Truck drivers working in teams must be compensated under federal minimum wage laws for time spent in the sleeper cab even if they’re not actually sleeping, according to an appellate court decision from the 1st Circuit recently handed down.
The case involves carrier CRST, which lost the lower court case in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. The lawsuit was filed in 2016 by several CRST drivers with a driver named Juan Carlos Montoya as the lead plaintiff. CRST appealed the case to the 1st Circuit.
The decision potentially is precedent setting in that the appeals court suggests no court has ever ruled on the question of whether a team driver should be compensated for time back in the sleeper berth that isn’t part of the eight hours of sleep time required under federal law.
“We note that the parties have not identified, nor have we found, any published circuit court decisions addressing whether sleeper berth time constitutes compensable work for the purposes of the Fair Labor Standards Act,” the three-judge panel wrote in a footnote.
Litigation over sleeper berth time and compensation is not new; Walmart was involved in a significant case several years ago that brought in several key industry players. But that involved solo drivers, not team drivers who are put together for the purpose of keeping equipment on the road and limiting the amount of time it needs to be sidelined because of federal hours-of-service mandates.
The question posed in the lower court and on appeal was whether “the time these long-haul drivers spend in the sleeper berth is ‘on-duty’ time within the meaning of Department of Labor regulations and if so whether CRST must compensate a driver who is on duty for 24 hours or ore for time that driver spends in the sleeper berth is in excess of eight hours within a full 24-hour period.”
CRST did not count that time in the sleeper berth as work hours to be compensated, and the plaintiffs did not argue that they should be compensated for the eight hours of mandated daily sleep time. At issue would be the difference between the time spent driving or working — up to 14 hours under HOS rules — and the 16 hours after the eight hour sleep time is deducted from the day’s 24 hours.
A footnote in the appellate court decision spells out what would be a stake. The initial pay period of Montoya, on a training program and getting paid just 25 cents per mile, was $233.38 plus a $100 signing bonus.
Montoya’s hourly wage for actual hours worked exceeded $10 per hour in that initial trip. But the court noted that if the “excess sleeper berth time” was viewed as compensable, the amount he was paid would have dropped his hourly wage below the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
The appeals court decision held that time spent in the sleeper berth by the second driver who was not behind the wheel was not true free time. It cited a Supreme Court interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act defining work as “physical or mental exertion, whether burdensome or not, controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.” It has become known as the “predominant benefit test,” with the time spent accruing mostly to the benefit of the employer.
An example was cited: Firefighters sitting in a firehouse playing cards are doing so because they are waiting to respond to an emergency and should be compensated for that. Police officers on call but free to do whatever they want to do as long as they can respond to an emergency do not need to be equally compensated.
CRST argued that the sleeper berth driver is “waiting to be engaged” and should not be paid.
“In urging us to reach this conclusion, CRST observes that drivers can sleep, fix meals, watch television and access the internet while in the sleeper berth,” the court said in summing up the carrier’s arguments. “But the argument of the plaintiffs was that the drivers’ confinement to the restrictive environment of the sleeper berth means that such time predominantly benefits the employer and this is compensable work.”
The appellate court was blunt in its conclusion. “CRST’s argument turns a blind eye to the limitations inherent in the drivers’ physical location,” the court wrote. “Though drivers may
be able to engage in some leisure activities, the nature of these activities is restricted by the drivers’ presence in the sleeper berth of a moving truck — a small space, containing only some basic living essentials, that drivers cannot leave until the truck stops moving.”
Citing a Supreme Court precedent known as Armour that goes back to 1944, the 1st Circuit appeals judges said CRST’s “argument overlooks the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence establishing that the ability to engage in some leisure activities does not, in and of itself, render an employee’s time for the employee’s own benefit.”
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Chris
There’s got to be something wrong with this article. A commercial driver for long haul making $10? No way!
Joe Sunday
My advice to all: If you don’t like the way the system works, choose a different occupation. McDonald’s is always hiring and you’ll get paid for EVERY MINUTE you’re clocked in. Trucking is and always has been different. Accept it and quit whining about it. I started my career doing light maintenance such as greasing, tire pressure and oil checking, wrenching my brake slack adjusters, washing my rig, etc., fingerprinting the freight.. often on both ends, driving day and night in all kinds of weather, all for a firm price trip pay determined by my employers. I worked this way all my life until I retired and yet managed to own my own home with my wife and raise 3 good kids to adulthood. I rarely complained and it worked for me. I’m retired now but I’m now convinced it all has to do with WORK ETHIC and how you’re raised.
Mr. X
It is about time drivers get compensated for the time they spend in the sleepers, whether they are driving or not, not only for the time of sleep as required by law, but for all the hours spend past the driving hours. For the trucking companies it is the cost of doing business.
Unless the trucking companies find a solution like offering relays of drivers at truck stops – so their equipment is in use 24/7, the time spent in a sleeper from the new driver take over when the HOS of the first driver is to be considered labor and need to be compensated. The example provided with the firefighters and police it is excellent, but OTR truckers are worse. When their HOS are over for the day, they don’t get to go home or get off the truck. They are stuck in whatever sleeper cabin with the other drivers, not their families.
Reimbursing them a federal minimum wage (which in essence is $7.25 x 11 hours = $79.75 (per day) is nothing.
Angela Oppel
This isn’t the only problem with CRST they also discriminate against female drivers…having applied myself they said I was good to go for training then as soon as I was supposed to leave they came up with excuses that could have been fixed weeks prior after talking with other people who had previously worked for the company I found out they would make it extremely hard for the females who did work there until they eventually quit AKA “silently bullying them” a tactic used by management when they have no legal grounds to fire someone, but they want them gone….
J A Gaither
Time in the sleeper is required by law. If the law says you must comply then it is an integral part of your job, and you should be compensated something for doing so. The trucking industry has been availing itself of the presence of two drivers while only paying each a half days pay. There are no limitations on how many hours or miles a truck can be driven in a day. Each driver is restricted by the Hours of Service law to no more than 11 hours of driving. With only one driver present that is as far as the truck goes per day. The AVAILABILITY of the second driver in the sleeper doubles that capacity and his presence costs the company nothing.
Mortzi
does that apply to independent contractors that work on 1099 MISC pay?
Terry
OTR companies have forever RIPPED drivers off, dock time, pre & post trip, fueling, the list goes on and on, I personally will not drive a truck unless, Im paid by the hour, I ran the OTR for years and I’ll never go back, unless im compensated for ALL HOURS WORKED.
Stephen Webster
We need major changes and improvements but the large trucking companies will just bring more cheap foreign workers