WASHINGTON — The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is again leaning on Congress to repeal a labor provision that relieves trucking company employers from having to pay their drivers overtime.
The renewed effort comes after OOIDA failed to get Congress to include the change in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by President Trump on July 4.
The bill includes a provision exempting blue-collar workers from paying taxes on their overtime pay – but it doesn’t apply to truck drivers because motor carrier employers are exempt from paying overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The “no tax on overtime” provision applies only to those employed by companies required to pay overtime under the FLSA.
“Over 20% of OOIDA’s membership is employee drivers,” an OOIDA spokesperson told FreightWaves on Monday. “Their time should be valued just like nearly every other blue collar worker in the United States of America.”
With the big tax bill approved without changes to the FLSA, “it’s time for Congress to fix a nearly century-old oversight by passing the bipartisan GOT Truckers Act and ensure truckers are eligible for both overtime pay and the tax relief extended to other blue collar workers,” said OOIDA President Todd Spencer.
The bill – shorthand for Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers – would eliminate the FLSA exemption that currently gives motor carriers the right to exempt their drivers from overtime pay, including from guaranteed time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours a week due to traffic congestion, weather, or delays at loading docks.
Legislation introduced in 2022 and 2023 in the House and Senate did not advance out of committee.
A bipartisan House version was reintroduced this year by U.S. Reps. Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., along with a Senate companion bill reintroduced by Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.
OOIDA argues that roads are more dangerous when truckers do not get guaranteed overtime.
“The system allows shippers and receivers to excessively detain truckers at loading docks. The delays truckers face when waiting to be loaded or unloaded is proven to increase safety risks. If a truck spends just 15 minutes more than usual at a facility, it increases the accident rate by 6.2%,” the group asserted, citing a 2018 U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General report.
Commenting on a truck driver detention time survey that FMCSA began planning in 2023, the Truck Safety Coalition (TSC), which represents crash victims and their families, also encouraged DOT and the Department of Labor to change the overtime exemption.
The group cited a 2022 DOT Supply Chain Report that included repealing the overtime exemption as a Biden administration policy goal. “Implementing this DOT recommendation will better compensate truck drivers who are currently not required to be paid overtime by their employers,” TSC stated. “Any holistic solution to reduce truck crashes must include improving truck driver work conditions, salary, and benefits.”
Trucking employers have opposed the change.
“This proposal is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to boost trial attorneys’ fees,” American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear commented in response to the GOT Truckers Act.
“It would reduce drivers’ paychecks and decimate trucking jobs by upending the pay models that for 85 years have provided family-sustaining wages while growing the U.S. supply chain.”
Related articles:
- Truckers push FMCSA to make brokers pay for detention time
- What lawmakers intend to do about driver detention
- Regulators seek better data and technology on driver detention
Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher.
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