Walmart Truckers Score $100 Million Lost Wages Victory In Court

Walmart runs their drivers hard, really hard

That's just the thing. These aren't the drivers who call dispatch and say, "Uh, I can't do it. The weather here in Wyoming is too scary."

These are the guys who call 30mph a "breeze" and it's only called "windy" when it reaches 60mph.

They show up for their delivery appointments hours before, they post-trip and clock out quickly. Their endurance blows me away.

The pay looks great. I'd have to get darned good to earn it.

-mountain girl

"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."

If off duty truly means OFF DUTY can you just leave your truck fully loaded at the truck stop every night and go party when you take your ten? Of course not; I'm sure just about every trucking company out there would not allow this. Regardless of how you feel about or what you want to do, they want you to stay with the truck, within reason.

Is there some law or typical company policy I don't know about? I work for Swift and have left my truck fully loaded plenty of times so I could sleep in my own bed or a hotel, and I've never heard two words about it. The only thing I've ever been told by my company is to park in a "safe place" (which to them normally means a truck stop). Besides, in this case most of the time when Walmart drivers layover somewhere it'll be with an empty trailer. At least, that's how it's been for me when I've hauled for Walmart. G-town, is this consistent with your experience as well?

I'm all about increasing driver pay, seriously. Yes, you can make decent money as an otr driver, but how many hours do you have to work for it? I think that matters. But I think the way these drivers went about it was all wrong. Sleeper berth time is still off duty, as in, *NOT working.* I think it's great that Walmart pays their drivers for the inconvenience of being away from home for the night, but it is by no means a requirement and I don't think it should be. Now if you're hauling Hazmat and are REQUIRED to stay with the truck, that's a little different...but that's not what we're talking about here anyway. We're talking about a bunch of drivers who, while they do work their butts off, are well compensated for their work and get to go home much more than a regular otr driver and don't have to deal with half the BS most otr drivers have to deal with...and they're complaining they don't get paid enough to sleep in their sleeper.

Sorry this is so blunt, but sleeping in the sleeper is just part of the job. If you don't like it, work a local job or go drive for an LTL carrier like Old Dominion, FedEx or Saia, to name a few. Why do I seem so irritated about this? Because these drivers' discontentment could very well lead to eventually getting rid of a good thing. I agree with those who said Walmart could just decide to contract the rest of their work out to other lower-paying carriers (like they already do) if it is no longer profitable to have their own fleet.

There is a Walmart less than 5 miles from where I live that I regularily park overnight or for my 34. At times I was loaded with a dry Walmart backhaul. But never with a loaded reefer backhaul. They want them back at the DC because usually they are time sensitive.

When I do this I go into the store and inform the manager that I am parking the truck either overnight or for two nights. They have my cell in the event of an issue. Never been a problem and the truck has never been messed with.

The DM on duty is also notified and informed of the PTA when the truck will be moved. I typically let them know this in advance. The only thing that is forbidden is dropping the trailer and bob tailing home for the night, especially with a reefer. I was only denied this once when I had a water back haul in the heat of summer. Understandable.

WMPF hauls the Mothership's freight...no need for them turn a profit so to speak.

I understand the point that you are trying to make, but I must disagree with you on this. No company would run a division that is not profitable. In the case of WMPF, Walmart only runs this division because they can do so for less than the cost of contracting it to private carriers.

In order accomplish this, they must be able to operate with lower costs than carriers like Swift or Prime, for example. We know that the largest costs for any carrier are fuel and wages, and that reducing either of these two cost will have the greatest impact on profit or operational costs. Walmart has tremendous buying power, but their fuel usage is not any more than the average carrier (and considerably less than Swift's!), so we can safely assume that their fuel costs are comparable to any other carrier's.

That means that driver's wages is the most likely line item that WMPF has available to them in their battle to reduce costs. While they may have some latitude to offer slightly hire wages than other carriers, due to reduced insurance costs from only hiring safe and experienced drivers, and slightly reduced workman's compensation insurance (compared to other carriers) due to the lower overall per capita payroll (due to the below average wage of all their other workers), the figure quoted by Walmart's attorneys is much closer to the maximum wage rather than slightly above the average for the industry.

According to the BOL our average wage is $40K/year. And according to this CNN report, the average wage for private fleet drivers such as WMPF drivers is $73K/year. There is a world of difference between $73K and the $80 to-$100 thousand range that the lawyers offered! And the reason that they inflated the figure is quite simple - to sway public opinion to their cause. No one - not even other truck drivers - will be sympathetic to the grievances of truck drivers who make more than most junior executives or engineers!

... ...

I deleted the rest of my tirade to avoid injecting any more of my politics into this conversation (and I'm quite happy that this forum has avoided political discussion). I'll simply offer my hope for our continued support of all professional drivers.

I will just add that the figure of 73 K is the Base Pay of these Drivers. There are Bonuses and such that can increase it to the quoted 80-100 k range. Either way, I is a far cry from living in POVERTY!

Walmart only runs this division because they can do so for less than the cost of contracting it to private carriers

What makes you so sure about that? Every corporation on the planet spends a little more money than they have to in certain areas when they feel it's worthwhile, like with mission-critical infrastructure. You don't always do everything as cheap as possible and only if it turns a profit. Getting products to the stores is the lifeblood of a retailer. I don't know what their strategy is for having a private fleet but it doesn't necessarily focus exclusively on making more profits.

John L wrote:

WMPF hauls the Mothership's freight...no need for them turn a profit so to speak.

I understand the point that you are trying to make, but I must disagree with you on this. No company would run a division that is not profitable. In the case of WMPF, Walmart only runs this division because they can do so for less than the cost of contracting it to private carriers.

In order accomplish this, they must be able to operate with lower costs than carriers like Swift or Prime, for example. We know that the largest costs for any carrier are fuel and wages, and that reducing either of these two cost will have the greatest impact on profit or operational costs. Walmart has tremendous buying power, but their fuel usage is not any more than the average carrier (and considerably less than Swift's!), so we can safely assume that their fuel costs are comparable to any other carrier's.

That means that driver's wages is the most likely line item that WMPF has available to them in their battle to reduce costs. While they may have some latitude to offer slightly hire wages than other carriers, due to reduced insurance costs from only hiring safe and experienced drivers, and slightly reduced workman's compensation insurance (compared to other carriers) due to the lower overall per capita payroll (due to the below average wage of all their other workers), the figure quoted by Walmart's attorneys is much closer to the maximum wage rather than slightly above the average for the industry.

According to the BOL our average wage is $40K/year. And according to this CNN report, the average wage for private fleet drivers such as WMPF drivers is $73K/year. There is a world of difference between $73K and the $80 to-$100 thousand range that the lawyers offered! And the reason that they inflated the figure is quite simple - to sway public opinion to their cause. No one - not even other truck drivers - will be sympathetic to the grievances of truck drivers who make more than most junior executives or engineers!

... ...

I deleted the rest of my tirade to avoid injecting any more of my politics into this conversation (and I'm quite happy that this forum has avoided political discussion). I'll simply offer my hope for our continued support of all professional drivers.

Disagree all you want John. It all depends on how WMPF is corporately structured; if they are a profit center, cost center or a seperatly designated division. I don't really know that and neither do you. Whatever the case it's funny money and controlled within the same corporate entity. I understand how this business operates so please spare me the lesson in accounting 101. Fact is WMPF doesn't drive revenue to Walmarts bottom line. I am quite certain of that.

You missed the most important points of my reply; because of their experience and proven performance WMPF's drivers have far less accidents (huge reduction in costs) and a much higher utilization rate than the average OTR driver. These two things dramatically reduce their operating cost, both tangibly and intangibly.

The average annual truck driver wage you insist on quoting is dragged down considerably because of the first year driver. Training pay is included in that figure. Strip the first year away and the average income increases dramatically. This national is also subject to underperforming drivers and part timers.

There are numerous drivers in this forum making 64-75k per year with less than 5 years of experience.

73k annually is starting base pay for WMPF without bonus pay and annual increases. I believe the lawyers figures are accurate.

I am neither sympathetic or critical regarding this suit. Again I hold steadfast to my belief that many of their points are relevant and like I have said can possibly enable consistent compensation for all the work a truck driver performs while not driving.

Vendingdude posits:

If off duty truly means OFF DUTY can you just leave your truck fully loaded at the truck stop every night and go party when you take your ten? Of course not; I'm sure just about every trucking company out there would not allow this. Regardless of how you feel about or what you want to do, they want you to stay with the truck, within reason

Paul answers something like "Well, I do at Swift." I agree with Paul. Often I get routed with a load in a way that goes near my home, including the time needed to do a full 34 hour reset or home time while the truck sits at a nearby truck stop. The planner does this, and I'm not going to use my precious home time to go check on the truck.

This is one reason Swift issues you those big padlocks.

As I said, I'm all about truck drivers making more money, and if wal mart drivers can get more, then more power to them.

What I'm getting at is, sometimes people who have a good gig don't know what they have. Look at it like this, by law, wal mart only HAS to pay their drivers minimum wage. This means if they wanted to, they could restructure their pay to a flat 7.25 per hour and just pay them 24 hours a day

The rest of the trucking world, who makes far less money, understands that all of this extra is included in the per mile pay.

Maybe I'm wrong, I'll admit that maybe I'm not seeing the positive side to this. Maybe I'm looking at a bunch of high paid drivers and think they are just looking a gift horse in the mouth instead of realizing that what could come out of this is potential I crease for the rest of us. I don't think so, because wm drivers are such a far removed situation from everyone else, but who knows, maybe this will cause changes in the laws at some point and means the everyone else else is affected by it.

I don't know if this is accurate, but, perhaps the reason wm can pay their drivers this much is because they are not having to compete on the market for loads, like all the other carriers. Most other freight companies are more limited in their pay structure because of the revenue generated by their bid price to the customer, whereas wm can simply pay their drivers based off the massive profits generated by their stores..they don't have to bid on load prices.

As I said, I'm all about truck drivers making more money, and if wal mart drivers can get more, then more power to them.

What I'm getting at is, sometimes people who have a good gig don't know what they have. Look at it like this, by law, wal mart only HAS to pay their drivers minimum wage. This means if they wanted to, they could restructure their pay to a flat 7.25 per hour and just pay them 24 hours a day

The rest of the trucking world, who makes far less money, understands that all of this extra is included in the per mile pay.

To me, it's not so much that they wanted to make more money. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. It's that they screwed their company by suing them and demanding "lost wages." For sleeping, no less. I agree with G-town in that I'd love to see truckers not only compensated better for their work in general but also, more specifically, compensated accordingly for On Duty Not Driving functions like fueling, pretrip, deliveries, etc. But like I said, this was not the rght way to go about it and will likely cause more harm then good. I still can't get over the fact that they expect to be paid minimum wage for sleeping.