Iowa trucking company sued over alleged effort to ‘steal money’ from drivers

This Iowa company could potentially be facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly “effectively [stealing] money from their drivers”. The lawsuit was filed against JMS Trucking of Cedar Springs and an affiliate, JMS Transportation, along with several independent contractors. Federal regulations require transportation brokers to make billing records and documents related to any freight charges accessible to contracted drivers.

In this industry it is common that once a trucker has made their delivery, their return trip is considered one of “empty miles” for those who are not compensated for the return trip. JMS has been accused of billing “its customers for fuel purchased for both the deliveries and the return trips but has ‘furtively adopted an internal policy and practice of falsely representing to their contracted drivers … that they have invoiced and received reimbursement from customers for the loaded miles only’” (Iowa Capital Dispatch). JMS has been purposefully omitting the charge from its own invoices resulting in them “pocketing” 50% of all fuel expenses incurred by the truck drivers for each load carried. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that the plaintiffs are suing for fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and violations of the Federal Truth in Leasing Act. Click here for the full story.