While you are driving over the next few days, take note of how many people are driving vans and small trucks as service vehicles for their employer. At times, one in every four or five vehicles you see will be a company-marked service vehicle. The drivers will have various occupations, including installation and service technician, construction trades worker, or delivery driver. Many of them, perhaps even most of them, will be in the process of being cheated out of part of another day's wages.
Often, such workers are paid on a piece-rate basis, without regard to hours worked, and without any premium rate for hours worked in excess of 40 in a week. If they are paid by the hour, often much of their drive time isn't counted as "hours worked."
As our economy shifted from manufacturing to the service sector during the 1980's and 1990's, more and more people were required to drive as part of their job. That shift in the economy moved more and more employees out of jobs with overtime rights and into jobs subject to the "Motor Carrier" exemption from overtime rights. (This was one factor contributing to the shrinking of the middle class.) Until 2005, virtually every driver for hire, even if driving was only an incidental part of his or her job, was subject to regulation by the Department of Transportation under the Motor Carrier Act. Federal overtime laws have always provided that drivers subject to the Motor Carrier Act are exempt from federal overtime rights.
Then, in 2005, Congress amended the Motor Carrier Act to exempt from the Department of Transportation's regulatory purview drivers of most vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. By limiting the scope of DOT's regulatory authority, Congress also expanded overtime rights of employees whose jobs entail driving vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. A typical full-size van or pick-up truck weighs less than 8,000 pounds. Thus, literally millions of workers gained federal overtime rights in 2005. Unfortunately, most of their employers continue their business practices based on the pre-2005 overtime laws. They violate their employees' rights with a "catch me if you can" attitude.
You probably know people who drive service vehicles as part of their job. Ask them if they get paid by the hour for all of their time, including drive time, with an overtime premium of 1.5 times their regular pay rate for hours in excess of 40 each week. They will probably think you are crazy for even asking because they have performed such work for years, working over 40 hours a week regularly without any premium pay. They will assume it's just "business as usual." But in this case, "business as usual" became unlawful in 2005, and the affected employees are entitled to substantial back pay.
