One of Southern California's largest port trucking companies has filed for bankruptcy after losing several legal battles with independent-contractor drivers who claimed they should be treated as full-time employees, Nasdaq reported yesterday. Premium Transportation Services Inc., which is known locally as Total Transportation Services Inc. (TTSI), filed for chapter 11 protection in federal court in Delaware. The company said that "downward pricing pressure from some of its major clients over the past year" along with mounting costs of litigation with independent drivers had proven more than it could manage. TTSI has lost nearly a dozen misclassification claims before the California Labor Commission and 14 lawsuits in state court, which together amounted to roughly $3.5 million in awards and damages. Legal fees for those cases, along with several other lawsuits currently proceeding before the commission and the courts, have cost the trucking company an additional $4 million.
