Question:
Any OTR trucking company will tell you they pay by the mile because Federal Labor Laws stipulate "interstate and intrastate commerce employees are exempt from Labor Law protection." Truckers are in the same category as farm laborers, who are also exempt from labor law protection, and often staffed by illegal aliens. Truckers deserve better, and we should be paid hourly regardless if a driver is local or OTR. When you're paid by the mile, you're not compensated for traffic congestion, and delays at the shipper/receiver docks where it may take up to 6 hours or more to load/unload the trailer. Drivers should be paid hourly based on what he/she had reported as duty time on their logbooks. Mileage commission pay only encourages drivers to under-report their actual duty time and falsify logbooks. When we analyze the legality of mileage commission pay, it can be argued that this system of compensation is illegal under another legal clause. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land; no law may be written which may supercede or contradict the Constitution. The Constitution also says everyone is guaranteed "equal protection of the law." This Contitutional clause means the Labor Law, which exempts truckers because we're in the same category as illegal alien farm laborers, is unlawful and Unconstitional. Yet, this injustice of not paying drivers for all their time is ignored, to protect the profit interest of corporate America Drivers should stand up for their rights, as accorded by the US Constitution, and resign from OTR driving, and settle down to a local hourly paying truck driving job. Cesar Chavez and illegal aliens in California stood up for their basic rights by bringing in labor unions to put a stop to the low wages and abusive work conditions placed against them by industrial farmers. Truckers should consider the same path. Prior to deregulation, truckers were paid daily meal allowance pay and daily motel allowance, on top of their mileage commission. After deregulation in 1980, drivers were fooled into thinking they were getting a pay raise in exchange for loss of their meal and motel allowance pay. However, meal and motel allowance are not earned income; they're monetary compensation to cover travel expenses, which is not taxable under state and federal tax laws. The increase led to higher taxes because drivers were earning more in earned income! You may question where I had gotten this data. I've been talking to a number of retired truckers and theirs widows at retirement homes and they've informed me that prior to 1980 deregulation,meal and motel allowance pay was a standard benefit offered by most companies. As the cost of living gradually increases and companies are not offering a yearly cost-of-living increase in pay, OTR drivers should take the initiative and either unionized, or leave OTR for a local hourly paying truck driving job.

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Do you think carriers are going to pay you by the hour to play the Cherry machines all day at the truck stops?
Pay you by the hour to Eat four hour buffet's 3 times a day?
Pay you by the hour to Chase hookers in the truck stops all night in the back row.?

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I was going to suggest you take some Imodium AD, but you have such a substantial volume coming out that I don't think it would help much.

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From the usual place, I assumed.http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sect...onusWeek.php#tabs

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Well, thank you for comparing us to a bunch of illegally in the country fruit pickers. It's always nice to be compared to someone doing stoop labor because they have no education.
And of course, I (and many others) will happliy take up your suggestion that all of us suddenly quit our jobs and find a local job, maybe in a janitorial field or something.
I am sure that the retired truckers and their widows are happy to talk to anyone, as are most people in a retirement home. Why are you avoiding retired truckers and their widows who live in their own homes, or are they someone that you would want to avoid.
But the most important questions here is that, do you have a habit of saying "More on this later" that you are avoiding using here on the forum? Are you attracted to discussions of women's shoes and track lighting? Have you ever felt that a wood stove was the best way to stay warm overnite? Do you feel sudden urges to whip out your paystubs and display them to passing strangers? Do you ever use the terms "grapes" to describe part of your sexual organs?
Important questions for you and many others to consider, since the last person who had many of your same ideas often showed many of the above traits.As long as the paperwork's clean, you boys can do whatever you want to out on the road" Mad Max ...1979

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Oooohhh.... Why didn't I recognize him. Good work, Burky. I think you're right.
.http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sect...onusWeek.php#tabs

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passingtrucker, if you want to get paid hourly, march right in and demand your boss to start paying you by the hour.

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Qualcomm and black boxes will gradually drop in prices as technology advances. I predict that one or both electronic hardware will become standard in every truck in the near future. These will prevent drivers from filing false reports to earn undeserved income. Fueling at the truckstop will be limited to only 30 minutes, and truck repairs or truck wash will max to maybe 45 minutes or 1 hour. The greatest loss we've incurred from deregulation was meal and motel allowance pay. If drivers were getting say $25 a day in meal allowance, thats $175 a week in untaxed earnings! If motel allowance was returned at say $30 a day, thats $210 a week in untaxed earnings! Combine both and its an additional $385 a week of untaxed earnings. If drivers object to hourly compensation, you should at least support the return of meal and motel allowance pay. These will cut your taxes in half and increase your take home pay. I'd spoken to an attorney in the past about this, and he concurs that the Constitutional issue is valid and the Labor Laws clause to exempt truckers may stand a good chance of being ruled unconstitutional. However, in order to strengthen the case, it was his opinion that this should be a class-action suit to represent all truckers, and he required a large retainer fee to represent this case. I am slowly trying to raise that money, but I've got 2 kids in college I have to support, and 2 in high school right now who will eventually go on to college. It would take me at least 5 years before I can commit the funding to file this case in court. I was hoping another driver or drivers may pool their $$ resources and hire an attorney to argue this case in court. I'm currently working as an hourly-paid local driver, so that complicates my case. I'll need to quit my job, hire on with an OTR company, then sue for damages based on the Constitutionality of my pay. I'm reluctant to do that because I'm making union wages and benefits.

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So let me get this straight. In addition to putting your kids through the various levels of school, you are also saving your money for the next 5 years so you can give it to a lawyer who will start a class action suit for a class of whom you are not a member. And when you spoke to this attorney, he told you that he thought you had a perfectly valid argument, and if you came up with a big enough retainer to satisfy him, that he would be willing to pursue this issue in court, and even expand it into a class action suit.i
Also you believe that all truck repairs are going to be able to be handled in 45 minutes to an hour because of a black box or qualcomm in the truck. And you think that because the truck has a qualcomm, there never will be a fuel stop that takes longer than 30 minutes, regardless of how many trucks are in line in front of you.
Dak1, it looks like he doesn't have to march in and ask the boss to pay him by the hour, because he is already being paid by the hour, making the much heralded union wages and benefits.
So all this is just selfless action on your part, and you are just trying to raise the bar for all the rest of us poor dumb truckers who are getting shafted daily and are totally unaware of it. My god, what a humanitarian. It's not Dr Laura, it's Albert Schweitzer.....
Pprobably more on this later....As long as the paperwork's clean, you boys can do whatever you want to out on the road" Mad Max ...1979

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Are you kidding? The greatest loss from deregulation was deregulated freght rates.
Do you know what regulation means?
It was when government used to dictate what customers had to pay trucking companies to haul freight. And they were rather generous, leaving plenty of money for union employees with good wages and benefits.
When government stopped regulating what shippers had to pay -- called "deregulation" of the trucking industry under the Reagan administration -- new non-union trucking companies came in and cut the rates union carriers were charging. Then newer companys cut their rates, then others cut those rates. As the squeeze got tighter and tighter, wages were cut and the value of the driving job went down to it's natural "market level", instead of the inflated wage rates government interference used to allow.
Meal and motel allowance pay?
Hell -- the per diem carriers are paying a fixed meal and hotel allowance right now,
separate from straight pay for everything else.
.http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sect...onusWeek.php#tabs

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Hmmm...seems someone needs to research what deregulation entailed.
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I've been in contact with truck safety organizations such as TruckSafety.org, Patt.org, and citizen.org These organizations are supported by families whose loved ones died, or suffered serious permanent injury from truck-related crashes. These organizations want more tighter control on hours of operation to cut down on driver fatigue. Hours of operation laws are irrelevant if drivers falsify logbooks to keep themselves from running out of hours. The current pay system encourages drivers to under report time on the docks counting the freight, loading and unloading. It further encourages drivers to under report actual time spent in congested traffic. Electronic logbooks are not feasible. I've witnessed Werner drivers logging line 2, sleeper berth time, then going on the docks to unload the freight. My goal is to see changes to increase pay, discourage falsification of logbooks, and to cut down on driver fatigue, which leads to truck accidents. Part of my mission is to start a website to educate OTR drivers on the injustice of mileage commission pay. Hiring a website designer is not cheap. With a spreadsheet software that shows the hourly pay breakdown, I can prove that OTR drivers are making close to, or less than minimum wage when you factor in time and a half pay over 40 hours, and double time pay over 60, which some states allow under state labor law. Bringing back meal and motel allowance pay will further discourage logbook falsification, if drivers will realize they can rest easy in a motel room when they're out of hours, instead of living in their truck. My proposals will drive up rates, and lower productivity on tonnage hauled by drivers per week, in exchange for lower truck accidents involving driver fatigue. Over 5,000 citizens across the country are killed or suffer serious injury from tired and fatigued drivers. Proving driver fatigue is not easy. This is my plan to lower truck accidents across the country.

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You have been in contact with PATT!!! Parents Against Tired Truckers is one of Joan Claybrooks pet organizations, and you are stupid enough to be in contact with them?
Good grief, if you ever had even the slightest sense of credibility on this site, you just manage to flush it down the bowl and into the septic system. What kind of a yahoo with the slightest knowledge of trucks or trucking would have anything to do with those people. You are beneath contempt from this point onwards. Kindly don;t try to improve things for the rest of us, because you have no clue what you are doing.
The only upside that I can see to this is that I suspect thay you have not been in contact with them and are merely blowing more hot air, since the majority of your posts seem to be filled with that lightweight and practically non existant commodity.As long as the paperwork's clean, you boys can do whatever you want to out on the road" Mad Max ...1979

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Can someone please explain the use of White Space.Government Ain't YO' Friend. Nor your Servant.
A Tax Reduces Incentive & Capacity. A Regulation is also a TAX.


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A yahoo that recognizes friend as compared to foe. The fact is both PATT and CRASH
have influence on capitol hill unlike an assoiciation claiming they do.
http://www.trucksafety.org/index.php