I believe it is the IRS that sets the guidelines as to what constitutes an independent contractor versus an employee. The trucking industry is/was one of the biggest abusers of this to avoid paying workers' comp and FICA tax not to mention benefits. One of the tests was to what extent does a company control where that contractor works. If they can work for other companies without any penalties they will more than likely would be deemed to be independent contractors. Owners operators in the past have been represented by organized labor and in the NMFA there are Articles that deal with owner operators.
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