They need to mandate hourly w/ OT after 40

Here is the thing that many don't seem to understand - many drivers are overpaid and have no value to the industry other than being a robot.

Many drivers (as I said) are overpaid for what they really do. IT don't matter what the job entitles, they do the minimal, never wanting to learn how to be more efficient or more safe but think they deserve more for their time in the truck.

These are the drivers who are accident prone, who piss and crap at the fuel isles (and there are a lot more than you think), think they are god on the road and just don't give a crap about anyone else but themselves. These are the drivers we need to get rid of, an hourly wage will entrench them and make this like the fast food industry where we attract the dumbest and most dangerous people to be on the road.

What someone makes at say Swifty or nightly doesn't effect the drivers who are at the fleets that make up the bulk of the industry, Megas are not the places that have the bulk of driver in the industry, the rates the drivers get are set industry wide and it is a reflection of the entire industry, not just a few companies.

Those smaller fleets are paying in many cases a lot more then the mega with a few paying a lot more than owners operators make.

The issue with logs has the same undertone with it as wages, some think that they can and should run as they want to --- "I can drive 24 hours and still get rested so I can drive another 24 to make it from NY to LA in less than two days" --- that is just crap. HOS is there to stop the abuse by the companies and as a secondary reason for safety of the public because of the problem with having an 85,000lb weapon on the road (road rage from truckers is getting more common). We already have enough unsafe drivers so the HOS is needed more now than ever. ELDs enhance the limit by the company to abuse the driver, but put everything with hourly wage, then now it is a perfect storm to really limit the drivers which will have the shippers find other reasonably cost ways to move their products - rail is one alternative for a lot of companies.

I just was reading an email from one of the rail companies about what they charge to ship a container of product from one coast to another. Maybe I read it wrong but it comes to something under $1100 all inclusive from a NJ port and moving it by rail to LA docks for it to be picked up by truck. $1100 all inclusive is what I see, $1100 doesn't even pay for HALF the fuel in the truck to make the trip. The trip is slower but if this is correct, then this will end up being a replacement for trucking.

 

They could only say that hourly pay has to be min wage. That is why the government step in will not offer anything other than the same guide lines as every other industry. That is why I am ok with it. I do get what you are saying but disagree with how they can operate. In fact it might even help an owner operator because they could pay themselves min wage.

 

I just prefer to keep the government out of it because their solutions are never reasonable and seldom benefit everyone across the board like people think. Just like the AB5 argument. Let’s just trash an entire segment of trucking that’s been around forever because people think they’re going to get rich doing a lease purchase. They could easily use existing rules to crack down on misclassified employees but instead they will attack the entire independent contractor business model.

 

Record profits... Immediately followed by record inflation... Lol sounds kinda like a wash to me.

 

Agriculture... Did it for years... And they pay even less per hour on average than almost any other industry.

 

"As little as $20 an hour..." In my neck of the woods thats the kind of money many, many people would bend over backwards to be paid.

 

Why don't you do your own research on the topic, instead of asking me to give you the answer? I don't see anyone in the industry demanding to preserve CPM, they just keep working like they worked yesterday. Why do horse tracks measure speed in seconds and fractions of seconds? There are millions of laws and there will be millions more if every time one law is changed we have to make every other player in that field feel fairly treated. Who told you the govt is fair, and why did you believe them? Each person, industry, group, etc. gets to decide what issues they will petition the government for redress of grievances. If some people don't fight for their benefit, they get worse results than those that do fight for their benefit. The long-term solution is to get the govt out of every detail of every job for every person, not demand more govt involved in more details of every person's life. Nothing the govt does requires trucking companies to pay drivers via CPM. Lots of people not interested in th eissue just generally see the govt as a parent to their being a child and anything they don't like should be "fixed" by "the grown ups". There isn't enough wisdom, time, or money on earth for gov to make people happy. That is the job of each person. Most just watch TV and complain and then blame The System for not making them happy. Before people demand more govt action they might look at how well the govt runs things when they are totally in charge. If you think the military and federal prisons are well run you'll love the govt being in charge of your life.

 

The FLSA exemption to MW/OT also applies to certain other workers in trucking, not just drivers and those people do not operate under the HOS. Companies can choose to pay OT but federal law doesn't require them to pay OT.

 

Certain drivers flock to 1099s and then want the govt to protect their rights after they participated in a tax fraud "working for a tax cheat helps me and I want the govt to protect me from my choices."

 

I am not in disagreement with you at all. I am a O/O and have no dog in the fight myself. So don't worry about me needing anything like that. It was just pointing out the whole thing is a shame and used by big companies who in reality run the government and take advantage of all the people working for them.