Since 1938, a law guaranteed minimum wage and time-and-a-half pay to the majority of American workers if they worked for more than 40 hours in a single week. However, this law excluded truck drivers since the implementation of the law. With the introduction of a new bipartisan bill, the 2 million-strong truck drivers’ community will get the right to overtime pay.
Previously, the legislation did not move forward in April 2022 when a democratic lawmaker introduced a bill to guarantee overtime pay for truck drivers. Currently, the bill awaits the committee review and potential voting in front of the full House and Senate, as two Democratic senators and a bipartisan team of two House representatives continue to push for the bill.
Last year, a group of academics wrote for Overdrive magazine that passing this bill would likely benefit truck drivers and challenge employers. The latest federal regulations don’t allow any driver to drive more than 11 hours in a 14-hour window as they clock in 70 hours of work in an eight-day period.
The bill, if passed, would benefit the entire trucking industry as organizations would retain drivers over prolonged periods. As it stands, drivers working for trucking organizations remain dissatisfied as reflected in the massive turnover rates that all large trucking companies face.
Studies have revealed that increased pay leads to a reduced crash count from truck drivers, indicating that the bill would help in establishing improved safety and overall supply chain efficiency.
In statements issued on Thursday, Groups such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Teamsters Union, Truck Safety Coalition, and the Institute for Safer Trucking supported the bill, as OOIDA President Todd Spence stated “Unbelievably, trucking is one of the only professions in America that is denied guaranteed overtime pay. 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.”
American Trucking Association, the largest and most comprehensive national trade association for the trucking industry, was in opposition to the law as it believed the law could give rise to ‘supply chain chaos and the inflationary consequences for consumers.'