Is this normal in trucking

Is it common? No, but it does happen. Since all the various agencies involved can access each other's data it doesn't happen as often. The risks just aren't worth it.
I've hired drivers for one or two days work and they'd ask to be paid cash under the table. I tell them I wish I could but it wasn't going to happen.
I've also had drivers applying for full time work that insisted I pay them under the table and offered to work for less on a cash basis. I didn't hire them...but I'll bet somebody did.

 

The other side of the coin is, A driver [retired or other reason] is sitting home bored to tears looking for something to do but if you don't get paid cash then you are working for nothing. cause of claw backs and such.

YA YA I know if you are able to work blablabla There are semi ''legitimate'' reasons for cash.
It's the system that sometimes creates it's own problems.

 

I agree, but until they make it legal or at least make some rules that make sense, paying an employee under the table will get you in a world of trouble.

 

I had a boss in the oil field. Water hauling a driver came into the yard. Case of beer half of it empties in the cab. Luckily truck was fine and of course driver fired on the spot.

 

With the overreaching colossi both the state and federal bureaucracies have become? That's a dream some future generation might see.

 

Somewhere, somehow, someone will skirt the rules, it is human nature.

Pre aportioned plates, I remember a local excavator pull ontothe job with his machine on the trailer which he parked way in the rear of the jobsite and promptly removed the plate and jumpped into his pickup and drive it back to bring the dump truck out to the job. End of the day he reveresed the process.

 

If you're running as a 1099 driver it's very common for the employer not to cover you. No health, no dental, and absolutely no workman's comp. If you get sick, or some member of your family does, the money comes out of your pocket. If you get injured you'll have to try to get on state disability and that can be a hassle.
Point? Don't do 1099, don't work under the table, and stay away from fly-by-night operators.

 

Now, that I'm not sure about. I've never had it happen to me or anyone I know so I can't say with any authority.
Wild guess? Even if there is coverage an insurance company will look for any excuse to not pay off. There's usually a clause in the contract that prohibits "illegal operation of the insured vehicle." I'd want to know about that before I tried it.