Bipartisan lawmakers have introduced a bill that would give America’s 2.19 million truck drivers the right to overtime pay.
A 1938 law guaranteed most American workers minimum wage and time-and-a-half pay if they worked more than 40 hours in one week. However, that law excluded truck drivers.
The bill introduced Thursday in both the House and Senate would nix the clause in the 1938 law that exempts motor carriers from providing overtime pay.
In a larger study of the American freight industry, the Biden administration urged Congress to enshrine drivers with overtime pay, according to the February 2022 document. A Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill to guarantee overtime pay for truck drivers in April 2022 but the legislation did not move forward.
In the most recent effort, two Democratic senators and a bipartisan team of two House representatives are pushing for the bill. It still faces a long road ahead, which includes committee review before potential votes in front of the full House and Senate. Control of Congress is currently split, with Republicans holding the House majority while Democrats run the Senate.
Bill would furnish truck drivers with more pay but squeeze employers
A group of academics wrote for Overdrive magazine last year that passing this bill would likely benefit truck drivers and challenge employers. Truck drivers, under current federal regulations, operate under strict hours-of-service requirements; they are not allowed to drive more than 11 hours in a 14-hour window and are capped at 70 hours of work in an eight-day period. They’re typically paid per mile.
Meanwhile, large trucking employers see massive turnover rates, which they typically attribute to larger lifestyle problems in the trucking industry. Others believe that this turnover rate, which averaged 94% at large truckload carriers from 1995 to 2017, is because drivers aren’t paid enough.
“There’s a retention problem,” Michael Belzer, Wayne State University professor, told FreightWaves last year. “It’s simply because you don’t pay these people. After you’re paid for working 40 hours when you really worked 65, you get to be unhappy. And that’s why they quit.”
Studies suggest that increasing pay for truck drivers reduces crash count. Reducing uncompensated work, like the hours that drivers often spend unpaid waiting at warehouses to get loaded or unloaded, also is a boon for safety and overall supply chain efficiency, studies suggest.
Trucker, safety advocacy groups embrace the bill, while American Trucking Associations slams it
Groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Teamsters union, Truck Safety Coalition and the Institute for Safer Trucking supported the bill in statements Thursday.
“Unbelievably, trucking is one of the only professions in America that is denied guaranteed overtime pay,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said in a Thursday statement. “We are way past due as a nation in valuing the sacrifices that truckers make every single day. This starts with simply paying truckers for all of the time they work. With this discount on a trucker’s time, ‘big trucking’ has led a race to the bottom for wages that treats truckers as expendable components rather than the professionals they are.”
Meanwhile, the American Trucking Associations believes that the law, if enacted, would bring about “supply chain chaos and the inflationary consequences for consumers.”
“This proposal is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to boost trial attorneys’ fees,” ATA CEO Chris Spear said in a Thursday statement. “It would reduce drivers’ paychecks and decimate trucking jobs by upending the pay models that for 85 years have provided family-sustaining wages while growing the U.S. supply chain.”
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers earned a median annual salary of $49,920 in 2022. Data from the ATA, a lobbying group made up predominantly of large trucking companies, found that average pay for truckload drivers was about $70,000, before benefits, in 2021.
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Ismael Corzo
On 2020 to 2021 driver pay was the highest ever. Turn over was also the highest ever.
I do not attribute better pay to less turn over. There are too many options, there is always greener grass to go to.
I am not sure how to resolve the turnover rate, and I am not opposed to better pay, ultimately if everyone is got to pay it the cost will pass thru the end consumer.
Stephen webster
It needs to apply to all cross border truck drivers from Canada and Mexico as well as we need a min labor rate on U S soil like California and new York City are trying to do for fast food workers and gig drivers like Uber. With elogs and today’s tracking there is no longer a reason for the overtime exemption. We need to set a certain min hourly wages like on many construction projects in Canada.
Jason
Typical of the ata.. they support business and not people.. keep the rich rich and the poor poor.. we are expected to be held at a higher standards with $3000 to $8000 CDL-A’s and not even be classified as a profession but nuthing but classified in service. A Doctor gets paid for having a higher education and license.. why can’t regulations be in place to put CDL-A in a higher standard and profession too. Along with paying better.. thus will make it tuffer to obtain a CDL and have much more expectations. Then with that we should be compensated with better pay..
The Transportation Optimist
There are a few things to digest, from a holistic view.
Driver’s pay has gone up quite a bit substantially, especially over the last few years. Is it enough? No. Has it been overlooked since the 80’s? Yes, but there has been strides in the right direction.
Make no mistake, Drivers drive America. What they do not get is enough respect. Respect from their own dispatchers, shippers, receivers, not to mention other non-truck drivers on the highways.
Drivers, more than anyone, need to be paid and treated fairly. No question. That is the Trucking Optimist.
Now, the other side of the “so-called” equation.
Freight goes in cycles, and currently we are in a “freight recession” that will likely continue to go on well into next year. The last couple years, carriers have been able to demand record rates, especially in the “spot market”. For carriers (asset owned), they “should” have cleaned up. The contracted market, even during this window, should have been negotiable at some point, and having a good “partner” understand the demand increases, should have helped with some increases. But again, freight is cyclical. Many carriers took this opportunity to catch up on cost, equipment, benefits and reinvest back in. However, many it seems did too much, too fast, and are now upside down. ***Want to make a specific point here, grow slowly and cautiously, going all in, all at once, is a recipe for disaster”.
Carriers also had to endure many cost that have risen. Especially, when it comes to insurance. Just look at the latest premiums the companies like JB Hunt, Werner, Schneider took this year from last. It is eye-opening to say the least. Next, benefit cost go up all the time but that is what it is. One last thing to consider, and maybe the most important…training/retention. The cost to train, onboard and get benefits set up for a new driver are not cheap. It is extremely expensive and time-consuming. Then I see a driver, 6 months later, leave for another job…and a year later, another job, etc. This cost companies money/time etc. Research the company you want to work for, get opinions from others but I will tell you from the drivers who always say it it greener on the other side of the fence, it many times isn’t. I had a driver hand me a resume once, 12 driving jobs in 20 months. Sometimes, it is not the company. If you want to work for a company, ask the questions up front, “What does home time look like”, “How is pay, benefits and incentives structured” and make sure you are comfortable with the answers. I would also ask “How do I get Dispatched? What is the after hours numbers?”
Long has been the day that a driver has driven for the same company for longer than a few years. A profession so ingrained and respected in the 70’s and through the mid-90’s is just not the same. I have dealt with THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of drivers in my time. They are the glue. Just spending time with them, even saying “hi”, “where you headed” or just a friendly wave and acknowledgement go a long way. Give the driver’s the mutual respect that you expect. Everyone has bad days, but remember, driver’s have a long day to think about these things while driving. I always work and tell my team to try and make sure they leave happy. 99% of the time, that works but like life, it’s the 1% who ruin it for many.
I have been in the business a long time and cannot tell you how many interesting and great drivers I have met. But I can tell you every driver and company that I would not use again, along with the reason, date and time.
Last comment, and hope some of this was helpful, is that as cost go up, driver pay will need to always be looked at. But remember, get a company that pays you fairly, be happy with that because it was your decision to join them. With Congress (hmmm, election year upcoming of course) wanting to make OT mandatory, the cost to a consumer and shipper will go up. The cost of goods will increase and the money you get in your paycheck will go right back to the cost of living than you expect.
This is the double-edged sword of it all….but alas, I am the Transportation Optimist!!
Alonzo B August
I made more money in this industry in the 1980’s so stop inflating the salaries of truck drivers. It’s always puzzling to me how a bunch of suits who has never sat behind the wheel can advocate for us. And this has nothing to do with trial attorneys. As long as the suits are making big salaries they don’t give a damn about truckers. If you asked those same suits about a raise they would say they deserved it. This is why America is destined for destruction, because it refuses to treat its citizens fairly and instead do the will of the greedy corporates.
Pam
If they go with this, drivers will be the ones that take the cut. Look at what happened when Schneider started paying an hourly wage for in duty time. Our rates were cut as well as other pay taken away.
Michael R Parker
I’ve been a Truck Driver for 22+ years. Trucking Companies that I have driven for make money hand over fist. But pay Drivers pocket change. All the while inflation stays on the rise. Driving those Rigs isn’t an easy profession at all. There is always a risk every time we( drivers) climb into the cab. Without Truck Drivers America STOPS. Pay us what we are worth. Stop short changing us to line your own pockets ( employers). Drivers are a lot more valuable than you care to think.
Michael Parker
Richmond VA.
Anonymous
ATA showing their true colours once again, they are not a Trucker Association, they are a corporate controlled lobbying group with only the interests of the corporations at heart.