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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Greg
They will never pay us truck drivers fairly ! Thieves. They treat us like dirt off the bottom of their shoes. While they purchase big homes and yachts, but I’ve always said “what are you going to do when we all quit driving trucks “ ??. Trucking used to be an adventure, a great job to have. Between big companies and the DOT, well, it’s not that great of a job anymore. No more freedom of the open road. It’s low dollar pay and no respect. For starters, No trucking companies should be allowed to operate their own schools and training facilities. That’s just a money scam that puts steering wheel holders in seats, no safety nor experience.. and don’t get me started on Brokers, they take up to half of the line haul rate and don’t even own a truck.!! Look at the rates now, double them without brokers, trucking wouldn’t be in recession then..! That would be more income for the drivers and care for the trucks. Win win.
Kelvin Torrence
I’ll believe it when I see it,no 1 cares about us truckers,just give me my crap and get lost,look at truck stops 2day,you can maybe park 60 trucks in them,and the rest park on ramps in danger of getting a ticket or accident and dont get me started on that worthless p.o.s e log system, We get no respect.
Josh
This should be great for driver paid by the hour. I’ve worked for a company that doesn’t pay overtime and one that paid overtime after 50 hours. As far as otr drivers I think that cpm pay should be enough. If it’s not don’t take the job. I’m not going otr for less than 60cpm it’s not worth it.
Ro
There doesn’t have to be overtime,OTR should be paid 2200-2500 a week and why not if you’re asking a driver to be only be home 2-3 days out of the month, local should be 1000-1300 a week because those drivers go home every day have set hours eat at home sleep at home and bath at home that’s the sacrifice more home time less money more money less home time make it make sense…… one thing that absolutely needs to be done with is practical miles that’s just stupid… I have been paid by the hour (good) no overtime good hourly pay, I have been paid by % (great) I have been paid by salary (the best) I have also been paid by the mile hub and practical (bad and ugly) that’s the trucking business… I believe it’s too much going to recruiters, dispatchers and so called driver managers… the best recruiters are the drivers themselves and this is the age of technology we should be able to plan or book our own loads once we complete the load we’re under now we just freed up capital and retain our drivers who don’t have to be lied to are kept out longer because a dispatcher lied to them
Les Zimmermann
And yet ABF can pay drivers $30. an hour plus time and a half for every second after 8 hrs and after 40 hours, + pension, + no cost full family health insurance and still make money
Ka
“but paying our people will make boogy man worse!!”
OTR Truckers Guild
After 1.3 million miles OTR, I put the blame for the horrendous conditions that drivers endure, squarely on the shoulders of OOIDA! Look at what the UAW recently gained for its members because of their honest, intelligent president (Sean Fain), whose priorities were just. Ten UAW officials were recently convicted and two former presidents did jail time – corruption…accepting money,etc. Fain did the right thing.
OOIDA never calls for a boycott of a trucking co. or truck stop- the people trying to get
get rich off you with their dirty tricks and exorbitant prices. They can’t!…because they are Taking Money from them- advertising dollars in their magazine!! UAW officers were convicted for taking $, gratuities from the automakers.
Everyone (including Washington) thinks that OOIDA is The Advocate for Truckers. (Therefore D.C. won’t listen to another voice). They are glad to carry that banner- it brings them 160,000 members at $45/yr +/-. Don’t they have some Responsibility, with that standing, TO ADDRESS CONDITIONS AND EFFECT CHANGE?! They only tell you how bad things are. DON’T give them your money! Why do conditions NEVER IMPROVE?!! TR Sorvlet OTR Truckers Guild
RickMurray
They’ve got the ELDs to keep track of it, start charging shippers and receivers a rate of $36.00/hr(60 mph x 60 minutes) that goes directly to the driver, payable after 30 minutes. The trucking company is not entitled to any portion of that money, as their equipment is not being used/expended. The trucking companies should start paying the same, for ALL TIME on Line 4 on the logs. Doing this will probably kill the whole “pay per mile” system. If they go to salaries, drivers won’t care about sitting, and they won’t be forced to work without pay, by the trucking companies, who use the excuse, “It’s part of the job.”. They could say that before HOS regs came in. But, when you’re losing between 3.5 and 7 hours of drive time a week minimum, because of necessary inspections, it cuts into your ability to earn a living.