ERISA Lawsuit settlement

dmac1

Well-Known Member
Got a notice about a settlement for ERISA claims that was originally part of the IC class action in 2006. It is a national settlement that you need to opt out of and it looks like if you opt out, you lose your right to make any claim forever. The settlement goes from 2001-2007 for most contractors. HUUUUUUUUGE settlement. $3.26 for every month you personally drove if you were a ground or HD contractor during the period. If you died during that period, your family will get more due to life insurance that should have been in force. Contractors in Arkansas, Florida, and Indiana get nothing.

The attorneys from my state had told me that the ERISA claims had been dropped years ago. To me, it is obvious that again, the attorneys want to settle because they might get nothing if the case went to court and they lost. So they get millions now, being paid just for keeping the case alive, and get most of what they would get if they went ahead and won in court while the average driver is reportedly getting less than $200. I guarantee you that Fedex would have spent a lot more on benefits than $3.26 per month on benefits, so they again benefit greatly from the settlement and made millions illegally with their phony contractor scam. They avoided all Social security taxes and other FICA taxes that would have been due on GROSS payments to drivers, and now get off with this pitiful payment for benefits lost by drivers. Not only did drivers lose the tax payments that fedex owed, they also had to pay more themselves. At least the attorneys got paid every dime they 'earned.'
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
In the letter Judge Miller sent to me last year he too leaned on the "you might not get anything" subtle warning if the case went on up to the US Circuit Court of Appeals mentioning too that counsel for the plaintiffs wanted to dump out and cash out. In addition with the federal bench stuffed with pro-business conservative judges he tried indirectly to call my attention to the likelihood of a business friendly ear the company would likely be the beneficiary of.
While my so called settlement will be a whopping $538 the entire matter is further evidence as to why XG wanted us so called "old guys" out of the picture. It was indeed the fact that we knew too much and image sensitive XG wanted the entire history of the soiled matter buried in the dusty bins of old long forgotten court rulings.
At least back in those days a single worker are contractor could easily bail by simply walking out and calling the leasing company to come get the truck and many did.
For today's ISP getting out under favorable terms will likely be much for difficult. XG knows it and will take full advantage of the reality in order to maximize it's returns and given the appearances of a recession in the near future are becoming more numerous the powerless contractor will once gain take the brunt of the belt tightening certain to follow.
ISP's' have in the past accused those of us who have left of being poor managers and that their management skills are why they're there and we're not.

That might have been the case if not for the fact that decisions applicable to substantive and impactful matters will never be their's to make.
 

Mutineer

Well-Known Member
I was part of the California, Alexander class. That was paid out almost a year ago. Got a notice a few weeks ago 'Zohrabians v Leonard Carder, LLP.' This one is a member of the Alexander class (Zohrabians) suing the lawyers who sued XG for "failing to seek meal and rest break claims in the Alexander case." If I remember right, the Alexander class was all about 'illegal wage deductions.'

I also just got the ERISA notice. A whopping $137. Enough to put gas in my Toyota Tacoma for 2 1/2 weeks of my current commute.

It's not difficult on this forum to find former XG contractors who are angry over their contractor experience. I for one, am often more than happy to chime in and spew venom. And I definitely have alot of horror stories and near disasters to share related to that endeavor. But I lasted 10 years and made an exit under favorable terms. I'm still in contact with a former contractor I worked with. Things are still working out for him, but he says things get more petty and ridiculous every year. And he's in so deep, he can't get out. He often has difficulty finding drivers (even Green Cards) to stay more than a few months!

But the sad fact is, among myself and the majority of my peers, contracting for XG is by far, the best thing (occupationally) that I ever did.
 

dmac1

Well-Known Member
I was part of the California, Alexander class. That was paid out almost a year ago. Got a notice a few weeks ago 'Zohrabians v Leonard Carder, LLP.' This one is a member of the Alexander class (Zohrabians) suing the lawyers who sued XG for "failing to seek meal and rest break claims in the Alexander case." If I remember right, the Alexander class was all about 'illegal wage deductions.'

I also just got the ERISA notice. A whopping $137. Enough to put gas in my Toyota Tacoma for 2 1/2 weeks of my current commute.

It's not difficult on this forum to find former XG contractors who are angry over their contractor experience. I for one, am often more than happy to chime in and spew venom. And I definitely have alot of horror stories and near disasters to share related to that endeavor. But I lasted 10 years and made an exit under favorable terms. I'm still in contact with a former contractor I worked with. Things are still working out for him, but he says things get more petty and ridiculous every year. And he's in so deep, he can't get out. He often has difficulty finding drivers (even Green Cards) to stay more than a few months!

But the sad fact is, among myself and the majority of my peers, contracting for XG is by far, the best thing (occupationally) that I ever did.

The lawyers in my opinion did NOT represent the best interests of the contractors. I would choose 'gambling' my $367 ERISA award if it meant I was compensated for the health insurance premium, vacation time, sick pay, holiday pay, retirement contribution and so on, plus potential damages if it went to a jury trial.

I enjoyed the actual job, but I was stupid enough to believe that fedex would follow the contract, and to believe in 'unlimited' growth potential. I found out in the first few months that they were limiting growth and new contractors acquiring second routes at HD until they felt like it- which was only after they had individual contractors covering the entire service area. My original area now has 20 routes that I was ready to hire drivers and buy trucks to cover, but was refused. Then later, after they did start allowing multiple route ownership, they again limited it to at MAX 15% of the total in the building. In my small terminal that I had transferred to, that meant I was limited to only two routes. It is impossible to make any real decent money with only two routes, and in fact, two routes were a problem because you couldn't have backup drivers 'on call' or vacation drivers, etc. I made maybe $10 per day from owning a second route but also paid better that other contractors.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
The lawyers in my opinion did NOT represent the best interests of the contractors. I would choose 'gambling' my $367 ERISA award if it meant I was compensated for the health insurance premium, vacation time, sick pay, holiday pay, retirement contribution and so on, plus potential damages if it went to a jury trial.

I enjoyed the actual job, but I was stupid enough to believe that fedex would follow the contract, and to believe in 'unlimited' growth potential. I found out in the first few months that they were limiting growth and new contractors acquiring second routes at HD until they felt like it- which was only after they had individual contractors covering the entire service area. My original area now has 20 routes that I was ready to hire drivers and buy trucks to cover, but was refused. Then later, after they did start allowing multiple route ownership, they again limited it to at MAX 15% of the total in the building. In my small terminal that I had transferred to, that meant I was limited to only two routes. It is impossible to make any real decent money with only two routes, and in fact, two routes were a problem because you couldn't have backup drivers 'on call' or vacation drivers, etc. I made maybe $10 per day from owning a second route but also paid better that other contractors.
I believe that the overall work experience would have been more positive if Roadway Services had not spun off RPS into Caliber System and kept RPS in the very narrow business to business market.
When Fat Freddy tried to make it become all things for all people it over stressed the basic design capabilities of the model. In fact that I was told by Roadway management that Big R was trying to get it back.
When we were offered additional routes we turned them down because as you said about 50 bucks a week was about all that additional route was going to make clearly not worth the headaches and like you I too was in a small terminal .
After the ISP conversion was completed 4 ISP contractors remained. In just 2 years since the conversion one contractor defaulted another sold and hasn't been seen since. Another one is driving a route himself on a daily basis while his other routes are 50 -60 miles away from him while the party that has recently bought out a contract is domiciled 100 miles or more away unwisely believing that drivers will provide the route governance required for the peanuts they're being paid.
With the Mid Atlantic region about to get hit with it's first major winter storm later this week and their drivers some about to experience their first peak season while being nothing short of abandoned out there after dark in Boogie Man country it will be interesting to see how many can keep their wits about them.
 

dmac1

Well-Known Member
I believe that the overall work experience would have been more positive if Roadway Services had not spun off RPS into Caliber System and kept RPS in the very narrow business to business market.
When Fat Freddy tried to make it become all things for all people it over stressed the basic design capabilities of the model. In fact that I was told by Roadway management that Big R was trying to get it back.
When we were offered additional routes we turned them down because as you said about 50 bucks a week was about all that additional route was going to make clearly not worth the headaches and like you I too was in a small terminal .
After the ISP conversion was completed 4 ISP contractors remained. In just 2 years since the conversion one contractor defaulted another sold and hasn't been seen since. Another one is driving a route himself on a daily basis while his other routes are 50 -60 miles away from him while the party that has recently bought out a contract is domiciled 100 miles or more away unwisely believing that drivers will provide the route governance required for the peanuts they're being paid.
With the Mid Atlantic region about to get hit with it's first major winter storm later this week and their drivers some about to experience their first peak season while being nothing short of abandoned out there after dark in Boogie Man country it will be interesting to see how many can keep their wits about them.

I actually turned down RPS in the early 90s, but loved the original idea of HD- smaller vehicles doing strictly home deliveries, no pick-ups, no COD or HAZMAT, just the easy stuff, and nothing too big or heavy. All those promises went out the window on Day ! when fedex was more concerned about not losing a few bucks at start-up. If they had been willing to take a short term loss, they could have completely sewn up the residential delivery market.

If they had stayed with the original plan, Amazon wouldn't be getting into the delivery business at all. One driver per 1-2 zip codes working part-time if desired and using even vans like the Astrovans would have made it easy to find drivers.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
I actually turned down RPS in the early 90s, but loved the original idea of HD- smaller vehicles doing strictly home deliveries, no pick-ups, no COD or HAZMAT, just the easy stuff, and nothing too big or heavy. All those promises went out the window on Day ! when fedex was more concerned about not losing a few bucks at start-up. If they had been willing to take a short term loss, they could have completely sewn up the residential delivery market.

If they had stayed with the original plan, Amazon wouldn't be getting into the delivery business at all. One driver per 1-2 zip codes working part-time if desired and using even vans like the Astrovans would have made it easy to find drivers.
Every HD jock I've ever met said the same thing that they were lied to right from Day1. You know how they were always barking about safety but everyday I would watch those little panel vans, 3/4's and 1 tons crawl out the door. I thought to myself: 'I see now why they call it "Ground". It's because that's what their bumpers are dragging on". Those things were so badly overloaded it would have been funny if not for the fact that it was so pathetic.
 

59 Dano

I just want to make friends!
If they had stayed with the original plan, Amazon wouldn't be getting into the delivery business at all.

Oh, come on. Amazon is proving that no matter how bad the pay is and how lopsided the terms are, someone will sign up for the work.
 

bacha29

Well-Known Member
Talked to an Amazon driver the other day. He said last week he worked 75 hours in 7 days at $13/hr. friend-that.
Bezos long standing public bitch has been shipping costs and thinks that he knows a way to get the job done even cheaper which as you know is to take the XG model which is a poor setup to begin with and somehow cheapen it down even more. To his credit he knows enough to stay out of the jing weeds and focus on areas where your tires never come in contract with an unpaved surface.Taking the gravy and leaving the rest to the Big 3 AND still expect the same discounts? I can't wait to see how how he makes out with that.
 
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