{"id":2500,"date":"2025-10-20T17:38:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/?p=2500"},"modified":"2025-10-20T17:38:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:38:36","slug":"u-s-supreme-court-takes-up-the-transportation-worker-exemption-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/2025\/10\/20\/u-s-supreme-court-takes-up-the-transportation-worker-exemption-again\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up The Transportation Worker Exemption Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley, and Ryan T. Garippo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duane Morris Takeaways:\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>On October 20, 2025, in Flower Foods, et al. v. Brock, No. 23-0936 (U.S.), the U.S. Supreme Court granted <\/a>a writ of certiorari to decide whether last-mile delivery drivers are considered transportation workers, and thus exempt under the Federal Arbitration Act (the \u201cFAA\u201d), when the driver\u2019s route is purely intrastate.\u00a0

The decision will have sweeping implications for logistics companies and any business employing delivery drivers across the country.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flower Foods, Inc. (\u201cFlower Foods\u201d) operates one of the largest bakery companies in the United States.  Under Flower Foods\u2019 business model, the company contracts with independent distributors who purchase the rights to distribute products in specific territories.  The delivery-driver distributors \u201cstock shelves, maintain special displays, and develop and preserve positive customer relations.\u201d  Brock v. Flower Foods, Inc.<\/em>, 121 F. 4th 753, 757 (10th Cir. 2024).  Flower Foods \u201cproduces and markets the baked goods.\u201d  Id.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flower Foods delivers the products it produces, via these delivery-driver distributors, who are classified as independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the \u201cFLSA\u201d).  These products are usually produced in out-of-state bakeries, but then shipped to a local warehouse, where the local delivery driver picks them up to sell retail stores.  This process is more commonly known as \u201clast-mile delivery.\u201d  Plaintiff Angelo Brock (\u201cPlaintiff or \u201cBrock\u201d), through his company Brock, Inc., was one of those delivery drivers.  When Brock started delivering Flower Foods\u2019 products, he entered into a Distributor Agreement that contained a \u201cMandatory and Binding Arbitration\u201d clause, which required nearly all disputes to be arbitrated under the FAA.  Id. <\/em>at 758.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, Brock filed a putative collective and class action under the FLSA, and Colorado labor law, claiming that Flower Foods misclassified him and other delivery-driver distributors as independent contractors.  As a result, Flower Foods moved to compel arbitration, but the U.S. District Court for Colorado denied its request.  The District Court concluded that Brock fell within the \u2018\u2018transportation workers exemption\u201d of the FAA, which exempts transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce<\/em><\/strong> from arbitration.  The District Court reasoned that, although Brock did not cross state lines, he \u2018\u2018actively engaged in the transportation of [the company\u2019s] products across state lines into Colorado\u201d and thus was covered by the exemption.  Id. <\/em>at 759.  Flower Foods appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lower Court Opinion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On appeal, and on November 12, 2024, Judge Gregory Phillips, writing for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, affirmed the District Court\u2019s decision that delivery-driver distributors were exempt from the FAA.  Judge Phillips explained that, although Brock\u2019s routes were entirely within Colorado, a transportation worker need not cross state lines to qualify for the exemption.  Instead, individuals qualify as transportation workers if they play a direct and necessary role in the interstate flow of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relying on decisions from the First and Ninth Circuits, which also concluded \u201cthat last-mile delivery drivers . . . who make the last intrastate leg of an interstate delivery route . . . are directly engaged in interstate commerce,\u201d the Tenth Circuit reached the same conclusion.  Id. <\/em>at 762.  The Tenth Circuit explained that \u201c[b]oth [other] circuits focused on whether the goods moved in a continuous interstate journey or as part of multiple independent transactions.\u201d  Id.  <\/em>Thus, the flow of interstate commerce did not stop when \u201cBrock start[ed] the interstate delivery process by placing orders for products produced in out-of-state bakeries\u201d and Flower Foods \u201cdeliver[ed] the products to the agreed-upon warehouse,\u201d only for Brock to \u201cload the products at the warehouse onto his vehicle and deliver[] the goods to retail stores on his intrastate delivery route\u201d within one day.  Therefore, Brock and other delivery-driver distributors were exempt under the FAA even though they did not cross state lines.  But, Flower Foods decided to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take a third look at the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 20, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, without a making any other comment, in its two-word order holding \u201ccertiorari granted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, this decision is not surprising as the U.S. Supreme Court has decided two recent cases under the transportation worker exemption:  Sw. Airlines Co. v. Saxon<\/em>, 596 U.S. 450 (2022), and Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries Park St., LLC<\/em>, 601 U.S. 246 (2024).  The decision in Brock<\/em>, however, is poised to be the most impactful of all three of the cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implications For Employers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of the ultimate decision in Brock <\/em>cannot be overstated.  In both Saxon<\/em> and Bissonnette<\/em>, the U.S. Supreme Court dramatically expanded the reach of the transportation worker exemption making it increasingly difficult for employers to move to compel arbitration in class and collective actions brought by workers in logistics-adjacent positions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If workers who engage in wholly intrastate commerce<\/em><\/strong> fall within the exemption\u2019s reach, it may require a fundamental re-structuring of many employers\u2019 arbitration programs.  In contrast, if these workers and independent contractors are not exempt from the requirements of the FAA, then employers may finally be able to rest easy knowing that their arbitration defenses remain viable for at least a portion of their workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although only time will tell what the U.S. Supreme Court will decide, corporate counsel should follow this blog for updates because the authors will be watching this case closely.   Oral arguments are likely to occur during Fall 2025 and a decision will follow in Spring 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Jennifer A. Riley, and Ryan T. Garippo Duane Morris Takeaways:\u00a0 On October 20, 2025, in Flower Foods, et al. v. Brock, No. 23-0936 (U.S.), the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari to decide whether last-mile delivery drivers are considered transportation workers, and thus exempt under the Federal Arbitration … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up The Transportation Worker Exemption Again”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[7,9,127],"class_list":["post-2500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wage-hour-litigation"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":575,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gmaatman","display_name":"Gerald L. Maatman, Jr.","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/09\/maatmangerald-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""},{"term_id":9,"user_id":576,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jariley","display_name":"Jennifer A. Riley","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/08\/rileyjennifer-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""},{"term_id":127,"user_id":692,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rgarippo","display_name":"Ryan Garippo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2024\/09\/garipporyan-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2500\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2500"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/classactiondefense\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}