Former student drivers for Werner Enterprises may be entitled to a portion of the winnings from a class action suit alleging that the carrier failed to pay its student drivers at least minimum wage.
Earlier this month a federal judge ruled in favor of the student drivers in a suit that was filed all the way back in 2011. Driver Philip Petrone claimed that Werner had illegally withheld pay that he was owed for meal and rest breaks.
Werner refused to pay students drivers for their rest breaks or for any time over 8 hours spent in their sleepers. Instead they paid them a weekly wage which, when “unpaid time” was added to paid time, failed to exceed the federal minimum wage requirements.
“We are pleased to announce that we have obtained a major victory earlier this week, when the federal judge overseeing the case held that, as a matter of law, sleeper berth time (beyond eight hours per day) and short rest breaks are compensable working time for truck drivers,” said a spokesperson for the law firm representing the drivers.
As of right now, this ruling only applies to this specific case, but the precedent set here could have an impact on driver pay practices throughout the industry in the near future. As Petrone notes, drivers aren’t always paid for all of the hours they work:
“We have repeatedly seen examples where trucking companies simply fail to recognize their obligations under the FLSA with respect to minimum wage,” said Petrone. “Over-the-road truck drivers are frequently denied minimum wage.”
Now that the ruling has been issued, a trial will begin on September 9th to determine the damages that will be paid. Swartz Swindler, the law firm representing the former student drivers, is inviting truckers to be present at the trial. According to a spokesperson, the law firm will also be contacting additional drivers to let them know that they may be eligible to join the class action suit.
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Source: gobytrucknews, leagle
I wonder if this will affect students, drivers that drove for CRST and other teaching companies. We were paid split miles…22c split with the two drivers. As a soloist I was paid 22c a mile., when I had a student I had 38c a mile
Crst got a lawsuit on them now til 2015 look it up crst lawsuit
I’ve been saying it for years! Pay hourly with overtime and it will fix 90% of the problems in trucking.
Tie it to the soon to be mandatory ELogs. They know when a truck is rolling. If the driver is sandbaging he can be fired. But if he’s stuck in traffic for 3hours he should be paid for it.
Then maybe drivers will be more honest about line 4 too.
This is good for trucking. I have been saying this for years…The mindset of the trucker has to change. It’s just not the time your behind the wheel…You have to look at the entire time in the truck…Or time your spending on a load. If not your working for nothing. And it doesn’t matter if your a company driver, O/O or independent, or small or midsize company. The actual time spent on a load is what needs to be taken into consideration. One example..And this is only one…Say you are on a Walmart grocery account as a driver. And you drive to your first stop (as with the Tomah Wi DC) 4 miles to the store…Werner nor Walmart paid any miles or drop pay because the drivers were not paid for the first drop…Then you spend a hour or more there making the drop..So from the time you entered the Walmart yard picked up your load, bills, scaled the truck hit the first store unloaded you had say 1-2 hours in it…With not a penny to show…That not to say you had to wait for your load to be finished at walmart or had to dock it because it was to heavy. Again that’s one example…If your on the road your responsible for the truck and load whether your in the bunk or not…That’s all drivers…
I make 96 k a year driving a company truck and home every 10 days for 3 to 4 days
God Blessed you sir.
For who, are you making 96k a year, as a company driver?
figure you as a driver are never off duty while an OTR driver. You are always responsible for the load and the rig you are driving. The government and shippers/receivers, dispatch an the company you work for own you as a company driver. So you drove 2500 miles, 168 your tied to the truck, unless you are at home, truck is in the yard, at say an industry generous 40 cents a mile. So 1,000 dollar paycheck divided
by 168 hours = 5.95 an hour. Minus 22 percent tax =770.00 divided by
168 hours(7 days X 24 hours responsible for the load and rig,never off duty even if the log says so) = 4.58 an hour, minus expenses(which by the way, while doing company business, should be paid by the company!), and some companies ,Like Blackhawk Transport, extract pretax per diem, so the employee does not pay as much tax(must be stated on pay stubs ,by law,but they don’t do that).
So 4.58 an hour. For how many of the 3.2 million Class A drivers, many of whom are OTR company drivers? Seems like FLSA is a joke, as we do know it does not protect drivers with a fair wage.
LOL…… it’s amazing when you see truck drivers strutting down the street like they’re king of the hill because their yearly pay is generally greater than a new college grad. Some of them get downright pissed when you challenge their claim that they’re making $24 an hour because he gets $.40 a mile and their trucks governed at 60. They really get irate when you explain to them they’re only actually getting $11-$13 an hour in real-world wages. A burger flipper in Seattle ($15 an hour) is actually making more per hour than an OTR trucker. That’s comparatively speaking, the average burger flipper could not put in the hours we do without going totally insane. Even a $10 an hour burger flipper is pretty close to what we’re doing. If he worked 70 hours a week, with overtime, he make $850 a week times 52 weeks equals $44,200 a year. As I said these are comparable wages, there’s no management at Mickey D’s or Burger King that would let you work that many hours and have to pay you over time. Drivers wages are the only thing left the seat meat companies can lower. What they tell you they’re paying you, and what you actually get are usually two different things. Some people have said that a truck driver is technically on-duty from the time he leaves with his truck until he returns and hands over possession of that truck back to the company. I agree with that scenario but being a realistic person that would never happen. So let’s do this, when a truck driver leaves for the day he is on duty until he crawls into the bunk. The company is obligated to pay him for 14 hours of his time on duty. That’s as long as the driver makes himself available for dispatch. You’re allowed to work 14 hours a day and you should be paid for that. Even at a lowball wage of $15 an hour drivers should be paid no less then $66,000 a year. That’s for a rookie driver just starting out. A well seasoned driver should be pulling down at least $20 an hour which equates to $88,400 per year. It’s a very simple formula and a driver could see, easily, what that company is actually paying him, and that’s the rub. You think they have a driver shortage now, look what would happen under that scenario if a driver actually knew what they were paying him. As I’ve said for many years we’re working on the quantity rather than a quality basis….. We can get all the hours we want.
I make 41.5 a mile plus bonuses and great health benefits. I made 67k last year. I’m on par to make 70k this year. I don’t consider my pay anything to strut about. Many make more as company drivers than I do. 44k a year is bottom feeder company pay, but still more than many college grads.
Especially ones who are working at McDonalds because they can’t find work. Do you think they are getting full time with benefits in Seattle? Try and live in Seattle on that.
I just built a new 4 bed/3 bath 2500 sqaure foot, 3 car garage house for 180k where I live.
I started out with Werner 20 years ago. I did their 90 day training. Then Pay was .22 a mile. I got .24 for driving a Flat Top cabover.
After 10 month I was driving for Consolidated Frreight and was making $1700 a week.
Werner is a bottom feeder company for rookies. They have a great training program. Get your experience and get out.
I make 96 k a year in a company truck and home every 10 days for 3 to 4 days
What does flipping hamburgers, have to do with trucking? A hamburger flipper works with young girls,and is home every night. Most have a 30 hour week,don’t don’t put up with dispatchers, weight station inspection,making out log books, buying expensive truck stop food and don’t stand in line for expensive showers. Put up with RADIO RAMBO.
They get to watch their family grow up. Wonder who there wife is with when she don”t answer the phone, not to mention the 3 AM knock on the door by a lot lizard or a refer pulling in beside you at night,
A hamburger flipper don”t make as much money to pay taxes with, but he has a better life.
That’s it, I’m putting in an app with McDonalds tomorrow.
UNION? Don’t think so…thats 240(10 days x 24 hours a day) hours you are on duty as you never reliquish responsibility for the truck or load, and don’t let any ambulance chasing attorney scrutinize your logs, eobr or not, as they will factor in fatigue and pitch it at the jury.
You may bring home that amount, but you are paying more fore it than you think!
How is it that companies are getting away with paying less taxes. They make drivers 1099. The law says if it is not your equipment and you are driving someone else’s equipment that you are there employee. So now when you really look at your pay as a 1099 employee. You are actually making less money than someone that gets paid by the hour. To me this is just another way of big time business and big time government squeezing on the little man. The companies make more money this way and have less overhead. This is a billion dollar industry with no regulations or mandation set in place for the employees of the industry this is the only industry that operates like this.
Signing off mad as truck driver…
I make 96 k a year driving a company truck
HOW IS YOUR PAY CALCUATED. WHAT DO YOU HAUL< AND ARE YOU A ROAD TRAINER?
Mad trucker, you are being considered as a contract driver. Dose the employer take out taxes. If he dose then notify your labor board and IRS IRS will not acknowledge your letter. Write a letter to the D.O.J..Hours and wage department, also your state department of labor.
Report them to IRS and fill out a 3898A
1099 is illegal to do , as if you are not a lease buy/contractor filing yourself as a business, they must pay workmen’s comp for you ,ssi/fica and anyone doing that is a cheat and a bottom feeder. You are now making way less as a 1099, if not an owner/operator, than you would be as a company driver, which low average pay is 4.58 an hour(7 x 24 hours a day on 40 cents a mile, 1000.00 divided by 168 hours a week work, take out 22% tax = 770.00 divided by 168 hours = 4.58 an hour. A 1099 has more tax liability, and no insurance….so
call your state revenue department and tell the agent you contact what is occurring, document it with emails. The company will soon have to either hire you as a company driver, or they will kick you to the curb…that is a bottom feeder.
All the industry needs. To do to solve this problem. Is put drivers on a decent yearly salary they can do it . My company is experimenting with it now and it’s retaining drivers.Most companies pulling oover size loads been doing it for years
You have a different situation.You have a lot more responsibility and your days are shorter than the average OTR driver.
With the EOBR mandate fast approaching ,pay the drivers a set rate for driving example ,50cpm. For sleeper berth, and on duty. time, Pay drivers hourly.Then companies can charge back detention time to the shippers/consignee when a driver sits for 6hrs at a dock.
I once worked for mileage or hours witch ever was greater. Mileage rate times hours or a predetermined hourly rate time hours worked. it proved to be a fair rate. You made more on a mileage day than on a hourly day.
how about 10.00 an hour on the 168 hours a week you are on the road?
Ever since Congress took trucking from the people who drive trucks,and gave it too the people who buy trucks. Drivers have been getting exploited. All that will come of this is a more firm effort to get the autonomous trucks rolling,because drivers are only an expense,and provide no real value to the industry.
It’s been my contention for years that an OTR driver living in a truck should be paid a salary based on 70 hours at an hourly rate with 1.5 times wage after 40 and double-time after 60…… The driver should also be paid a reasonable per-diem for any restart where he is away from home…….
OTR companies would simply laugh at such a demand, so I’ve spent my career doing local, regional, or linehaul, in jobs that either pay hourly or some kind of a reasonable “piecework rate” or percentage……
Yeah Swartz swidler did the least amount of work to help us receive any money first six years of waiting it should be Swartz and Swindell because that’s what they did to all of us drivers thanks for nothing
Did anybody else notice the name of the law firm mentioned near the end of the article? “Swartz Swindler”. I read that and KNEW immediately it had to be a law firm. OK, end of the humor. Go back to your crying and moaning about how hard we all know it is.
Boy I’m glad I got out while I had a piece of mind 15 years was enough !! #dontissgrindinggears
Let me see here now. Min wage is 7.25 x 24=$174 x 7= $1218….will this affect the industry. Afraid so, but it will be up to each company how they will deal with it. My lifetime of driving. I know way to many drivers that are their own demise and scream company fault. This kind of ruling and drivers behavior only promotes trucks that are self driven, being tested now.
So join the lines that some McDonald’s now have. Robotic servers and servers unemployed. There is a solution to every thing, and the companies are choosing on technology to save them and drivers. What is your solution?
WE ARE EXPENDABLE!. That is the message that is and has been all along. See movie “They Drive By Night” with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart. 1939, available on the net.
So how can we get more info on the trial date, Or # to call because OTHER tucking agencies do the same
sure would have been nice if they included a year prior to this…then that would have been my class.
I forgot to add this…I had to pay for my CDL classes, after i recieved my CDl i applied for the trucking jobs. Since my husband drove with Werner already we wanted him to be my trainer (i would trust no one else). After searching my brain i remember that i got a flat weekly amount during training with him, no matter how many miles we drove.
If ask me I think they’re all full of shit by the time this is ended each driver will end up with about $9 for almost 6 years of waiting what the hell kind of fair is that very unhappy driver?
Werner is the worst Company I have ever worked for. I am wondering if it is to late to get in on this suit? I have another going right now for, well the exact same thing. So they haven’t even learned anything, apparently.
My son worked for Warner, he drove close to the Canadian border, his check was 200.00 that’s when he quit….
myself and my spouse worked for werner 2014 we should be in line for payment as well
I wonder can drivers still get paid for this situation that is still happening
when do we get paid for the winning of the law suit