After 43 years in California, truck drivers Brian Gray and his wife, Karol, packed up their belongings and headed to Oklahoma in early December after news that the new sweeping labor law, AB5, was set to take effect on Jan. 1.
“I once made a good living in California, but it’s all gone,” Brian Gray told FreightWaves. “I am tired of being persecuted in California for being a truck driver.”
With AB5, which seeks to limit the use of independent contractors, scheduled to become law, Gray said he headed to Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, to scout out some land and find a “business-friendly” state to house his flatbed company that hauls construction equipment.
“We bought a piece of ground in Oklahoma, but we hate to leave California,” he said. “I was always known as the ‘go-to guy’ in California and my mom and dad, brothers, nieces, everybody, still lives here, but I can’t afford to wait and see what happens in January and possibly lose everything.”
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