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The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows certain employees to be exempt from the requirements for overtime, minimum wage, or both.
Scope
According to the FLSA, the overtime provisions do not apply to any employee to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service under The Motor Carrier Act. This allows an exemption from overtime for certain employees of motor carriers, but it does not allow an exemption from the minimum wage requirements.
Regulatory citations
- 29 CFR 782 — Exemption from Maximum Hours Provisions for Certain Employees of Motor Carriers
Key definitions
- Commercial motor vehicle (CMV): Any self-propelled or towed motor vehicle used on a highway in interstate commerce to transport passengers or property when the vehicle:
- Has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of 4,536 kg (10,001 pounds) or more, whichever is greater; or
- Is designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers (including the driver) for compensation; or
- Is designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers, including the driver, and is not used to transport passengers for compensation; or
- Is used in transporting material found by the Secretary of Transportation to be hazardous under 49 U.S.C. 5103 and transported in a quantity requiring placarding under regulations prescribed by the Secretary under 49 CFR, subtitle B, chapter I, subchapter C.
Summary of requirements
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows certain employees to be exempt from the requirements for overtime, minimum wage, or both. According to the FLSA, the overtime provisions do not apply to any employee to whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service under The Motor Carrier Act. This allows an exemption from overtime for certain employees of motor carriers, but it does not allow an exemption from the minimum wage requirements.
Unlike the so-called “white collar” exempt categories under 29 CFR 541 (for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees) the motor carrier exemptions do not have a “salary basis” requirement. For instance, drivers may be paid hourly, by the mile, by the trip, or by some other method of compensation. They are not entitled to a minimum salary and (like non-exempt employees) are only entitled to wages for the time actually spent working.
Although the exemption does not require overtime, this doesn’t mean employees don’t get paid for any time beyond 40 hours per week. It simply means they don’t get time and one-half. For example, if an exempt driver is paid by the mile, and spends 43 hours per week driving, he still gets his standard rate for all drive time, but he doesn’t get “mile and one-half” compensation for the overtime hours.
This exemption can be applied to a driver, driver’s helper, loader, or mechanic who is employed by a carrier and whose duties affect the safety of operation of motor vehicles in the transportation on public highways of passengers or property in interstate or foreign commerce. Where the employee’s duties have no substantial direct effect on “safety of operation,” the exemption will not apply.
Exceptions. The overtime pay exemption does not apply to employees of non-carriers such as commercial garages, firms engaged in the business of maintaining and repairing motor vehicles owned and operated by carriers, or firms engaged in the leasing and renting of motor vehicles to carriers.
An employer should use caution to avoid applying this overtime exemption to employees who are not engaged in “safety affecting activities,” such as dispatchers, office personnel, those who unload vehicles, or those who load but are not responsible for the proper loading of the vehicle. Only drivers, driver’s helpers, loaders who are responsible for proper loading, and mechanics can be exempt.
The regulations at 29 CFR 782, Exemption from Maximum Hours Provisions for Certain Employees of Motor Carriers, contain the specific requirements.
Definition of “commercial motor vehicle.” In August 2005, amendments to the federal law inadvertently added the requirement that the vehicle must be a “commercial motor vehicle” defined as more than 10,000 pounds. Employers who use the motor carrier exemption, but who operate lighter vehicles, may not actually be eligible to apply this exemption to their employees.
As noted above, the FLSA refers to the Motor Carrier Act, and the 2005 legislation revised some definitions in that Act. Before these changes, the term “motor carrier” was defined as “a person providing motor vehicle transportation for compensation.” Also, the term “motor vehicle” was defined as “a vehicle, machine, tractor, trailer, or semitrailer propelled or drawn by mechanical power and used on a highway in transportation.”
The revision simply added the word “commercial” before the phrase “motor vehicle” in the definition, so that a “motor carrier” is now defined as “a person providing commercial motor vehicle transportation for compensation.”
Since a “commercial motor vehicle” is defined in 49 CFR 390.5 to include a vehicle which “has a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating, or gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight, of 4,536 kg (10,001 pounds) or more, whichever is greater” there may be employers with drivers who operate lighter vehicles and do not qualify for the exemption.