Q: Can I sue a company in Texas for underpayment and financial injustice?
I was hired to make payments on a truck for a company and have found that, after all deductions, I am underpaid. My paychecks document this underpayment, and I have numerous Electronic Logging Device messages requesting more miles for a bigger paycheck. Despite my efforts, I am required to work around 70 hours per week with significant expenses, such as lease and maintenance costs, insurance, and fuel. Can I pursue legal action, such as suing the company for punitive damages, to address this financial injustice and improper treatment?
A:
This sounds more like a contract issue than a tort issue, so it is highly unlikely any sort of punitive or exemplary damages are available to you.
If you are an employee of a trucking company and are being underpaid, you can report the underpayment to the TWC by filing a wage & hour claim. You will need to present satisfactory documentation of your hourly wage rate and hours actually worked.
If you are an independent contractor or owner-operator, you should carefully review your contracts with any companies who hire you to carry loads for them. Given that there is a shortage of CDL drivers in the US, you should easily be able to get loads pretty readily subject to federal hours in service regulations.
Being an owner-operator has the highest earning potential in this industry, but some individual drivers don't understand how it works very well. Short distance pay-per-loads can be quite good. Long-distance, it is usually better to accept loads that pay-per-mile. Experiences owner-operators understand where and when traffic congestion is likely to occur. Obviously, getting stuck in traffic is not optimal for earnings under wither pay-per-load or pay-per-mile.
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