirit and simplify compliance for American job creators.”
Impact on fleets
The proposal emphasizes that "actual practice" outweighs what is written in a contract. If a carrier's day-to-day operations exert significant control over an owner-operator's schedule or routes, the Labor Department may view them as an employee regardless of any signed independent contractor agreement.
Wage and Hour Division Administrator Andrew Rogers stated the goal is to provide "predictability" for employers to reduce costly litigation and misclassification risks.
"The department believes that streamlined regulations... would improve compliance and reduce misclassification," Rogers said.
The proposal also extends this classification analysis to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. DOL has opened a 60-day public comment period for the proposed rule, which is scheduled to close at 11:59 p.m. ET on April 28, 2026.
