April 27, 2020: Anthony Vizzoni Esq., Co-Transportation Practice Leader of Becker LLC, interviewed fellow Industry Partners Michael Rofman, Partner and Alisha Jernack, Senior Manager from the Transportation Group of Mazars USA LLP about the hot topics they are consulting with as to their Transportation clients about during the COVID-19 crisis.
Anthony: What are some of the key questions that you are fielding from your trucking and transportation clients about how the COVID-19 crisis has affected their businesses?
Michael: How much will be my PPP loan forgiveness? Initially the American Trucking Association was advising that 1099 drivers would be included in the PPP loan, but we later learned that this is not the case. With SBA and US Treasury clarifications, 1099 drivers are excluded from PPP loan and forgiveness. As a result, this gives a huge competitive advantage to asset / employee driver business model versus an independent contractor business model. This will allow competing trucking companies with capacity to be more aggressive than others in coming weeks to take on and win more business and clients.
On the warehousing side the same exists with use of temporary work force versus having employees. Now is a good time to revisit the business model and determine whether this shift will refocus future employee misclassification issues, whereas the pursuit by the DOL is currently suspended as they’re overwhelmed with COVID-19 increased unemployment volume. Read full article