Traditionally, the motor carrier exception to the wage and hour law has applied for Interstate truck drivers. Recently, that has been threatened by the Bostain case that took place out in Washington State, which was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In that case, Washington applied its state law governing overtime to a driver who spent most of his time driving in other states.

The Washington State court agreed with the government’s position that it would be allowed to assert that a particular driver was entitled to overtime, so the driver got his overtime even though he was a predominantly Interstate driver and was told when he was hired that there would be no overtime.

There was also a case in Florida where an Interstate trucking company had a driver who never left Florida – he was assigned a special route so he never left the state – but the overall role of this company was as an Interstate trucking company. But because this one driver never left Florida, it was determined that he would be able to make a case for overtime based on his hours, whereas traditionally the Federal law would govern this and prohibit an employee from seeking overtime in this situation.

This is a little bit akin to my legal hazard number 10 in Part #1 where I talk about the threats related to the defederalization of the trucking industry, with states making up their own rules and regulations.

I would say the number one threat would have to be the banding together of the plaintiff’s bar to attack the trucking industry. Recently, the Association of Interstate Trucking Attorneys has started putting on seminars that they describe as combat training to teach plaintiff’s lawyers how to sue trucking companies, what to look for, what documents to go after, who to depose, and things of that nature.

We’re beginning to see an increased level of sharing of information, as well as an increased level of organization with the plaintiffs bar; whereas prior to this development, there was virtually no cooperation. What we’re seeing now is more of a network of attorneys ready to sue trucking companies, and that I believe is going to be the biggest challenge, certainly in a legal context, that trucking companies are going to face going forward.