The United States is home to approximately 3.5 million truck drivers, according to estimates by the American Trucking Association in 2018. These truckers sometimes spend weeks away from their home — working in their trucks, driving on the highway, loading or unloading, and sleeping during breaks. Some of that time on the road, unfortunately, does not count toward their pay. Companies usually pay truck drivers per mile instead of per hour.
This system, however, may change in the future if a court ruling sets the trend for the way truck drivers are paid. An Arkansas District Court issued a ruling last year that required a trucking company to pay their drivers the minimum wage according to federal wage laws. The ruling was issued in relation to a wage-and-hour lawsuit against PAM Transport, an irregular route over-the-road trucking company.
Case Background
In 2016, three truck drivers filed a lawsuit against PAM Transport for failing to pay them minimum wages. Learning about this, close to 3,000 other truckers joined them, forming a class action suit. The truckers employed by the company said that the latter excluded them from working for more than eight hours a day during any 24-hour shift, citing Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations as the basis for their exclusion. In essence, PAM Transport chose to compensate truck drivers solely for their drive time.
Many companies in the trucking sector, including PAM Transport, depend on federal regulations made by the DOT to determine the number of compensable work hours of a truck driver. The industry specifically relies on the guidelines produced by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). These regulations do not count sleeper berth time as on-duty time.
In October 2018, the district court ordered the erring company to compensate their truck-driver employees for mandatory sleep time. The court, in support of its decision, noted that federal labor laws (and not safety rules) should be the governing factor when compensating truck drivers for their hours worked. These hours on the road include sleep time during federally required rest breaks.
The court remarked that the goal of the DOT regulations is to make roads safe. The goal of the Department of Labor regulations, on the other hand, is to compensate workers sufficiently. Since truckers need sleep as part of their job, federal law demands that trucking companies compensate these drivers for the time spent sleeping while on the road.
PAM Transport took steps to get the case dismissed. Timothy Brooks, the judge that presided over the case, blocked their motion to dismiss. He came up with a strongly worded memorandum stating that the trucking firm should count the time truckers spent riding the commercial truck as “hours worked.” This is applicable, even if the driver did not log himself or herself as “on-duty.”
The National Implications of the Arkansas Case
The decision of the judge essentially entitles the truck driver to the minimum wage for 16 hours per day of work. Only the eight-hour rest — the period when the trucking firm does not expect the driver to be on the road — should not count as hours worked. This means that truck drivers should be making at least $116 for a 16-hour workday, which is $812 a week.
Justin Swidler, the lead attorney representing the truck drivers in the lawsuit against PAM Transport, stated that the case only stands for the idea that carriers should pay their drivers $7.25 per hour. The hourly wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) are considered throughout the entire workweek. This means that although nationwide carriers must understand their exposure to minimum wage, trucking firms that pay their drivers reasonable wages have no reason for concern.
The court decision in this case spells good news for both poorly paid truckers and those who are earning above the minimum wage threshold. Trucking firms that pay just the minimum have to pay their employees more, and the companies that pay well have to increase their wages to stay competitive. A pay raise at the bottom can cause a ripple effect all the way up the trucker’s pay scale.
PAM Transport Case Not the First Class Action Lawsuit
The lawsuit against PAM Transport is groundbreaking, but it is not the first case that made headlines in the country in this industry. Truckers have filed multiple successful class-action lawsuits in the past, which aimed to hold truckers liable for not paying reasonable wages, or to secure payment for each hour drivers spend on the job.
A federal jury in 2017 awarded a class of student truckers $780,000 in a rest break class action lawsuit. The plaintiffs alleged that Werner Enterprises, an American freight carrier and transportation and logistics firm, violated the laws on minimum wage by not compensating more than 50,000 student truck drivers for rest breaks taken. These breaks were less than or equal to 20 minutes. The plaintiffs claimed that this was a violation of the minimum wage laws.
Another case involved C.R. England, another major carrier accused of pay practice violations. A federal district court ordered the company to pay more than 6,000 drivers a whopping $2.35 million for failure to allow drivers to take paid rest breaks as required by state law, and failure to pay employees the minimum wage for all the hours rendered, including non-driving time.
Helping Truck Drivers Obtain the Compensation They Deserve
Truck drivers spend a lot of time on the road. Getting adequate compensation, including compensation for rest breaks, is crucial. If you’re working as a trucker in the state of Washington, you’re entitled to a 10-minute rest break with pay for every four hours of work.
If you believe that your company is violating the law, contact Truck Driver Rights. Joshua Haffner, our experienced truck labor attorney in Washington, can help you. You can count on him to represent you vigorously, so you can get the compensation you’re entitled to under the law.
If we don’t win your labor case, we won’t charge you. You can rely on us to build your claim, represent you well in court, and obtain the results you deserve.
Contact our law firm today to arrange a free consultation.