SCOTUS rules in truckers favor, must pay for loading and unloading time

This is going to be good watching this play out. All the company drivers now have dollar signs in their eyes when it reality they will end up burning up their 70 sitting around just fo end up getting paid minimum wage.

 

I'm sure that these class action suits (and there's quite a few of them) is why more and more companies are starting to pay salary. Salary pay cleans this mess up for them quite nicely.

In the case against Pam Transport:
"In October 2018, a federal court in Arkansas decided in a class-action suit against PAM Transport that drivers should be paid for every hour they spend in their trucks while not sleeping — 16 hours a day of at least minimum-wage pay."

So say for example if Pam were to pay salary. Minimum wage in Arkansas is 9.25 hr. so 9.25 x 16 hrs x 7 days is $1,036 so that would be the most they'd have to pay per week (hardley a windfall for the driver).

In states where the minimum wage is only 7.25 a salary of only $812 would cover that.

 

So.. divide 28 million by 40k drivers be around $700 per driver.
But wait we forgot the lawyer fees.

Drivers might get $250/each

 

SCOTUS ...


Its Scrotus,
Mr. Scabrous Scrotus

 

i now what he was speaking of, from HIS thread about not getting home for promised time off.

he wasn't asking to be paid for home time.

the way it has always been in my earlier years, was that loading and unloading was a "service" we drivers offer to the customers.

i had some arguments with many dispatchers and company owners about that.

that YES, we CAN PROVIDE loading and unloading as a SERVICE to the customer, but we should be paid at the very least a wage hourly to do this.

i could NEVER see any company i worked for, paying lumper fee's of up to $150 (total) back in those days, but only paid me, $1.00 per 1,000 POUNDS..


like WTF 40,000 pounds and i only got paid $40..????

and the lumper who unloaded that same 40,000 pounds, gets $150.00.....??

see the discrepancy in that.>??

the trucking companies think that our mileage pay is enough....

really....????

my thoughts are, either pay an hourly wage, a flat hourly wage, rather than a tier system, or tell the customers that truckers simply DO NOT TOUCH FREIGHT, and THE CUSTOMER MUST do all that work, at each end.

some companies "shy away" from making such demands to any customer, as they need the freight, to keep the trucks rolling.

again, this is why not much ever really gets accomplished in this industry as a whole, drivers DO NOT STICK TOGETHER to make such demands, since 8 out of 10 times, the company simply replaces the driver, and picks and chooses another driver, form the 3 million other applicants wanting a job.

 

Not all of us hate trucking. Some of us would do it whether we were getting a paycheck or not

 

Yeah, that would cost a driver more in the long run.

 

Lol well u know what i mean by that... it just becomes a way of life . I wouldnt do anything else

 

it most certainly indeed, is a lifestyle. you either adapt to OTR (or long haul back in my day), or you seek another avenue in the industry.

when i got my license, before it was a CDL, i liked being on the road. i had never been too far out of my state before that. i got to see the many different places, and people and sample some of the local foods.

of which, once i had a peach cobbler, or sweet potato pie, or biscuits and gravy, or chicken fried steak, i was living the life out there.

but i tired of it rather quickly. as mentioned by @Lennythedriver , you are prety much tethered to that equipment, at least, back in my earlier years we were.

today, there is Uber or Lyft. today there are more truck stops.

i got out of the long haul, and into either local, or regional and finally dedicated to the end of my career.

pay checks fluctuated with each driving jobs i sought out.

time off, home time, vacation time, holidays off and even holiday pay, played a very important part of my overall lifestyle, over being far from home for weeks at a time.

some people men and women, can adapt to the OTR driving lifestyle, others like me, did it, but had, had enough of it.

paychecks can be a driving force in what we do. YES, many are happier with less money, and a more stable routine at home.

others may indeed earn more money, for thier future retirement, but lose out so much of what takes place at home, and there is NO DENYING that, on anyone's part.

if anyone said it does not bother them, they are lying, thru thier teeth.

single, married, divorced, widowed/widower, we ALL HAVE something or someone at the home land.

some "just adapt" more to the truckers lifestyle, no matter the outcome.

 

Agreed. I was out of it for almost 3 years and missed it the whole time. Gets in your blood.