Tag Archives: driver pay

Illinois trucking company’s sudden shutdown leaves team drivers stranded, unpaid

Posted on April 16, 2023 by | Leave a comment

The story documented here is unfortunately all too common today. Truckers are routinely mistreated by trucking firms like this one in the story. And they keep going out of business then reopening and doing the same thing.

Regulators should have the power to put teeth in penalties for this kind of bad behavior, and should without question block future registration when firms close down like this. The article indicates that the wife of the owner of the firm has opened another small trucking firm, which will probably do the same thing to new marks.

I’m tired of writing about mistreatment of truckers. I have great respect for legitimate firms that take care of their drivers. The US should not let bad actors destroy drivers’ lives this way. It’s going to be very difficult to attract new drivers when it’s so easy to be scammed.

Perhaps the Department of Transportation could take a stab at fixing this issue by denying registrations after a background check.

Mayor Pete, it’s up to you!

Clarissa Hawes·Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Illinois trucking company’s sudden shutdown leaves team drivers stranded, unpaid – FreightWaves

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Trucking

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Truck driver pay hurt by 84-year-old law

Posted on April 22, 2022 by | 1 comment

Truck drivers can’t get overtime pay, according to a US law. The law is old, and was passed to meet a need when trucking was regulated. with the shortage of drivers today, shouldn’t we look at allowing overtime pay?

Doing so would probably increase some drivers’ take-home. It might also induce trucking firms to reduce the service level, on the grounds that they won’t pay the extra for overtime. That would mean we would need even more drivers to handle the loads we need to. Or cargo would not move.

Fairness to people seems to warrant allowing overtime wages for truckers. That could be a social objective we’d like to see met. It’s fair also to look at what the flow of goods might look like if overtime were paid. That is harder, because we don’t know how firms would execute on the rule as they try to handle the consigned loads. It might be better to not pay overtime and try to outsource loads to independent operators on a piecework basis.

The effect would probably include a lot more outsourcing to owner-operators. And with all the controversy today about what owner-operators are owed in terms of benefits and work rules, more controversy and confusion could erupt.

Rachel Premack Thursday, April 21, 2022

Truck driver pay hurt by 84-year-old law

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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Trucking

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