Walmart Truckers Score $100 Million Lost Wages Victory In Court

I spoke to a WalMart recruiter at the trucking show I went to recently. She said they were looking for three years of experience and pay started at $85K. She said their standards are strict, but I have no doubt that the experienced drivers here could more than meet their standards.

Stay Safe Out There, Colin K.

Indy:

A while back you mentioned, “A household income of 80,000-100,000 is considered middle-class in most of the U.S.”

Where did you get your information? This is from http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us/

“According to the Census ACS survey, the median household income for the United States was $55,775 in 2015, the latest data available.” 

I was laid off from a major tech company. They outsourced the work to India. They didn't do this because they couldn't find Americans to do the work. They did this because they found somebody who would do it cheaper.

Even if WalMart wins on appeal, the court costs for this lawsuit could end up causing them to scrap their current pay and benefits plan for something less costly.

I guess this lawsuit comes down to a matter of perspective. I've been out of full time work since March of 2015. Most any driving job in trucking, especially those WalMart jobs, look very good from where I'm sitting. It's why I'm considering jumping in.

Stay Safe Out There Everybody,

Colin K.

Walmart driver: I want to get paid extra for sleeping, inspecting my truck, washing my truck....and showering!

Walmart: fine, we will pay you for all of these things, also, your new mileage rate is .38cpm. Enjoy!

Walmart pays them $42, or $4.20 per hour, which is significantly less than federal minimum wage. And drivers are not eligible for the layover pay at all if they slept at home or outside the cab of their truck. The drivers said that this was Walmart’s way of turning them into cheap guards over their trucks.

LOL, I still can't get over this. They already pay them $4.20 per hour for their off duty time. These guys essentially get paid 24 hours a day.

For those who are arguing this, this would be like going to your normal 9 to 5 job, but the company says "hey, we are going to pay you a little something even when you go home at night", then you come back and argue that you want more pay for being at home.

Who gets paid for not working?? Lol. I'm sorry, but most companies state that your .cpm is mostly all inclusive. In other words, vehicle Pre trips, fueling, washing your truck is all covered by your "assigned duties", and is covered by the cpm you are paid. Layover (being held up at a shipper or receiver, NOT SLEEPING), and detention pay is usually compensated by the company.

I agree that drivers as a whole should make more. Trucking companies have been able to manipulate the system to allow for paying, essentially less than minimum wage, legally. So, if you're a walmart driver making $85k a year, BEFORE BONUSES, then, really?? Come on...

I don't know many of the details of this case, nor do I know anything about the compensation that Walmart driver receive. What I do know is that Walmart is the only party claiming that their drivers average $80 to $100 thousand per year. I also find it highly unlikely that any judge or jury would be sympathetic to unskilled workers (and that is how we are classified) earning close to six figures and wanting more. I suspect that there is much more to the story than what has been reported thus far.

Furthermore, regardless how much the drivers are receiving in compensation, why would you begrudge them getting more? I want to see every driver getting better pay and benefits! If Walmart drivers raise the bar for compensation, every other employer will need to eventually raise their drivers pay in order to prevent them from seeking employment at Walmart.

Even if Walmart does scrap their fleet, it still works in your favor since there will be more Walmart freight for you and your current employer to haul.

If you want to improve the wages and benefits that you receive, you must be willing to support others in their effort to do so for themselves.

In Solidarity...

Furthermore, regardless how much the drivers are receiving in compensation, why would you begrudge them getting more? I want to see every driver getting better pay and benefits! If Walmart drivers raise the bar for compensation, every other employer will need to eventually raise their drivers pay in order to prevent them from seeking employment at Walmart.

I agree that drivers should get paid as much as they can, but what these guys are doing, for the most part, is ridiculous, if you think about it. There is such thing as equal pay for equal work. I'd say these folks are already getting more than equal pay for the work they do. Remember, a company does not go into business to pay people money, they go into business to make as much profit as they can, and in order to do that, they have to hire workers to make their business run.

So yes, most companies want to pay as little for labor as they can in order to maximize their profits. A lot of companies recognize that to draw the better workers, they pay higher wages. That creates competition for those jobs, as they become sought after by people needing a job and wanting to make more money themselves. This means to be able to stay at that job, you need to remain one of those better workers. As a benefit to the employees, companies will often give a cost of living raise to help their employees cope with inflation.

This is the normal world. Wal mart went above and beyond and said, ya know what? We are going to build a fleet, and pay our drivers double the average wage of people in this industry. Now, wal mart probably could have just bid out their work to the major carriers and had done just fine, but they opted to go with an internal Fleet and pay their drivers a heavy wage. Sure, it probably saves them money to do this, after all, most companies rarely do anything for their employees that doesn't directly benefit their revenue. Point is, wal mart could have started their own private Fleet and paid their drivers a slightly higher average wage, and would have been able to attract high quality drivers.

Instead, they went way out if the way and paid them a MUCH higher wage, potentially attracting the best drivers. There comes a point, however, when wal mart has to decide if what is happening is economically feasible.

As far as what wal mart is doing having any effect on the pay rates for other companies, likely it will have no effect. The laws of supply and demand are in effect here. Low turnover rates at wal mart combined with high application counts, as well as their above average hiring criteria means there won't be many of those jobs opening up and when they do, it happens slowly, because people only leave that job due to retirement or getting fired.

This fact means wal mart could pay their drivers $500,000 per year and would have no effect on the pay rates of other companies.

Is it any coincidence that the following press release was made at almost the same time as the Walmart verdict?

Crete, Shaffer increasing OTR driver pay

Crete and Shaffer are already one of the top paying carriers, so why would they be raising driver's pay?

I'm very happy to hear that Crete and Shaffer driver's will be earning more in 2017.

"For those who are arguing this, this would be like going to your normal 9 to 5 job, but the company says "hey, we are going to pay you a little something even when you go home at night", then you come back and argue that you want more pay for being at home."

Not quite Sambo. This would be like the employer telling you you need to stay at the office and sleep on the couch in the breakroom. Oh, and make sure no one breaks in while you're here. While being paid $4.20/hr for that is better than nothing, it IS below any state or federal minimum wage. That's all this is about.

But...you're an OTR driver, it's the law that you must the a 10 hour break after each shift. Your 10 hours off is off duty time, why would you expect to get paid for this? That sort of comes with the territory when you go otr.

Now if they want to cite labor laws, then I suppose we can get this brought before the labor board, and they can change the laws so that every driver gets paid minimum wage while they are off duty. Guess we'll have to pay that $12 per gallon for milk.

Also, yes, Crete is one of the highest paying majors, and I commend them for wanting to give their drivers more, but the amount wasn't 80k per year.

My point was, if everyone could go out and get an 85k a year driving job, if they were plentiful, then yes, the wal mart thing might have an effect on the market, but, it's just not that easy to get a Wal mart driving job, which means they are rare. Because of that, drivers can't go to a potential employer and say "pay me more or I'm going to wal mart", because there just not that great of a supply of those jobs. Also, if a person met the qualifications to get hired by wal mart, and there were jobs available, then they would probably be working at wal mart anyway.

Sambo wrote:

Walmart driver: I want to get paid extra for sleeping, inspecting my truck, washing my truck....and showering!

Walmart: fine, we will pay you for all of these things, also, your new mileage rate is .38cpm. Enjoy!

Wow Sambo, tell us how you really feel.

Although there is definitely some frivolity in this suit, there is merit to the basic premise of being paid for the work we do while on-duty not driving. Having first hand knowledge of their job I understand many of the points of this suit.

So...in short anything that might help drive reform into a truck drivers compensation is a positive. If you strip away the fact WMPF drivers are at the very top of the food chain, I think the contentious nature of this thread goes away.

Having performed the basic essence of what a Walmart driver's job is for about four years, I tend to have a very different perspective on this. First of all no one should accept 38cpm for delivering product to Walmarts and Sam's.

Secondly, they expect excellence and are willing to pay for it. It's part of their brand and their culture. And it most definitely affects their bottom line due to a much lower incidence of preventable accidents than the industry average. At a cost per accident over 180k, 10x's that with injuries, it adds up very quickly.

I strongly believe this suit represents a small minority of dissidents, because the vast majority of their drivers know how good they have and more than willing to state that. Remember I interact with them on a daily basis, many of them are extremely helpful and patient with the continuous crop of newbie drivers who parade through the DC and at times block the drop areas for prolonged periods of time.

Not sure if I am sensing anger or professional jealousy, but I think it's a bit over the top and somewhat misplaced.

Fact is if you really want to have a better than average chance of being hired by WMPF, do as I did, commit to a company with several dedicated contracts with Walmart. At the very least if you learn their system, operate efficiently/safely and have good skills in close quarter maneuvering, your pay will be higher than the industry average and you will be gaining invaluable experience. Schneider, Swift, Shaefer/Crete, and US Express are all big players in the Walmart Dedicated space. They regularily hire from their service partners each and every year.