Paschall Truck Lines, Two Other Defendants Owe Truck Drivers Unpaid Wages, Lawsuit Claims

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A proposed collective action has been filed against Paschall Truck Lines, Inc. (PTL), ECN Financial LLC, and ECN's successor in interest, PNC Equipment Finance, LLC, by two former truck drivers who claim they were misclassified as independent contractors and weren’t paid rightful wages. From the complaint:

“Defendants engaged in a scheme whereby [ECN] leased tractor trailers to [the plaintiffs] who in turn subleased said tractor trailers and their driving services to Defendant PTL, permitting Defendant PTL to misclassify Plaintiffs as independent contractors, deprive Plaintiffs of their rights under federal and state law, and pass their business expenses on to Plaintiffs.”

According to the suit, the defendants' truck drivers were required to enter into lease agreements that allowed PTL to not only deduct lease payments from their weekly paychecks, but prohibited proposed class members from using their vehicles to work for another company or hire other drivers to operate their vehicles without written approval. In addition to the lease agreements, the suit continues, the plaintiffs reportedly signed independent contractor agreements that subjected them to an early termination fee of $5,000 should they cease working for PTL “on a continuing basis” during their first nine months of employment. Pursuant to these agreements, the complaint says, the plaintiffs were not permitted to decide “which loads were assigned to them,” nor negotiate their pay rates, and were “economically dependent upon” the defendants.

The suit argues that these "extensive restrictions”—including numerous other working conditions and procedures established by the defendants—precluded the defendants from classifying their workers as independent contractors and instead reflected an employer-employee relationship.

The plaintiffs and other truck drivers were paid “a percentage of received linehaul and fuel surcharge revenue or a flat per-mile rate,” the case claims. However, the plaintiffs argue that their pay, when divided by their hours worked and after the application of lease payment deductions, would frequently fall below minimum wage. The complaint claims the defendants also unlawfully deducted the costs of other business expenses and failed to provide drivers with proper sleeping periods, further reducing their pay.

“Plaintiffs were regularly denied at least five hours of uninterrupted sleep each working day,” the complaint reads, “and accordingly should have been paid for all time logged in the sleeper berth when such was the case.”

One plaintiff notes that during a particular pay period, the defendants’ deductions and lack of proper pay not only left him with no wages but put him in debt to his employers.

The suit, originally filed in Pennsylvania in October 2017, has recently been removed to Kentucky.