Dedicated to Preserving Industry Choice in Classification of
Workers and
We realize that everyone in our business has lots of daily issues to deal with on a weekday afternoon in November, but this meeting of our newly formed association is critical to our individual and collective future and perhaps to our very survival as an industry. With your help and with the help of our lobbyist, Bruce Bereano, we were able to get the local courier industry in Maryland carved out of legislation later passed this year . The bill was similar to laws already enacted in both Massachusetts and California. These laws require all courier companies to treat their drivers as employees and they are currently wreaking havoc on our industry in those two states. They have forced many courier firms to shut down with others required to convert to employee drivers.
Our success in beating back the Department of Labor and Licensing's bill last session on this issue doesn't mean that the battle is over yet. Not only do we need to make sure that this attack on our operating business model, using IC couriers, does not rear its head again, but we still have another big issue to deal with in regard to the Maryland Code of Regulations. COMAR defines messengers as those "primarily engaged in the hand delivery of individually addressed mail, messages, or documents, either in paper or magnetic media format.". This definition in the COMAR has been used to harass us and, in this past year, has seen a number of Maryland courier firms visited by state DLLR auditors who, after going through their books and records, levied and assessed taxes and penalties based on a profile analysis of the firm's deliveries, determining which of these deliveries involved printed matter vs actual physical items. DLLR used the outdated COMAR definition of what a "messenger" is to levy taxes and penalties on all deliveries by a courier firm that didn't involve paper or printed matter.
Please plan on joining us @ 3:30pm in Beltsville at our offices on November 18th. This might be the most important meeting that you attend this year.
Meeting Agenda:
A recap of this past Maryland legislative session with a forecast and strategy discussion for the next session with our lobbyist, Bruce Bereano, and the President of the Maryland Same Day Courier Association, Frank Callahan of Falcon Express
What is going on in other states impacting the courier industry, including a summary of pending legislation and its possible impact. This discussion to be led by John Benko, MCAA Board Member and Chairman of MCAA's State Action committee.
An overview of pending Federal legislation intended to limit the use of independent contractors in ours and other industries as well as Congressional efforts to eliminate the Section 530 Safe Harbor provision that traditionally shielded us from states deciding to arbitrarily audit and penalize individual courier companies while ignoring others. John Ferraro, our MCAA Congressional Affairs Director will lead this discussion and he will tell us what the MCAA is doing to fight these Federal Govt efforts to re-make the traditional courier IC business model. We will also talk about what happens if this legislation passes and what the affect will be on how we operate and what we can do to prepare for it.
Please come and participate. Let's keep Maryland a safe place to operate a local courier business. If you have not already RSVPed to Mark Gross, please do so today. markgross@qmsdc.com
Gil Carpel Washington Express
April 9th Update – The
full Senate passed the bill as amended by the House. It awaits the Governor’s signature. There is no reference to Package Delivery in
the final bill.
April 2nd Update – The Senate Finance Committee
is taking up SB0909 again this afternoon.
March 26th Update – The
House of Delegates passed HB 819 with our amendments by a vote of 101-34.
March 25th Update – From Bruce Bereano’s office - “House Bill 819 was voted out of House
Economic Matters Committee 19-4 favorably with amendments including our amendments
to come out of the bill completely. Bill now goes to House floor for
consideration and vote.”
It is the feeling of Mr. Bereano and that of your executive
committee that since the chances of this bill becoming law are extremely high,
and because we hope to work with DOLR and the House and Senate in the future,
we should take a position supporting the resulting bill (assuming it remains as
is) once it emerges from House/Senate Conference. One of our
biggest goals is to expand the antiquated definition of what a messenger is so
that DOLR cannot go into a company that delivers critical parts, architectural
drawings, or does medical work and say that “you’re not a messenger service, so
you have no exemption to use ICs.” Currently, a messenger service is defined
narrowly as a company that delivers paperwork.
March 23rd Update – MSDMCA Treasurer Gil Carpel and and VP Mark Gross sat in on a Senate Finance
Committee. At no time during the hearing
did Package Delivery come up. We feel that the committee has no desire to
reinsert any Package Delivery language into SB. 919
February
26th Update from MSDMCA President Frank Callahan on Todays'
Efforts in Annapolis
Update as of
http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/SB0909.htm
and
http://mlis.state.md.us/2009rs/billfile/SB0912.htm
To see the members of the Senate
Finance Committee, click:
Maryland
Senate Finance Committee
Update as of
To see the text of the bill, scroll
down the page and click on "First
To see the members of the House
Committee on Economic Matters, click:
Maryland
House of Delegates Committee on Economic Matters
Update
Update:
Currently, the
Vice
President - Mark Gross - Quick
Messenger Service
2009 Dues:
1-19 Contractors: $500
20-39 Contractors: $1000
40+ Contractors:
$2000
Regional or National Carriers: $3000
Affiliate Members: $500
Please make your check payable to:
c/o
attn: Gil Carpel