Drivers wages and the FLSA......

truckerdave1970 and HalpinUout, if either of you two (or anyone else) want to talk about or debate the ideas and their merits then fine, but I won't bother to address ad hominem attacks and other misdirection and lies. I follow the general rule of internet forums of not feeding the trolls. If you're not trolling, then I suggest you also think about your reading comprehension.

 

Quit hauling CHEAP FREIGHT!!!
That's the problem, we are so willing to accept whatever they are willing to pay. The reality is this: there are more loads available to be transported than trucks available to transport them.

LET THE CHEAP FREIGHT ROT ON THE DOCKS!!!

MAYBE THEN COMPANIES CAN AFFORD TO PAY DRIVERS WHAT THEY ARE WORTH, OVERTIME TOO!!!!

 

Sounds like if the guy had his way, he would have us paying for the fuel for the truck too!!!

 

I am pretty certain my reading comprehension is more than adequate for most any discussion!!!

Regarding this issue, and the risk of repeating myself, trucking companies already have access to GPS technology that would make paying overtime easy and practical. The ONLY reason pay per mile was established was because back in pre-GPS days, the only way you could measures a driver's work was by mileage. GPS has made that a moot point, they know when the truck is moving and when it is not. If all a company wants to pay for is mileage, then why shouldn't we be paid for ALL THE TIME SPENT DRIVING, INCLUDING OVERTIME???

I fail to see your logic in your side of this issue! Truth be told, you have offered no reason for your position against overtime. Don't give me the "that is the way it has always been done" crap, either. Because I will tell you to back to driving a team of horses on dirt trails!

We all know that some days you can turn 600 miles in 10 hours but then there are days that you only get 300 miles in 14 hours, I have had days where I turned less than 100 miles in a 14 hour period b/c it took the grocery warehouse all stinking day to get their garbage off my truck. Yet I still had to be awake and do work for the carrier. Did I get paid for all that time? NOPE. Should have I been paid? IMHO, HELL YES!!!

 

The simple answer here is that the trucking companies do not want to pay for anything but driving. They need to be held to the standards of payment for all work. If it needs to go to hourly, then so be it.

No employee and I am not referring to drivers, would stand for going into the office and sitting for hours waiting for the phone to ring for a load call back and not expect to be paid. After all, if they are sitting at the desk with the computer and playing solitaire while they wait, guess what, they are paid.

If the company cannot afford to properly pay the driver, shut them down. They are bleeding it down for other reasons.

Too many other companies can well afford to pay hourly sitting and decent wages and they still make good profits. The private sector is only interested in the top end employees not the driver. Let them work in a truck and see.

 

keep in mind if it goes hourly pay will change dramatically. You wont get paid for getting lost, you wont get paid driving slow, you wont get paid for detention when missing windows (early or late). There will also be a way for the company to "take back" money from you. There are no perfect systems, there will never be one. Profits drive everyone, companies, drivers, customers. So stating stuff like "quit hauling cheap freight" and "pay us hourly" do nothing to further your cause. It just creates arguments and further divides truckers. No doubt there will several hundred more changes to trucking during our lifetimes but it's very unlikely that pay will switch to a model that is more in favor of the driver than it is to the customer or trucking company.

 

I cannot believe you even thought to put this in here.

Drivers do not get paid for getting lost now, so no great loss.
Most do not get paid to drive slow now, so there is no difference.
Detention pay? Many companies make you sit for 3 hours before they paid, so who cares if you are getting paid hourly instead.
Companies are already take back money. Some want the driver to pay for fuel used and damages.

Management is making the rift between the drivers.

Let me ask you a simple question.

Would you go into work tomorrow and be at the office for 14 hours and be paid for 8?

 

I work on call in addition my daily required duties. So essentially I do this. Phone rings 24/7. When the workload gets too be more than agreed upon, I do it for a few weeks, then I sit down with the boss man and ask for more compensation for my time. When/if I get my $$ I then figure out how to make my mountain of work more manageable. Comparing what I do, to what you do, to what office folks do, is like comparing Grapefruit, to Apples, to Oranges.

 

Additionally getting paid hourly is then going to lend itself an automated workflow. The way I see it each load would be given a transit time, anything greater than 10% of normal would be questioned and may go as unpaid. Detention would have a similar criteria, average load/unload per customer followed by an explanation if greater than a certain percent. Disqualified for any payment is window is missed. It opens up a whole mess of micromanaging and questioning about performance. On time service is clearly priority number #1 for companies, but I'm sure payroll is #1.00001. They don't want to part with their dimes, and don't want to invest in a pay plan that is going to carry additional cost. My guess is even if it was paid hourly, it would end up being pay about the same as it is now, just with more hoops to jump through.

 

Actually it is not. You are paid to perform your job, just like the truck driver.

You are paid to work in the office, but if too much work happens outside of the office, you do not like working for free, so you get more money.

The driver is paid to drive, but not to sit. So, when you leave home to go to work, you expect to be paid. When the driver leaves home, why should he not expect the same thing.

You still did not answer.

Would you go into the office and be there for 14 hours knowing you would be paid only for 8?