Independent Contractor Management Firm Expands Offering to Daily Newspaper Circulation Departments

SubContracting Concepts Inc, a 3rd party administrator to the same day courier industry, has rolled out a program targeted at daily newspaper bundle drop and rural route independent contract delivery personnel

SubContracting Concepts Inc. (SCI), one of the nations largest independent contractor coordinators, has developed a program specifically designed to offer benefits and services to the U.S. daily newspaper industry.

"Currently, SCI supplies over 250 same day courier company clients with over 6,000 independent contract drivers." States Rob Slack, Risk Manager for SCI. "Our program provides benefits and services that the courier company could not offer directly to the driver as it would jeopardize the arms length relationship concerning direction and control necessary for using I/C's."

SCI contracts directly with the I/C and generates their weekly settlement checks based on rates pre-negotiated by the newspaper. SCI then takes deductions based on driver authorization for benefits such as Occupational Accident insurance at a fraction of the cost of a comparable workers comp plan. Other benefits available include health, dental, vision, direct deposit and ATM cards.

This direct contract approach puts SCI in the front position for the defense of the I/C reclassification issue. "When one of our clients gets audited or questioned by any government agency, SCI steps up to the plate to accept responsibility for that driver." States Slack. "We estimate there are over 80,000 independent contractor bundle drop and rural route drivers working for over 4,000 U.S daily newspapers. These drivers are very susceptible to work related injuries due to the fact they are delivering in every kind of weather. This is usually where the newspaper gets in trouble. Since there is no workers comp policy on the driver he usually files a comp claim and the newspaper is forced to defend their position. With our Occ/Acc program, the drivers medical bills are paid as well as disability for lost time, so there usually is no comp claim."

As part of the program fee paid to SCI by the driver they are automatically enrolled as a member of the National Association of Independent Truckers (NAIT) based out of Kansas City, MO. Slack adds, The NAIT has over 30,000 individual driver members. Through this relationship we can offer dozens of discount programs and services that we could not develop on our own.