CRST: Collective Action Lawsuit = Coolie Carrier Strikes Again!
 

http://www.dychterlaw.com/storage/CRST%20Notice.pdf

And just for good measure:

Bruce White et al v. CRST, Inc., Case No. 1:11-CV-2615


Coolie carrier truck driving. Uggghhhh. Some things never change.

That aside. Please take a moment and see if you are eligible for renumeration via the Bruce White et al v. CRST, Inc., Case No. 1:11-CV-2615 . Also check out the dychterlaw.com link at the top regarding alleged unfair labor practices by CRST Expedited. You may be able to join that action also.

Watch out for those shiny, glossy little magazines at the truckstops newbies! There's a reason that these companies spend handsome amounts of money to recruit, recruit, recruit.

And it ain't because they have YOUR best interests at heart. Step wisely.

SEE BELOW;

Really what a joke. Suing over not being paid for opening trailer doors, not being paid to be a ground guide for their team partner (wonder if they logged it on duty not driving), and many other things that are nothing but a joke. This lawsuit is just showing how out of control our legal system is getting. This will effect every trucking company out there if it goes through. How can you pay exact miles if the driver makes unnecessary stops? How can you regulate hourly time if so many drivers cheat on their log books? Any driver can say they drove 420 miles in 11 hours and there is no way to double check it. Even though it probably only took them 7. I guess this is just further proof of the greed of lawyers and people not to mention the laziness of some drivers. I'm surprised they didn't add time to clean the inside of their truck from their own trash.

Laziness of some drivers? Sure that is a problem. But there are one hell of a bunch of us that take a hell of a lot of pride in our jobs/industry.

Sure this will affect every trucking company out there. Most significantly, and, in my opinion, the one's (companies) that deserve it the most. ie; The sweat shop entities posing as truck driving companies that would only survive in the United States if it weren't for the Fair Labor Standards Act exemption dating to circa 1933. Ground guiding etc., is a part of the job. MORE IMPORTANTLY it is work. That should be paid accordingly. Why shouldn't these peripheral activities be compensated?

Part of the job? It's included in the rate? C'mon Steve! That's all been run through this board and all of these others ad nauseum.

Exact miles? Ever hear of hub miles? These carriers contract and pay for a load to be hauled for , let's say 240 miles (HHG LMFAO LMFAO!) Actual run is something like 317 miles. (using examples here). IS THIS FAIR STEVE? i SUPPOSE IF YOU ARE THE TRUCK OWNER IT MIGHT APPEAR THAT WAY? HUH

iThe ability to verify a driver completed 420 miles in 11 hours? There are ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, DOUBLE CHECKED, WAYS TO CHECK AND VERIFY THIS INFO!!! FedEx wouldn't have a problem doing it. Would they?:cool:

Greed of lawyers as you lament. I couldn't agree more amigo. I work night shift on a tanker and sit there bombarded with the ambulance chaser commercials regarding """has a big rig taken away your ability to work? we'll make it right!! just call 800-555-1212!!" in the afternoons before I jump behind that big unstable monster for the night. So I'm with you there. To a point.

This is about employee rights, Steve. Not ambulance chasing. At least in my humble opinion.

Thanks for the healthy debate Steve.

Steve.....I run 100 Air Mile Radius (now known as 'short haul exemption')

I haven't touched line 3 in years on a log book. Been DOT'd more times than you have toes and fingers. No violations, ever.

Guess I shouldn't have been paid? Just sayin.................

Yes it would be hard to verify hours. FedEx does not keep track of certain times. When a driver hands in his hook slip he or she is dispatched by that time. That does not mean the driver actually left at that time. He or she might stop at his or her car to load his or her truck. He or she might stop at a truck stop for a shower. The driver might stop at Walmart to shop. The diver might do a many of things and log it on duty not driving. At FedEx many of our drops are arrived and dispatched on an automated arrival dispatch system that you call into. We have a dedicated run that does it everyday and meets the same truck. So if they had hourly compensation on top of their mileage pay they could wait till that truck arrives to use Avr. They could wait till after they hook to use it. They don't have to be back at the hub till midnight but usually get back around 2200. So they could actually kill two hours to get more pay.

Ground guides are needed really? I just wonder how solo drivers back into a dock or a slot at your local truck stop. I bet these truck stops provide them for them if they get 50 gallons of fuel. It's called get out and look. You don't have to have a ground guide. Even if your partner is getting out to give you a spotter how is he logging it. If you just drive 6 hours to your pickup spot. Your co driver has only been in the sleeper for 6 hours then he logs on duty not driving because he would have to since he isn't in the sleeper birth he would not be able to drive his full 10 hour shift because he didnt get a full 10 hour break and he would break the 14 hour rule.

If this lawsuit is won it will drive all of us small fleets in the ground or it will cause us to lower our pay rates to survive. Our drivers that we have make great money. If I am forced to add to their pay fueling, dropping, hooking, waiting on a sort or whatever we as a company will not be able to sustain as a business without lowering their overall rate of pay. We will have to get rid of Christmas bonuses, performance bonuses and safety bonuses.

One no one forced these guys to work for this company. This is not a communist country. They agreed to their pay rate and accepted the job. They could have quit the job at any time they wanted and found another job. They could have asked the recruiter about these things before they were hired. Yet with these options at these guys hands they choose to sue. Guess what the company won't be in business for long if they can't get drivers but all this does is put us small fleets with small profit margins at a great risk or some huge decisions to be made at the expense of our drivers. Especially those of us that compensate our drivers very well.

These lawyers and those bringing about these lawsuits are lower than pond scum. I can't believe these people would even file a lawsuit such as this. The judge should force the lawyers and plaintiff's to pay CRST the amount for which they are suing and then triple it for damages. What a sorry bunch. I can't believe they settled a lawsuit to pay people who were not hired due to their DAC file. And people complain about driver pay. The money CRST will need to pay out if both of these are successful will need to be recovered in some manner. There is not that much room for rate increases, so it will come from driver compensation or benefits. People enter this business knowing the compensation and then whine to a lawyer or the IRS when things don't go exactly like they want.

Carrier's are sometimes paid on hhg, practical or hub miles and usually pay their drivers accordingly. Few will pay on hub miles. If drivers are paid on hub miles, then they should be willing to pay the carrier for every mile that they put on the truck that is out of route. I can't believe that the lawsuit actually wants drivers to be paid for opening and closing the doors on their trailers. Give me a break!!!!

Simple answer to these problems..... PAY BY THE HOUR. then your on the clock for everything. The way it should be.

Sorry Mack, not so simple. I agree only because I'm hourly too but it isn't that simple. It opens another can of worms for the company, time and a half after 40 hours. EVERY OTR driver will be hitting at least 20 hours of OT every week. The companies have to make up for it somewhere as GMAN said since rates are down, there goes driver bennies in order to cover all the OT that hourly brings on. OR the companies could then just pay every driver the federal minimum wage for hourly, in the end the drivers would come out making even less than per mile pay.

I can only laugh at suing over opening the doors and being paid. Seriously, how f-ing hard is it? It takes what, all of 2 minutes and a few burnt calories? Ok fine, here's a dollar for 2 minutes of hard labor..........really...........no wonder truckers are looked at as fat, lazy slobs who can't do anything else productive in this world.

I think the main issue here that nobody has mentioned is that what if the driver gets hurt opening the doors? Will the company cover them on workmans comp? Let's say they climb out of the truck during the winter to open the doors at a dock and slip on ice. Leg or arm gets broken, they are technically on duty or is the company going to worm their way out of paying workman's comp by claiming that since it didn't happen while driving they weren't on duty?

About the OT after 40 hours thing...I was paid hourly when driving for Old Dominion,
and we didn't hit overtime until 60 hours. 60 hours a week is where OSHA has normal
work week set for city freight...why wouldn't it be at least this much for OTR?

Good to see you back and causing trouble again, Belpre! :p

If, by this post, you are asking if you shouldn't be paid while punching a clock now... instead of for the extra work you did back when you were CPM... you know the answer to that. You ARE being paid for all "non-driving" duties for the time you are on the clock, as ALL that time is considered either line 3 or line 4. [Maybe even line 5 in YOUR case!] ;)

As for your original post: I can't believe CRST settled the suit in the White case, but... I don't know what unscrupulous hiring practices they engaged in. However... wasn't there a thread about DAC being sued (and losing) for their "reporting" practices? If so.... shouldn't CRST be able to claim they were "injured" by DAC and therefore not responsible for hiring decisions based on "at fault" reports?

As for the Dychter Lawsuit?

You're right! All of that WAS hashed out before.... and my side WON! Per that "exemption" to the FLSA you cited, CPM was decided to be fair compensation for all ancillary duties involved with "relocating" the freight. Don't like it? Don't do OTR. Get a local job and punch a timeclock.

Local "timeclock" jobs around here pay about $12/hr. My CPM rate works out closer to $20/hr plus. That's including all line 4 time that I actually LOG. EVEN if I added another 10 hours for line 4 time that I am "conserving," (not logging so that I COULD take another load if I wanted to,) it would still work out to about $17/hr. Why would I give that up for another 10 hours worth of line 4 pay at $12/hr? [AND lower my rate on the original hours spent on line 3 to $12/hr?]

Besides.... you start logging ALL that line 4 time (and PROVING it,) and all you're gonna do is burn up your 70 hour clock sooner, requiring a restart or limiting your line 3 time on any given day. Might not be able to TAKE that load you wanted... and have to SIT and wait (unpaid) for a shorter one. And that's not even considering what Steve said about 'busting' your 10 hour break! (whether team OR solo.)

I can't believe the lawyers were stupid enough to even file it. I guess THEY don't do their research, either. That same exclusion to the FLSA you mentioned, and YEARS of precedent upholding CPM as a recognized substitute for hourly wages, makes it totally unsustainable.

When I had my business recharging toner cartridges for laser printers/copiers.. and fixing said machines.... I could make say, $60 profit on a cartridge for 30 minutes of actual labor. You think I could have billed that at $120/hr to the customer? On a machine repair job, I would go to the customer, leave them a loaner, pick their machine up and transport it to my business. Then, I may spend an hour or two investigating the problem, reading tech manuals, maybe even "consulting" with others, drinking a beer or two, cleaning the machine, and fixing minor unrelated problems. Might have 3-5 "actual" hours involved before getting it back to them. But... at $75/hr labor rates, could I charge them $300+ to fix a machine they could replace for just a little more? No... but, I could probably justify 1.5 hours labor and (with a little markup on the parts,) net about $150 for "the job." Then there were times I could fix the problem in 30 mins, and I sure wasn't gonna do all that work for $37.50!

IOW.... it all works out in the "wash." A company pays, and workers accept, a "rate" of pay that satisfies the VALUE they put on their time or on the service. My CPM rate is more than generous enough to cover any and all ancillary duties involved with moving the freight. If I had to account for every hour I actually worked... and they PAID only $12-15/hr FOR every hour I actually worked.... I would be losing hundreds of dollars per week! [At minimum wage... WITH overtime.... I couldn't even pay my bills!]

The plaintiffs in the Dychter case need to read my sigline! If they're not happy making at least 1.5 times the weekly pay of a factory worker, they need to move over and let someone else have the job!

P.S. Hey Bel! If you're back in Speedway.... does that offer still stand on the Brickyard?

This may come back to bite CRST by settling the suit. I agree with hobo on this one. I can't believe that we are in agreement on something. lol. There are a number of reasons why hourly pay is not a good idea when it comes to otr drivers. I touched on some of them on another post.

Its a shame but most of these OTR companies pay and treat their drivers like crap. I understand about the low rates and thats a reason for giving lower pay. Trucking companies are dog eat dog. They will cut each other rates intill there is nothing left. I never understood it.

One time about 2 years ago we had a big stone hauling job. The rate was 8.50/ton under the carrier that had it. He was looking for all the trucks he could find. This other bigger trucking compnay came in and low balled the rate too 7.95/ton. When they could have worked under the first carrier and been paid 8.50. But i guess they wanted the job to themselfs. Stuff like that blows my mind. Just another reason i got out of for-hire trucking.

Plus you think its bad now. Wait about 5-10 years. More and more Mexicans are coming up from Mexico. What do you think thats going to do for rates. I bet in 10years drivers are still going to be making what they are today. Maybe a penny or 2 more a mile. But thats about it.

Wow. I can't believe anyone picked up that lawsuit either, but I'd like to know how low their weekly wages were to warrant something like that. Then again, they agreed to it when they got hired.
As for getting paid for certain things like unloading the freight, I can understand that. For other things like opening doors, spotting trailers, etc., I think someone got greedy.
I can understand the need to be on line 4 for such, though, due to work comp. We've had cases of that happen, and the logbook gets checked. It's mostly while unloading freight that such things happen.

Never underestimate a West Virginian on a cause VPI Dark. Similar to a scorned woman VPI! LOL More later
about all of that. I just got back from retrieving a roll over down in southern Indiana.

Firstly....good to see ya again old amigo! Secondly, yes GHoBO the Brickyard invitation is absolutely positively still there. So much so, that I can't wait for you to take me upon it. We can do the 500 Hundred race also in addition to the 400. The NHRA US Nationals are just a few hundred yards to the west! The door is always wide open for you with plenty of coolers of Coors Light to ensure that the few days of our debauchery are indeed..........put to VERY good use. MackPuppy drag your ass down here too! GMAN doors always open for you. I'll easily find a safe place for that coolie carrier that you happen to be hooked to at the time! :)

So very nice to be trading barbs with all ya again! :roll3: Be back soon with more on the CRST coolie carrier actions: See below;

I am the "coolie carrier." Does that make any difference?

Absolutely makes no difference at all GMAN! I already have arrangements to "hide" that coolie carrier truck of yours north of Brownsburg, Indiana (I-74 MM66) then north 6 miles. We'll treat it like an ugly girlfriend.......just as long as my friends don't know!:cool:

Seriously though, yes, despite your unwavering yet misguided support of coolie carrier trucking.....I would be delighted if you would be able to find the time and go racing/some partying with the Belpre and GolfHobo.

Think of it this way GDAWG! How in the world could you turn down the opportunity of a full day of fast cars, pretty women, grilled steaks............................and witnessing our very own personal circus monkey (GolfHobo) launching onto one of his prodigious and historic benders whilest making a complete ass of himself..........yet again! You in GMAN? Since I will be fully compensated for my time taken off work at 100% and you won't. I feel it only fair that I buy the beer and the steaks. (plus the free parking to hide that coolie carrier of yours).

The potential exists that we might end up having to bail the Hobo out of the Marion County Jail at some point. What are friends for?

GMAN....IN? Golfhobo....IN?

Indy 500, Brickyard 400, NHRA Nationals. Let's do it.

Not much lead time required other than hiding that coolie carrier......... Can be done though GMAN! :o


BTW....Steve Fredog, MacPupster and others..........we'll get right back on track with this thread about sweat shop labor, coolie carrier trucking. Work 80 to 100, log 70, paid for 50! The Great COLDFROSTYMUG

The fast cars and steaks sound good. I will need to talk to my wife about the pretty women. :cool: