So I met an Old Dominion driver today at a rest stop... here's how it went

Several trucking companies and other businesses are dropping healthcare coverage for spouses. Companies are doing away with full time employees and using temp. services to get out from under the weight of Obamacare and other benefits packages. Walmart in California will probably be next to get rid of company drivers and outsource to some mega carrier.

 

Yep, I know where you work; just messin' with ya!

 

More to the point, there's no federal law requiring it. Trucking industry is exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

It's nonsense...outdated nonsense but so are a lot of laws in this country. Once they get put on the books its hard to get anyone to care enough to lift a finger and change them. (Congress certainly doesn't like doing anything these days.)

 

thats MY point, unless you have a union contract, they do what they want. it was a moot point until about 15 years ago when the non union carriers started lowering the industry standards....

 

@glp.Companies justify not paying OT using a loop hole in the law. If the company have ONE truck that cross the state line,they are exempt from paying overtime if they choose not to. So because one truck cross the state line, each driver is subject to crossing the state line any given shift depending on the operational demands. I used to haul fuel, and most contractors like KAG ,Cox petroleum,Williams tanklines and sevral others here in SOCAL dont pay OT using that loop hole.

A few years ago one of those companies was taken to court on a class action lawsuit and the drivers WON. Prior to the lawsuit companies paid 21-22 per hour straight time 70hours per week. After the lawsuit companies either paid OT but knocked They're hourly rate down to 17-19 per hour,hired more drivers to cut the hours back to 45-55 hours a week, or they make you sign a contract saying you will except straight time or they not gonna hire you. One company Pacific Tanklines changed from hourly pay to percentage based on activites and they make you sign a two year contract and if you leave within two years you owe them for training you over 1500 bucks, its sucks big time. I turned them down for sure.

Bottomline, these companies /industries is gonna do what they want. And how the trucking industry/economy is today i dont even think unionizing would make much of a difference

 

They only fired 4 of us for clapping with both hands!
Old Dominion driver they're laughing and talking to themselves. Because OD drove them crazy? I don't talk to myself in TS' but do sing and stare into space. I have no imaginary friends, all 150 of mine are real, (small too). Make big mone as an OO and laugh at OD drivers when I blow by 30 MPH faster than they can do.
Heard Western Express pays up to $.78 CPM now, I'm going down there.

Bought a truck and found out you can go broke trucking so I bought another to go broke twice as fast and I'll be twice as happy.

 

Since I am a logistics coordinator, I recently had a regional sales rep come by to chat with me, and he told me that someone with a high school degree could come in at 60k. If I wasn't in my office, maybe I would've asked for an application. Anyway, the sales rep had been with OD for nearly 30 years and was in love with his job. Actually, now that I think about it, everyone I know at OD has been in love with the jobs... except for the people I complain to when they don't schedule their delivery appointments.

 

Well, yes and no.

It seems they have a select list of training schools that IF they feel they need to go to, they do, but only when they NEED drivers. Up until last year, the only way they'd hire newbies was by putting them through their own training school.

The catch was you had to be either a dock worker or family member of an ODFL employee (why, I never figured out) - and to be honest with you the quality of drivers I'd seen come out of the school didn't impress me much.

They also turned out to be the whiniest drivers. First trucking job, never done OTR for any other cruddy mega carrier, or even a good carrier, never had to wait on shippers and recievers, or layover unpaid. Just ask any OD despatcher who their biggest cry babies are.

They team up and last about 3 months usually, split up and run solo wild, till that sounds like too much hard work or an inconvenience - then quit or go back to the dock so they can be home with Mum every night. Maybe it's the generation.

But there we are - short on drivers like the rest of the industry. I now peruse the daily accident report to see a bunch of dumb avoidable stuff for line drivers, and figure it's probably the training.

I used to be proud to drive here, but my enthusiasm has worn thin. When I met a team from the Northeast the other day, no uniform, sloppy hipster douchebag clothing and foolish footwear, designer glasses (at 3am in the morning - really?), and an attitude - I thought, "The end is near - and the wall is full of scribble"

I'm about sick of seeing our own drivers park in fuel islands, tailgate others and generally look like idiots. Training, maybe. Courtesy, surely lacking. I don't have the time to write down all the truck numbers and address the problem - they're big enough and smart enough to grow a company this big - they can iron out the wrinkles them selves.

 

R&l don't pay overtime at all. My buddy works out of that big one on i71 in Ohio. 67hr week straight pay for 20.85 hr.