Border, marijuana, employment law among 2018 challenges: Devine

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. -- You know the trucking industry faces a challenging landscape when a lawyer presents a business update against a framework of lessons learned through Sun Tzu’s Art of War. “It’s not really a friendly environment for us this year,” said Heather Devine of Isaacs and Co., as she stood at the podium to open the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada’s annual meeting. She offered the potential demise of NAFTA and the thickening of the border as proof of the challenges to come.

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Independent contractor relationships are common in the trucking industry. They are particularly attractive in the case of owner-operators who supply a truck and driver to a carrier, or for sales agents who want to set their own schedule and be paid based on the sales they bring in.

ELD’s, “jobs for life” among legal concerns for fleets

NIAGARA FALLS, ON - Canadian fleets face several new legal challenges this year in the face of plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that could offer federally regulated drivers a job for life, an industry lawyer says. Heather Devine, a partner with Isaacs and Company, points to the pending U.S. mandate for Electronic Logging Devices as an example. That applies to cross-border drivers as of December 18. But during a presentation to the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada she said the devices could become one of the bargaining chips in trade negotiations. "I've heard that there are those discussions," she warned, referring to talk of a future Canadian mandate that mirrors rules in the U.S. "It's coming." The recent Wilson v. Atomic Energy of Canada ruling by the Supreme Court, meanwhile, ...