They need to mandate hourly w/ OT after 40

One important thing to be considered is how Local Jobs that pay hourly, now often only pay OT after 50 hrs. if at all. I used to work Local till 1996. I always got my 60 hrs. Law says OT after 40. So 60 hrs. Pays 70. My job paid OT after 8, on a daily basis. Sometimes I’d get 60 in 4 days. Paid 72 hrs. I was a casual working under Teamsters Master Freight agreement. The pay was good, as it should be. Only thing that made it good was the OT pay. I think Local hourly paid jobs, should pay OT after 40, like they used to before finding the loophole of classifying Local as being a Road Driver.

 

The last guy I drove a big truck for in 2019 paid us hourly (about $20) and also paid overtime after 8, which is about the most generous way to do it. This was back in NJ where there was heavier union influence and he was old school like that. OT after 40 they can run you cheap for 4 days and gyp you on your OT day and some places are actually cheap and petty enough to pull stuff like that. It wasn't the best paying job on the road but then again it was a local day cab job hauling containers and so I spent a lot of time sitting there reading or with my feet up taking a nap. Never docked pay for taking a lunch break...he liked to keep the nonsense like that to a minimum and even paid a straight 8 for the occasional sick day.

For most guys a job like that is a better way to go for a steady check and work/life balance. Not as exciting as running OTR and seeing the country but I remember sitting around wasting a lot of my own time when I drove for Watkins and Sheppard out of driving school. True OTR driving in a company truck is usually always a bad deal from a time and money perspective. I've also driven regional lanes where the overnight trip just paid a flat rate to the driver to turn Columbus, OH out of Newark, NJ which I think was $550 at the time (almost 10 years ago). 4 days of work to do two trips and I usually called it a week and thought it was a fair enough deal to stick around awhile. Relatively low BS level there too and would do something like that again perhaps. OTR as a typical company driver where you have to live out of your truck for a week or two at a time and have to beg them to go home...there's just too much room for funny business there where they can take advantage of you including not pay you enough money.

 

Started with the Staggers act in 1937 and addressed by the individual states they never 'had' to pay OT but some states do have regs. NJ has to pay more than 1.5 times minimum wage as the base pay....

A lot of union companies [after deregulation] shed a ton of drivers and places started OT after 50 and more to fill their seats as their business took off compared to other small union outfits.

Some of it started before deregulation, Union gas deliveries for one, at that time name brands, started to not replace retiring union guys a their pipeline based little distribution terminals as they retired and by the start of deregulation were already out of the transportation business. This later spread around all the other big names
too.

Unfortunately those days are gone leaving a confused world where no company would support this.

 

Only major LTL I remember was Overnite. In 1995. They ran local Drivers through orientation in Va. Sent them home with a load. City Drivers made $11.00 an hr. All straight time. Full time Teamster Drivers made $17.32 OT after 8. Everyone needs to eat as they say. Just never understood why anyone would stay, when better jobs were literally right around the corner.

 

Kind of hard to sue an unskilled flip flop wearing bag ####ter who dumps his urine sample in parking lot. Only deemed professional when getting punished or reprimanded

 

You think blocking the fuel islands is bad now, just wait till you pay drivers hourly.
Along with those guys that will be going 45mph on the interstate, you know it will happen.

 

That right there is my point as well. I do not care really how they pay but that overtime issue is used to benefit the big companies. The oilfield was really bad about trying to apply that where I worked. Put you on a small salary and paid by the job done. I did not mind it as long as they could keep me busy. But the Salary was not legal in the beginning as they tried to classify you as a driver or a Supervisor. Neither was the case and they took advantage of every dumb person that did not know the law.

 

I agree that if the exemption is repealed that those paid hourly should get overtime pay. I don’t agree with the government mandating hourly pay for drivers. Pay structure should be left up to the business owners.