Among the more interesting of the highway-bill priorities recommended to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration by the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee this week was number 4 on the list I wrote about here. Fair Labor Standards Act reform, to bring interstate company drivers under overtime protections (and, as committee member Bruce Hamilton put it, to establish a “minimum safe rate” of pay in lieu of past court decisions that have made the minimum wage virtually inapplicable to interstate drivers), is something I’ve written about here, most recently over the years through news of the petition put forward by owner-operator Joe Ammons.
Though any FLSA reform wouldn’t apply directly to owner-operators, owner-operator Ammons made the argument that improved pay conditions for company drivers and corresponding rate-dynamics changes would ultimately filter positively throughout the entire industry. For more, check out the podcast, with audio of former owner-operator (and current compliance consultant) Rich Wilson’s public comment on Day 3 of the meetings, likewise a summary of OOIDA’s Todd Spencer’s thoughts on the matter.
