Included in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is an exemption that applies to interstate trucking allowing employers to avoid paying drivers for overtime work.
The exemption was established in 1935 with the intent of preventing drivers from taking on too many hours, but some in the industry believe the law has evolved into an excuse for keeping driver pay low.
“Simply put, the FLSA exemption makes it the law that a driver’s time is less valued than other professions,” according to Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, whose membership also includes employee drivers.
“So many employee drivers are paid by the mile. But at the end of the day, if you remove the exemption, carriers will have to start paying them for their time — including when drivers are sitting idle at a shipper or a receiver. There would be a financial incentive for shippers and receivers to load and unload trucks in a timely, efficient manner,” Pugh said, because carriers could choose to pass on to them added idle time costs.
Examples of driver employees eligible to be exempted from receiving overtime pay, according to the Lunt Group, which specializes in employer labor law, include:
- Drivers who spend part of their time in intrastate as well as interstate commerce.
- Individuals who act as assistants or relief drivers on vehicles in addition to performing loading, unloading and similar work.
- Drivers of charter buses or farm trucks who perform duties unrelated to driving or the safety of operations.
- “Driver salesmen” who spend much of their time selling rather than engaging in activities related to the safety of operations.
In a 2018 survey on detention time by the OOIDA Foundation, 81% of drivers surveyed said they would favor removing the exemption, which continues to be a policy item on OOIDA’s legislative agenda.
Demand driving up pay
The current economic climate could be undercutting that policy change, however. A sharp rise in freight demand over the past year, fueled by the pandemic, has sparked pay raises and signing bonuses at trucking companies of all sizes as a way to attract drivers to seat their cabs.
According to the American Trucking Associations, the median salary for a truckload driver working a national, irregular route is $53,000, with wages going up “substantially” on average in the first half of 2021. ATA also notes that private fleet drivers have seen their pay rise from $73,000 to more than $86,000, a gain of nearly 18%, since 2014.
“The bottom line is the trucking industry is hiring and paying great wages to drivers,” said ATA Executive Vice President of Advocacy Bill Sullivan.
Not a panacea
Paul Taylor, a labor and employment attorney with the Truckers Justice Center, which represents drivers, points out that removing the FLSA exemption may not necessarily improve driver pay. “Carriers could just end up adjusting their base pay downward to compensate for the added overtime, just like they do when the economy is not in their favor,” Taylor told FreightWaves.
But while lifting the exemption may not be a panacea for drivers, “it’s an idea whose time has come,” Taylor said. “Employers should pay drivers more not only because they deserve higher pay, but carriers would be able to attract a better class of driver, onboarding costs would go down, and you would improve driver turnover rates.
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As a truck driver for 25 years, I can tell you that driving on the streets and highways are way more dangerous now by being cut off 6 times a day, who wants to drive a truck and be held to the same record as a regular driver in our car and our truck driving hours and meet. Standards every two years and they do. Drug test every year when other drivers are getting paid $30 an hour starting at UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and d h l and they only have a Class D license what the hell is wrong here? Driver should be getting paid $100,000 a year regardless.
Tanya Folsom
This law needs too be changed drivers and families cannot live on what is being made to day with the cost of living going up. Also teams need to make the same amounts. It was hard enough with to drivers running and one made less than the other. There was to many trucking companies running their drivers illegally to save on money etc the driver who was the one hurt by this and if he or she had a family this hurt them too because of down time, fines, breakdowns, etc. This law was done in 1935 you cannot continue to use a law that hurts the driver or his or her family. So many lies this companies tell the drivers. Then after awhile the drivers learns the truth. When will the abuse of drivers ever end
Drivers are the one who gets hurt in the end.
Jonh
Sad and disgusting. If truck drivers worked McDonalds hours there paychecks will be less than actually working at McDonald’s. If you break down CPM vs Hours Rates. 50cpm is between 13-15$ hrs. McDonalds is paying 13-15$ hrs. A SEMI TRUCK CAN GENERATE 10-15K A WEEK. SUBTRACT THE FUEL INSURANCE they driver grossed 950$ net 689$ while the company profit over 10k.
Don
Listened to this talk for 40 years, nothing ever changed significantly in drivers favor.
They have you by the balls and breasts boy and girls. Never hold your breath it will ever get better. They give you a few pennies here or there but you’ll never keep your head above water for housing or transportation costs.
Medical costs will outstrip your wage increase alone.
Don
Listened to this talk for 40 years, nothing ever changed significantly in drivers favor.
They have you by the balls and breasts boy and girls. Never hold your breath it will ever get better. They give you a few pennies here or there but you’ll never keep your head above water for housing or transportation costs.
Tcs53
There has always been a charge for “detention time” but carriers will never apply it. Simply because a shipper won’t pay it, and if they do they will never use that carrier again. If you are an OTR driver and you’re not making $85 to $100g a year you better start looking for a new job.
Daniel Tubbs
I work for a US trucking company which hired me 14 years ago. 2 weeks ago the manager called a driver meeting. The meeting was a slap in the face when we were told new drivers were being hired at $25.11 an hour and any driver with less than 3 years would be getting their wages boosted to be in line with that pay scale. BUT if we had more than 3 years we were not getting any compensation. I started out at $14.11 and took 5 years to reach top pay. These new drivers are coming in making $1.66 less than me. Seems like a good kick in the nut sack.
Stephen Webster
We need a minimum pay rate of $24.20 U S for O T R truck drivers with 5000 hours experience and a local truck drivers of one experience of $18.50 U S and two years experience or 5000 of $20.00 U S plus overtime including dock time plus any truck driver can take a half hour break unpaid up to twice per day. In Ontario Canada the lack of parking and medical care has cost many people their health. The same thing in the U K has caused problems for transport drivers. The large trucking companies should not be allowed to bring in more than two overseas employees per year and should supply free housing for them and a wage of at least $28.00 cd or $23.50 U S with overtime pay after 10 hours per day.
Bruce Hart
Better PAY Better Drivers 😁 and More Better Drivers. it’s to Simple to figure out… Your’s Truly. Bruce Hart