Judge Trims Some Claims in US Express Class Action Over Mileage Rate for Truck Drivers

A judge has rejected US Express’s efforts to have a wage and hour class action lawsuit, but was willing to trim some allegations.

According to US District Judge George Wu, the workers who had brought forward the claims had sufficiently established that the drivers should have been paid for work tasks they performed other than their driving time. The ruling was made in California federal court, and is currently a tentative one.

US Express had argued that the proposed class of California drivers should be decertified. According to the company, it would not be possible to determine how much the company should be held liable, because the alleged uncompensated time in addition to mileage rate for truck drivers would be hard to calculate. 

However, Judge Wu disagreed, and determined to not decertify the class. In his eyes, the company’s own service logs would be able to inform the court about how much unpaid time might be at stake. 

Judge Wu then pointed to a decision made in January in a case called Ridgeway v. Walmart. He noted that in the previous case, truck drivers took issue with Walmart’s payment policy, noting that the US Express case presented fewer obstacles towards discerning damages than the Walmart case did. In his words, the court does not see any insurmountable obstacle to calculating damages that was not present oil Ridgeway.”

Both the drivers and US Express had requested summary judgment, and Judge Wu attempted to address both of these requests. 

The judge partly sided with US Express, saying that the drivers were well aware that they would be paid a fixed fee for their trips, and therefore should have been aware that this fee covers not just mileage rate for truck drivers, but other tasks related to the task. 

However, according to the judge, a handbook presented to drivers in 2013 informed the drivers of this reality. The drivers had aimed to establish a class period of those drivers who were not paid for certain tasks between December 23, 2011 to the end date of the class action. Now, the judge’s determination will likely reduce the class period to between 2011 and 2013, a substantial reduction.

He did not make a determination on certain elements of allegedly unpaid work outside of the paid mileage rate for truck drivers, including instances in which they were transporting “high-value cargo loads” that required extra attention by drivers, or times spent at least somewhat on call during what should have been rest periods. According to the drivers, these are instances in which drivers cold possibly claim that they were entitled to more compensation.

According to the judge, the policy set forth by US Express required the drivers to oversee their cargo in such a way that they did not have the ability to take full advantage of their breaks in the case of high-value cargo. According to the judge, this means that drives who were driving by themselves were entitled to certain payment for this time.

The Department of Industrial Relations explains that in most cases, California law requires employers to relieve workers of all duties during their rest breaks.

Judge Wu went on to say that determining the proper compensation for high-value cargo being transported by two or more drivers was more complicated, because each driver had less responsibility over the cargo at a given time.

The US Express wage and hour compensation class action lawsuit was filed in 2016, and has previously faced other cuts from the court. In 2019, Judge Wu determined that some meal and rest breaks should be thrown out. 

Wage and hour laws reportedly are an important issue in the trucking industry, as many drivers navigate employee classification and the benefit that comes with certain classifications. Trucking Info explains that lawmakers in California are attempting to extend benefits to more workers by passing Assembly Bill 5.

The US Express Enterprises Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Case No. 5:16-cv-00137, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. 

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