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arrangement that may have existed between such a truck driver and
such a trucking company was terminated when such trucking company
became a trucking company client of TLC. The duration of any
such employment relationship was not helpful to the Court in
determining whether TLC was the employer of such truck driver
where TLC decided to hire such truck driver as its driver-
employee and leased such driver-employee to such trucking company
client. That is why, on the facts presented in the instant case,
the Court found in Transp. Labor Contract/Leasing, Inc. & Subs.
v. Commissioner, 123 T.C. at 195:
In the instant case, it is the nature, and not the
duration, of the relationship between a driver-employee
and TLC and the relationship between a driver-employee
and a trucking company client that determines whether
TLC or such trucking company client is the employer of
such driver-employee. [Emphasis added.]
In contrast to the instant case, the Court in Beech Trucking
Co. did not have before it a situation where the employment
arrangement between a truck driver and Beech Trucking Company was
terminated when Beech Trucking Company decided to become a client
of ATS. In addition, insofar as the record in Beech Trucking Co.
revealed, the functions performed by ATS (the driver-leasing
company) and Beech Trucking Company with respect to the truck
drivers were to some degree blurred. Beech Trucking Co. v.
Commissioner, 118 T.C. at 441. As the Court in Beech Trucking
Co. understood the arrangement between Beech Trucking Company and
ATS, truck drivers hired to drive for Beech Trucking Company were
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