Wage and Hour Lawsuit?

As a dispatcher that has delivered to these ######## a few times, here is what Im asking.
What were the drivers contracted rates, and was the contract exempt from over time wages..

Certain positions wages are require to pay overtime and others arent. The trucking industry certainly falls into the area of exempt wages. It depends on the contract, and the person you had a contract with. Yes, you can have a contract that does not pay over time. However, if you are listed as an employee, under certain conditions you are entitled to over time.

You will need to dig deeper assuming you want to pursue. In my experience, dont bother though. Even if the plaintiffs win, you wont get much unless this went on for years.

My dealing were as follows as a dispatcher.
Deliveries required after hours (before 6am $200)
Wait time for driver billed in 15min increments @ 45hr.

Paid the driver after hrs fees, never any wait time. But that was in his owner operator contract.

 

Funny, I didn't realize there was a 100+ hour rule in the hours of service...

Hourly pay would limit a driver to a 70 hour work week.


If you think companies are going to pay drivers pulling box $20/hour then you can sure as heck expect prices of items on store shelves to sky rocket. Or drivers would be shut down at 40 hours to avoid overtime.

 

I never actually assumed anything but the situation I'm talking about . I was actually using myself as an example and my payrate . I know in some areas that the payrate differs but where I live at the minimum for drivers around here is $15.00 hr and the top rate is $24.00 hr with ups coming in first at $38.00 hr. I've worked both hourly ,percentage and mileage. The milage rate around here is from 36cents to 55 cents. Just do the math man that's all I'm saying.

 

Just a matter of time the FMCSA will be quoting Victor . See drivers are working more then the 84 hours we claimed they were. Stop declaring you are running illegal guys. 100 hours a week is breaking the 14 hour rule every day, 7 days a week.

 

You wanted the lawyer to work for free? Taking food off his kids plates? Discounted labor , how dare you accept that? But we are talking being intellectually honest . Is that not what you are railing against? Expecting work for free ? Joking around with you, but you have to see the point.

 

I guess he's counting all the time people log as off duty but are actually working.

When I first started otr I would log off duty for everything, fuel, pti, everything. Until two weeks go by and one day I got a call from safety asking me every detail about my logs.

Found out real quick that I couldn't just happily go along logging line 1 for everything in the name of preserving my 70 for drive time.

I work 70 hours a week at my current job, last week I pulled into the yard with exactly 0:08 left on my 70. I knew that was gonna be a close night lol. Luckily I had my 4 day weekend start that day.

On point though, I believe that's what he was speaking of. Though If otr guys were to be paid hourly, I could just see a lot of scrutiny come to their logs by their company. Wanting to know every detail of why they logged line 4, and why for so much time on whatever they were doing.


That or they're going to try to find a way to cut costs at the drivers expense.

I just agree with G/man, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

 

Atty had originally agreed to take out of other side's hide since contract called for atty's fees to the prevailing party and my win at the appellate panel was a nice step in that direction, plus their offer of $10K 'nuisance' settlement. Atty merely played defense, did not issue even standard discovery, interrogatories or requests for admissions. Still ran up over $50K in atty's fees himself and, no surprise, wanted desperately to settle.

So we settled for $25K, he took $15K and I got my trivial $10K, a year after the other side offered it after the appeal.

Could have complained to the bar, taken the case back, gone after him, yada, yada. Life's too short as it is.

I see the point that the big truckload carriers have a huge competitive advantage over O/O's if they can continue to force their thousands of drivers to work for them for free. It's something for nothing for TL carriers.

At least in California and NY, their day of reckoning is arriving. Big settlements.

 

Ques: if the contract paid the carrier a mileage variance pay, detention pay, loading pay , unloading pay or the rare layover pay or pay for some other unstated reason; will you known if you were really eligible...contact the attorney and asked them what will it cost you. People whom have their nose to the grind stone seldom speak up about what they have coming to them...they cant afford to dedicate time to a question & move along.

 

My best friend works in the telecommunications industry and they are going through a similar situation right now. The reason ANY company, federally controlled or not, will lose class lawsuits is really simple. The IRS does NOT define someone as an IC UNLESS they have more than ONE source of 1099s. So to legally work as a 1099 contractor, you MUST do work for at least one other company, at least one day per year. You can call the IRS and ask if you want.

In my friend's case, he was involved in an accident in another IC's truck and hurt his knee. The cell phone company leases the trucks and assigns them to the ICs. The ICs then get their assignments and work until the problems/tests are finished. This might be 24 straight hours, or 100 hours in a week. Whatever it is, they are paid by the *job*.

When this accident happened two years ago, my friend was just training with the company, didn't have the lease truck yet, and didn't have a personal vehicle either. The hospital and doctors started sending him the bills and he had no way to pay them. After calling every lawyer in the phone book, he found one that referred him to another lawyer in Texas, where the cell phone company is. The lawyer did his research, subpoenaed the company records for a list of all current and previous ICs, mailed them all a letter asking them to join the lawsuit and went to work on the case. Since the company provided the lease vehicle, provided the work and the ICs had no other 1099s from other companies, the court ruled the ICs were in fact employees based on IRS code. The lawyer won a multi-million dollar settlement to cover taxes, injuries and overtime for the ICs, or now employees. They all got different awards, my friend got $85K after paying all the doctors, lawyer and hospital, just for the injury itself. The other ICs got a lot more because they now owed back taxes - a completely different issue.

These trucking companies don't know it (or maybe they do), but you just can't hire someone as a 1099 employee on a full time basis. To be a true contractor according to IRS code, you must work for more than one company. As I understand it, these lawsuits are won every day against greedy companies who are just trying to skirt the laws at the driver's expense.

I disagree with almost everybody on this topic -- if you get a class action lawsuit letter, you were probably wronged, so join the suit! Yeah, the ####bag lawyers will get all the money, but you never know if it's worth your time (a signature.) Might be worth $1 or $100,00, I'll sign on the line!

 

In order for an I/C to be classified as an employee, the IRS has a formula they work with. There are many factors involved in it but after all that the final line item has to do with control. (Control of what worn, how driven, what route taken, how to be loaded, hours worked, etc.) If they deem the I/C in fact had no control then in the eyes of the government that person is/was an employee and AS WE ALL KNOW the IRS does get their money regardless. Just because someone calls you an I/C does not mean you are one. In fact the IRS has a division that does nothing but go in and determine whether or not someone is/was an I/C. If they deem the individual was employee not I/C then owner/company is open to being investigated for every I/C for past 15 years and penalties tax revisions for every one for every one of those years