TORONTO — Researchers are looking into "prevailing industry practice(s)" for establishing overtime pay for short-haul truck drivers and the Ontario Trucking Association wants to make sure it’s done right.

According to the OTA, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) is undertaking a survey of carriers in the Mississauga, Ont. area, which "could have significant implications … as the results of the survey will establish the legal definition of a "city" driver for the purpose of paying overtime for all Mississauga carriers."

Based on should be paid overtime as city drivers if they traveled. After much hard work, HRSDC was convinced to re-do the survey and they found that the local practice was actually to use a 16 km radius of the home terminal (as is stated in the regulation). It is important that a similar misunderstanding does not occur in the Mississauga area.

Under Part III of the Canada Labour Code "City Drivers" are entitled to overtime after 45 hours in a week or 9 hours in a day while highway drivers get overtime after 60 hours in a week.

A truck driver is deemed to be a city driver when he operates exclusively within a 16 km radius of his or her home terminal; or is classified as a city motor vehicle operator in a collective agreement; or when they would be defined as a city driver according to the prevailing industry practice in the geographical area where the driver is employed.

There’s discrepancies in how local
drivers and highway truckers get paid

HRSDC inspectors conduct surveys to determine this last criteria by differentiating, among other things, between city drivers and “highway drivers" and how each are paid overtime.

A previous survey was based on "faulty information" in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area, says OTA, which doesn’t want to see the same mistakes repeated in the Mississauga study.

That report concluded overtime should be paid to drivers who traveled less than 100 km from their home terminal a day; it was later redone after some industry pressure and the HRSDC concluded that 16 km was a more realistic average radius.

The inspector conducting the survey is to ensure that responses are obtained from a person who is qualified to describe the company’s practices and immediately after conducting a telephone survey the inspector will send each survey participant a letter with an attachment detailing the recorded responses.

OTA warns that in the past problems have arisen when the people contacted at trucking companies did not fully understand the importance of these surveys; and offered up definitions of "city" or "local" drivers that had more to do with operational practices rather than payroll practices concerning eligibility for overtime pay.

OTA is urging carriers who are contacted by HRSDC that they carefully consider the implications of their responses.

"Avoid using any definitions you have for ‘city’ drivers that are operational in nature, only answer the survey based on what the company’s human resources policy is and the definition of "city" driver used for determining overtime pay," OTA says in a memo posted on its website. "This will ensure that HRSDC gets accurate information regarding the prevailing industry practice in your area regarding overtime pay."