Minimum Wage Enforcement

It would be best if this fight was taken to a secondary agency. Such of the VA if the driver is a veteran. A direct assault on this issue would be suicidal. However, if others fight this fight and win, I would be glad to share in the benefits. Putting my family at risk in this job market is not something I am will to do. The company you are working for is not making money with you setting around. If they have to pay for that down time it would be my opinion that cutting the job would be the correct business move. The time to attack this issue is when everyone is busy and the companies out there dont see it as a problem.

Plus once trucking is associated with Minimum wage no company will hire anyone from this country. Would you like fries with that, Senor?

 

Sort of agree. It would be most difficult to get a company to pay a wage to someone who is not working, goes against all standards.

I am involved in a class action law suit against a company that refuses to pay overtime though. We are attempting to get the law changed but it is an on going civil suit and I can't say a lot about it right now. Hopefully if we can fix it in our situation we can change it for the whole nation. The law was originally written in 1938 and we think it is high time that it gets updated to reflect modern standards with the rest of todays society.

 

I couldn't believe I just read what I just read...had to read that twice then I noticed you were NOT a truck driver.....thank you for seeing that there is a problem here but.........look I know that we work way too many hours and it does come out to less than min wage....oh wait we are O/O's different ballgame than a hired driver......no we do not get demurage even though I have heard rumors of that possability...it never materializes.......
look the government has already done trucking SOOOO many favors that I shudder to think of what can happen if something like minimum wage creeps into our domain.........
Truck drivers are the last of a dying breed.......the less the govenment "helps" us the better we can do our job........
There is a song called "Daydream Cowboy" that Chris LeDoux sang on his album songs of Rodeo Country......to me that song best describes truck driving today.......I can see my truck "loping" up the East bound side Mineola Hill on I-70 as the sun is sinking in the West.....truck driving has ya by your heart and soul and it is just your life not a job..........

 

At the present time and under the laws of the U.S. Dept. of Labor, truck drivers have been exempted from the minimum wage law. This exemption was enacted in I think, 1952 or 3 at the behest of the I.C.C. (Interstate Commerce Commission) which no longer exists.

Economically, I would truly enjoy seeing commercial vehicle drivers making more money. It would allow more drivers into the pool as more would be willing to enter this field of endeavor, and eliminate the lesser desired ones (the ones that can't get it right.....non-professional drivers). But on the flip side; in this economy how much are you willing to pay for everything you purchase? Somewhere along the line a truck handled it..........everything. Raising the payscale for commercial drivers would be nice, but those costs are without question passed on to the consumer. Being retired I must account for every dollar, every month. That is not fun when prices keep rising.

From a retired federal DOT official

 

The (INTERSTATE) trucking industry is EXEMPT from the FLSA. EXCEPT in the State of Washington.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=4th&navby=case&no=952736p

 

Your point of view is valid in some respect. However as a driver who is not yet retired, don't you think it would be fair for me to earn a paycheck so that I may one day do so? Price control means nothing to me if I have zero dollars in my pocket and can't afford to retire. What am I to do ? Do you suggest I sit in the truck till my legs fall off , my rear end rots and my teeth fall out and I can no longer chomp on the crud that Subway has to offer at the Pilot?(If it weren't for drivers reward points some drivers wouldn't be able to shower or eat) Everyone wants to walk by and kick the bottom rung of the ladder that represents all that is the basis of our economy but doesn't want the ladder to crumble on them. I think if you truely wanted to see drivers earn more there would be no "flip side" to the equasion. Am I not a legitimate member of society? Am I not a consumer as well? I pay the same price at the register that you do when I purchase something. No inflation is not fun for anyone. I would be glad to help you burden that weight if given the opportunity to earn for my family. Keeping drivers underpaid, overworked , and criminalized by DOT standards is not the answer to curbing inflation. I think a better solution is for DOT ,TSA, I.C.C. and any other government agency to step back and quit trying to regulate. Let the system of "free enterprise" work itself out. It wasn't broken before when the U.S.A became the largest SuperPower on the planet. Hmmmm.... I wonder what changed. I truely hope you don't regard this as a personal attack on you or your chosen proffession, but I think many if not most Americans would agree that dirty politics, government regulations and unconstitutional entities such as the I.C.C. are what has us all in this mess together. Hopefully one day the retired and non-retired "American Citizens" will come together and realize that we are all in this mess together and until we all stand together as "one" again and put a boot in Uncle Scams butt, things will only get worse no matter who gets paid what. Pretty soon it won't matter to anyone.


From a non-retired Driver praying to God some silly txt msging drunk doesn't end up under my load cause 70 hours just aint enough and my swindle sheet will land me in prison for murder if that drunk kills himself.

 

3 year old thread but well thought out and many valid points.

 

In OTR ....I don't think minimum wage even has an issue. Local driving....paid by the hour....now that's a different ballgame.