Trucking news and briefs for Wednesday, May 17, 2023:
The Transportation Research Board (TRB) on Tuesday held a public session as part of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s ongoing study into truck driver compensation.
As detailed by FMCSA at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March, the TRB, part of the National Academies of Sciences, is heading up the Congressionally-required study into the impacts of various methods of driver compensation on safety and driver retention in the industry. TRB’s goal with the study is to examine the impacts of existing methods of compensation on driver retention and safety performance in the long-haul trucking and intercity bus sectors.
Tuesday’s meeting, which was the fourth TRB meeting as part of the study, featured comments from members of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and the CDL Drivers Unlimited group (CDLDU).
OOIDA board member Doug Smith advocated for the removal of trucking’s overtime exemption because, in part, trucking “has turned into a 70 hours a week job.” Smith said it’s common to see driver wages advertised at $100,000 a year, but that’s based on 70 hours a week. “It’s just unconscionable in this day and age that we don’t have overtime for truck drivers,” he said.
Smith added that he believes if company drivers are paid overtime beginning after 40 hours, it would also boost earnings for owner-operators.
Bryan Spoon, also a member of OOIDA’s Board of Directors, told the TRB committee that pay affects driver retention because when drivers are compensated well, they tend to stick around at a carrier and/or in the industry.
