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Ground War
Drivers Deliver
Trouble to FedEx By Seeking Employee Benefits
Some 'Contractors' Contend Company Calls All Shots;
IRS Examines Complaints
Chief Says 99% Like System
The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2005
By Monica Langley
(See Corrections & Amplifications item below)
As a driver for FedEx Corp.'s ground division, Brion Butterbaugh must
wear a full FedEx uniform, observe a long list of delivery and pick-up
times and hook his truck keys on the finger FedEx tells him to when
walking to doors to deliver packages (the little finger of the
nonwriting hand).
Mr. Butterbaugh, 41 years old, isn't a FedEx employee. He's one of
13,500 "contract" drivers for FedEx Ground who operate their own trucks
and pay for their gas and other expenses. The company says these
drivers are "independent" and has advertised that becoming a contractor
is a way to "be your own boss."
But some contractors have set off a high-stakes battle with FedEx by
contending the company calls all the shots in their operations. They
say rules such as the little-finger requirement show they're
essentially employees of FedEx, with all of the risks and none of the
benefits, such as health insurance and a retirement plan.
Last July, FedEx Ground drivers who had filed a class-action lawsuit
against the company won a victory when a California state court ruled
that they are employees because of FedEx's "close to absolute actual
control" over drivers.
In recent months, officials in Montana and New Jersey likewise
determined that certain FedEx Ground drivers in those states are
employees. FedEx is appealing all the judgments, and FedEx Ground Chief
Executive Daniel J. Sullivan says he's confident the company will
prevail.
The Internal Revenue Service is also investigating FedEx's driver
classification, prompted by driver complaints, according to people
familiar with the situation. The tax agency will examine whether FedEx
has "pushed the envelope of control so far" that it's no longer in
compliance with an earlier agreement under which its predecessor
company was permitted to count drivers as independent contractors,
according to one knowledgeable person. An IRS spokesman declined to
comment. FedEx isn't aware of any IRS probe, Mr. Sullivan said.
Mr. Sullivan says malcontents represent only a "very small number" of
FedEx contractors. "We truly have independent contractors," he says. He
notes that drivers can sell their routes, don't have specific start and
finish times, and take on the risk that their truck will break down or
get damaged. If FedEx reclassified contract drivers as employees and
treated them as such, "ninety-nine percent would want to hang me," he
says.
The issue has become potentially serious for FedEx over the past year
as it battles United Parcel Service Inc. in the fast-growing
parcel-delivery business. In its quarterly report to securities
regulators last month, FedEx disclosed the proceedings over FedEx
Ground's "owner-operators" for the first time and warned that they
could "result in employment and withholding tax liability for FedEx
Ground." It said it couldn't estimate the size of the potential
liability.
U.S. companies have long sought to get an edge by treating workers as
independent contractors instead of employees. Employees receive
benefits such as health care, paid vacations and pensions. And the law
requires companies to pay 6.2% of the first $90,000 of an employee's
salary in 2005 for Social Security taxes as well as 1.45% of all salary
for Medicare taxes.
From coal miners in the 1940s to Microsoft Corp. programmers in the
1990s, hired hands seeking to be classified as employees have clashed
with companies. In recent years the IRS, courts and state agencies that
determine worker classification have focused on one key issue: how much
control the company exerts over the day-to-day activities of the
worker. Although these bodies don't have a hard-and-fast formula for
measuring control, a worker is likely to be considered an employee if
he or she works set hours, is required to follow instructions on how to
do the job, receives training from the employer and works on the
employer's premises.
Such judgments have an impact on the public coffers, because
self-employed contractors tend to pay less tax relative to their
income. Some fail to report what they earn, or reduce their taxable
income with deductions that company employees normally couldn't claim,
such as home offices. Others fail to set aside enough of their gross
income to make timely tax payments.
The IRS has estimated that in 2001 "sole proprietors" -- people such as
the contract drivers who report their business income on their personal
tax returns -- failed to pay $81 billion in taxes they owed. The
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
has estimated that 38% of employers examined by the IRS have
misclassified workers as independent contractors.
FedEx, which originally focused on shipping packages by air, got into
the ground-delivery business in 1998 to compete directly with UPS. It
acquired a ground-delivery company, Caliber System Inc., that had
fended off a string of challenges, including one from the IRS, seeking
to designate its drivers as employees.
The challenges over workers' status come as FedEx Ground's business is
benefiting from the rebounding economy. FedEx Ground revenue grew to
$3.9 billion for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2004, from $2.9 billion
two years earlier. In the latest fiscal year, ground shipments
generated 42% of FedEx's total volume of 5.5 million packages delivered
each day, up from 30% six years earlier, according to the company. Both
FedEx and UPS have tapped into the growth of just-in-time
manufacturing, which demands that components be delivered in smaller
quantities on precise schedules.
Including FedEx Ground, FedEx has around 15,000 independent-contractor
drivers and about 60,000 employee drivers, most of them delivering
packages shipped by air. Contract drivers give FedEx "a distinct
advantage over UPS," says Donald Broughton, a research analyst at A.G.
Edwards & Sons Inc. "Besides saving on capital outlay, FedEx
benefits from drivers who are motivated to make that extra stop, to
deliver that extra package for extra pay."
Luis Espinoza of Santa Cruz, Calif., says becoming a FedEx Ground
contractor was a good outlet for his entrepreneurial drive. Mr.
Espinoza worked odd jobs at minimum wage for a construction company
until he signed up to drive for FedEx Ground. With a $5,000 investment
and $700 monthly rental of a van, he started a route and now has three
routes. He says he earns about $90,000 a year on revenue of $200,000.
Some current and former FedEx Ground drivers offer another view. These
drivers say FedEx terminal managers set rules for nearly every facet of
their work. "I have to obey or I'm gone," says William Beattie of
Mentor, Ohio, a driver for 15 years. "I can name only one business
decision I'm allowed to make without FedEx approval -- where to get my
gas."
Mr. Beattie testified for the company a few years ago in earlier fights
by contract drivers to be considered employees. Now he says he's
changed his mind because of "an endless barrage of dos and don'ts." He
says, for example, that FedEx routinely won't let him try to deliver
packages on a Saturday, even if his truck is loaded at the terminal and
ready to go. A FedEx spokesman says customers like the predictability
of knowing that FedEx Ground operates from Monday through Friday.
Jerry Jones, a 45-year-old certified public accountant in Houston,
became a contractor in 2003 after seeing an ad for FedEx Ground. The
company has sought contractors with ads reading, "Put your drive to
work. Want to own your own business? Be your own boss? It's simple.
Come partner with FedEx." Mr. Jones says the micromanaging of his daily
routine runs counter to the impression left by the ad and an interview
with the company. "FedEx's pitch that you can work for yourself is a
complete illusion," says Mr. Jones, who plans to sell his truck and
route.
A FedEx driver in San Diego, Marjorie Pontarolo, says she sometimes has
to wait behind locked gates at the terminal to go out on her route
until other trucks are loaded and the manager gives the release signal.
"When my truck is loaded, shouldn't I be able to start my route if I'm
an independent contractor?" asks Ms. Pontarolo, who is a plaintiff in
the suit by California drivers against FedEx.
Mr. Sullivan says locked gates and stalled start times "should not
happen."
John Marcellino, who drives in the area around Yosemite National Park
in California and is also a plaintiff, says a FedEx manager told him to
cut his hair and take off his earring. "I'm even told when to change my
truck's tires and get an oil change," Mr. Marcellino says.
Directives on appearance are necessary to maintain the proper FedEx
image, according to Mr. Sullivan. He says the company sets rules on
vehicle maintenance to ensure safety, minimize breakdowns that slow
service and comply with government regulations.
Lori Lizotte, a mother of three children in Minot, N.D., had her
husband drive her route -- until FedEx insisted she stop. "They
videotaped my husband, and caught him not locking the truck door," she
says. "It's my truck and I carry the insurance so I would have the
responsibility."
FedEx says videotaping drivers isn't common but is done in "exceptional
circumstances." Mr. Sullivan says the company wants truck doors locked
to prevent packages from being stolen.
The complaints constitute "small anecdotal problems but not a
systemwide problem," Mr. Sullivan says.
A particular cause of friction is FedEx's practice of promising certain
pickup or drop-off times to valued customers beyond the service
guarantees offered by the company nationally. Some drivers say this
makes it harder to organize their day efficiently and lessens their
chance of receiving the bonus offered to those who complete 98.5% of
the day's stops. Donald Avenelle, a former contract driver based in
Perrysburg, Ohio, says that in his haste to meet the target he
regularly urinated in cups or old bottles in the back of his truck.
Recently, drivers who have a Kinko's copy center in their routes have
been required to wait until after 6 p.m. to pick up packages. FedEx
purchased the Kinko's chain in February.
Mr. Sullivan says the company makes extra demands on drivers' schedules
because it's meeting the demands of customers in a highly competitive
business. The more customers FedEx Ground has, the more money everyone
makes, he says.
Mr. Butterbaugh, the Madison, Tenn., driver, is a 17-year veteran in
the business. He moved to the Nashville, Tenn., area from Ohio a few
years ago so he could write country-music songs after his deliveries.
As Mr. Butterbaugh wrapped up his pickups and deliveries one night this
week, his terminal manager called his cellphone with an order: Starting
the next day, he should deliver packages to the local Family Christian
Store by 1 p.m.
"I often can't make it there 'till 2:30," Mr. Butterbaugh says he
protested the next morning at the terminal. "I know the store employees
and they don't care what time I get there." But the manager said the
store chain, an important nationwide customer for FedEx Ground, had
made a deal with FedEx for earlier deliveries.
Mr. Butterbaugh makes about $70,000 in gross annual pay from his route,
but says he clears less than $40,000 after paying gas and other
expenses. FedEx declined to say how much its employee drivers earn.
Employees get benefits that contract drivers don't, including paid sick
and vacation days, a retirement plan and health insurance.
Mr. Butterbaugh rides with both truck doors open for quick deliveries
and sometimes drives for 12 hours a day. On a recent day, he started
with a fast-food breakfast at 6 a.m. After that he sipped just one
Pepsi and didn't eat for the rest of the day to cut down on bathroom
breaks. Still, he says, "I love the work and the people."
A few weeks ago, he gave his father-in-law a FedEx shirt and took him
along for the day. On the route the two men ran into Mr. Butterbaugh's
terminal manager and the terminal coordinator, wearing street clothes
in an unmarked van, making deliveries in his zip code. FedEx says
managers normally don't make deliveries but had to do so in this case
because of an emergency situation involving an accident by another
truck.
The managers scolded Mr. Butterbaugh over his father-in-law's attire,
he says. "They had the nerve to criticize my father-in-law for not
wearing the FedEx black pants and black shoes," Mr. Butterbaugh says.
"He was worried sick that I could get fired."
Corrections & Amplifications:
Caliber System Inc., a ground-delivery company acquired by Fedex Corp.,
fended off a string of challenges, including one from the IRS, seeking
to designate its drivers as employees. The article above incorrectly
said the IRS challenge sought to designate the drivers as contractors.
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