OTA gets WSIB to make broker group classification change

TORONTO — The WSIB has agreed to allow employers who operate both brokerage and trucking operations to separately classify those employees engaged in their brokerage activities.

Under the new Freight Brokers/Forwarders (Ground Freight) rate group (WSIB Rate Group 958-03), the “general trucking” (Rate group 570) is currently assessed at $5.68 / $100 of payroll while those who qualify under the new broker category will be assessed at a rate of only $0.33.

This policy change — made after months of lobbying from the Ontario Trucking Association — will be retroactive to January 1, 2005.

This classification change applies to any employer operating a brokerage in combination with a trucking operation provided that:

— The brokerage operates separately from the employer’s trucking or warehousing operation — meaning it generates its own revenue; provides brokerage services and billing services directly to customers; and further, has a segregated work force whereby the workers in the brokerage operation.

— works exclusively in the brokerage operation and not in the trucking and/or warehousing operation, and the earnings of the workers in the brokerage can be segregated from the trucking or warehousing operation in accordance with the WSIB’s policies on segregated payrolls.

In addition, at least 75 percent of the annual number of customer orders processed by the brokerage operation are handled in the capacity of a freight broker/forwarder and no greater than 25 percent of the orders involve services provided by the trucking or warehousing operation, the OTA reports.

Failing to meet all of the above criteria places the freight brokering/trucking operation in the general Trucking Rate Group (570).

The details of the new rate group can be found on the WSIB’s website at http://www.wsib.on.ca/wsib/wecm.nsf/public/I95803