New Bill Would Kill 85 Year Old Law That Prevents Truckers From Earning Overtime

The exemption they are looking to repeal is overtime. Carriers and all employers have to pay at least minimum wage regardless.

It should hurt them. Those cheap turds. If they're getting away with paying less than minimum wage, it is only because the drivers there don't do anything about getting paid less than minimum wage.

 

At the end of the year, you’ll still make the same.

 

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The way companies will do it is figure out what they're currently paying a driver a week and then make the rates add up to the same number. That's what Schneider did when they did away with accesorial pay and started paying for all time logged on line 4. There will be some turbulence in the transition, but I doubt this would make a difference in overall pay.

 

% vs cpm is a non-issue, guidance says total piecework divided by total hours to obtain the rate, then 1/2 x Rate x Hours Over 40. The big questions are - "is non productive time counted in the denominator to figure the rate?" and "is non productive time counted for total hours worked?"

The second question I think is easy based on the HOS, but exempt industries have no case law or precedent so who knows how things will shake out.

As to the first question, I know Capstone had a case about the first question a few years ago and if I recall correctly the decision was a travesty of bad logic and poor rhetoric. All I really know is that how a company does the math makes a huge difference.

Say a driver works the entire 70 hours in 6 days, using the entirety of the 14 hour clock and taking the minimum ten hour break and earns $1800 piece rate.

Using 70 hours of work, his hourly rate is $25.71, so he would be entitled to $385.71 in overtime.

Using 84 hours of total time but only 70 hours of work, his hourly rate is only $21.43, so 30 hours of overtime will get him $321.43.

However using 84 hours of total time and 'work', he makes $471.43 in overtime - almost $100 more.

But this assumes that the piece rate remains unchanged - which won't happen. Just look at what happened in California - pay rates changed so drivers ended up making the same or slightly less for the same work.

And let's not ignore all the ways employers cheat around overtime rules now - time in lieu, making employees salaried, etc. This rule change isn't going to have much of an impact.

 

If they really wanna make trucking more attractive, give us a tax rebate. Or make us exempt from paying federal tax at all. What happened to that bill that they were going to include the $10,000 tax credit for full-time over the road truck drivers that I heard about a year ago? It just disappeared, never heard about it.

 

Ooooo weeee!!!!! Now that's a great idea right there! Less tax liability might be more attractive than the topic of this thread. Trucking is pretty good money, now if I didn't have to pay federal tax, man that would instantly advance my life, even moreso than these marginal raises I get. A 10k credit would be nice too.

 

Yeah I don’t know whatever happened to that idea. There was a couple of people in Congress back when they were talking about the driver shortage all over the news. And they were going to vote on giving full-time over the road truck drivers a $10,000 per year tax credit. And then I never heard anything else about it. There are believe it or not, Other lines of work out there where you don’t pay federal taxes on. For example, if you work with people with developmental disabilities. Like doing adult foster care type stuff. They pay a stipend, usually around $200 a day and you don’t pay a penny of tax on it. The idea was kinda the same for truckers. “Unique necessity driven job that not many will do” type thing..
I’ve done all different sorts and kinds of jobs throughout my life. And some of them were more difficult or physically challenging, etc. But nothing and I mean nothing takes more out of you overall as in your physical existence than OTR work. We should get a tax break in my opinion. Lol

 

I don't know that this would make a difference in the grand scheme of retaining drivers. (It is very interesting that the ATA is so against this. That should tell you all you ever need to know about them)

I can only speak for myself here, but I never got into this line of work because it was a lucrative position. Has it afforded me a comfortable life? Yes. But I wasn't chasing the dollar when I started this. I just wanted to drive and see new things and places. Probably a reason most of you on here started driving trucks.

If they want to start retaining, and attracting new drivers, maybe they should quit micromanaging every aspect of what we do. Do away with the 65 mph BS, give everyone a 75mph or higher truck. Let fate sort out what happens next. Quit preaching the idea that it is safer to camp in the center lane while going slower than the rest of the world. Quit with the DAC, PSP and whatever other alphabet report fear tactics. Those that can, will survive.

In the time that I've been driving, I've witnessed the average driver go from just wanting to be left alone to do his or her job, and being paid accordingly, to the YouTube truckers to now TikTok truckers. And those are some real sad ####s. (By the way, there IS a difference between Truckers and Truck Drivers. I never wanna be a trucker) And they've gotten that way as a result of the micromanaging at these big companies.

So if anyone at the ATA is reading this, here's an idea for you to retain meat in the seat- MAKE IT ENJOYABLE again!!!!

 

What is the difference between a trucker and a truck driver? I think that's an interesting statement.