I had hoped to receive some insider information on one of these items but that hasn't happened.

For those who've been around for awhile, do you recall the "Goinforitswife" thread? Her husband's second job was with a flatbed company that up and decided to go all owner op on very short notice. I'm pretty sure they were out of Spokane and I'm wondering if the overtime ruling had anything to do with it.

If you look at the press release posted by Jonp . . it looks like it went out to a lot of companies in WA. I'm looking for anything in the news that might suggest if there are any new trends in how Driver/employees are being handled.

Rev! You picked a great time to ban BigD. He could very well provide some insight here.

The other thing is training companies usually have more trainees than trainers. That's been written about a 100 times on CAD. I inquired about being a trainer for a pretty substantial WA based fleet but was told they won't be adding anymore trainers to it. Without going into all the details, it was one of those things that seemed extremely counter-intuitive to me. It was the last answer I expected to hear and now I wonder if it is not somehow related to the overtime thing.

General Knowledge . . every state (I think) has a Department of Labor. I got to know one of their enforcement people pretty well thanks to a young turd I made the mistake of giving a job to. These are the wage and hour guys and a big part of what they do is make sure you're being paid fairly. Fair pay not only benefits you, it benefits the state with (usually) greater tax revenues.

Anyway, these are the avenues I'm pursuing. If any of you have first hand experience, know someone who may be able to shed some light or, certainly if you have time, take a look around and see what you can come up with

I see some benefits here but a higher weekly check isnt one of them. So lets say you turn out to be right. What stops OTR companies from paying 10/hr. 40 x $10 = $450 and 30 hours overtime at $15/hr adds up to $850/week. The only difference is you will no longer be pissed off while waiting because you are being paid. But weekly paychecks will remain roughly the same. Another benefit could be stricter adherence to HOS regs. I guarantee some guys would dog it and mileage productivity would go down. LTL companies pay mileage when driving and hourly for all other duties. Some sort of blended plan would work better and have shippers and recievers actually get charged for abusing drivers time. Make it a law where a driver is on the clock while waiting.

Regular/irregular low budget checks have forced a lot of people out of trucking. It's one thing to head out for a month and return with a pocket full of money. It's a different story if you're always coming home broke. I think it would be a big step forward for everyone to know that if "I leave today and I'm back on Friday" or whenever . . 2 - 3 - 4 - weeks out, whatever floats your boat, that "this $$" is what I'll be paid, minimum. It takes the penalty off the Driver and puts the onus back on the employer . . WHERE IT BELONGS . . to keep the truck moving. I'm willing to bet there'd still be plenty of room for service, productivity and safety bonuses.

As for the dogs? If Swift wanted, they could monitor me for farting. There is nothing that they need to know that they don't already have access to. I agree that the screws would tighten and the days of non-forced dispatch would be gone. The lazy pukes would find their axxes on the street in a hurry. The slackers would have a choice . . do I like this pay or don't I? Using your example of $850, I say if you started recruiting with "$850 to start" there'd be lines around the block at every carrier in the country. I also believe safety, service and productivity would rise dramatically.

Most importantly, honest pay for company Drivers is going to force rates to go up. Not ridiculously, just honestly. If it takes an extra $250 to move a trailer load of TP, how much more will the consumer pay . . in the end?

Just one thing to say.....It's your choice... My outlook on things of this matter is. "If it causes problems for me I either fix it or get rid of it" It's really that simple.