Over 2,200 industrial vehicle drivers have filed a new class action in the United States against FedEx, accusing the company of failing to pay the overtime due to them. The case, reported by ShippingWatch on 6 October 2025, adds to a long list of proceedings that in recent years have led the company to pay nearly 500 million dollars (around 465 million euros) in compensation and settlements.
The new lawsuit, filed in several federal district courts, marks yet another chapter in a legal dispute that has lasted more than a decade. Delivery service drivers are challenging the company’s practice of not recognising overtime pay required under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law governing minimum wage and working hours. According to the workers’ lawyers, FedEx has continued to evade its obligations through intermediary companies, despite previous settlements and structural reforms implemented after earlier lawsuits.
At the heart of these class actions lies the issue of the drivers’ employment status, who are often classified as self-employed “independent contractors” through a three-tier system involving FedEx, third-party service providers and individual drivers. This model, used by the logistics group in its US ground delivery divisions, has been challenged by several federal and state courts that have ruled the drivers to be, in effect, employees. Courts have found that the company exerts direct control over uniforms, operating procedures and delivery schedules — all elements typical of an employment relationship.
Between 2016 and 2024, FedEx agreed to multiple nationwide settlements amounting to nearly 500 million dollars. The lawsuits mainly involved the Ground and Home Delivery divisions, where subcontracting practices were most widespread. According to US legal sources, the new cases filed in 2025 — including Atwood v. FedEx, Doyle v. FedEx and Alleyne v. FedEx — could force the company to pay hundreds of millions more if the courts confirm a systematic breach of federal labour standards.
The lawsuits come amid growing scrutiny from the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice, which in recent years have been monitoring employment classification practices in large logistics and delivery firms. Federal filings indicate that some of the claims also concern unauthorised wage deductions and failure to apply the statutory minimum wage during extended shifts.
The financial impact of these new actions remains uncertain, but together they underscore the difficulties faced by the Memphis-based group in fully reforming its operational model built on independent contractors. Industry observers believe that the outcome of these proceedings could also influence the strategies of other major US logistics operators, where the boundary between self-employment and wage labour remains the focus of both litigation and regulatory change — a challenge not unfamiliar to Europe either.
