Paid for every hour behind the wheel and on the dock

The four places freight pay goes wrong

• Waiting time that vanishes. Sitting at a dock waiting on a load is work when you are required to be there. If detention pay only starts after two free hours, those free hours still count toward your real hourly rate and your overtime week.
• Per-load and per-mile math that hides the rate. Piece pay is legal, but divide the week's gross by the week's real hours: if it lands under minimum wage, or the week ran long without overtime premium, the pay system is violating the law regardless of what the rate sheet says. The overtime calculator does this division honestly.
• Dock work off the clock.Pre-trip inspections, fueling, paperwork, chaining, and load checks are hours worked. "The clock starts when the wheels roll" is a policy, not a law.
• The owner-operator label.If the company controls your schedule, your routes, and your customer, and the truck payment just comes out of your settlement, the "independent contractor" label is doing a lot of unpaid work. Misclassification erases overtime, comp coverage, and unemployment at once, which is exactly why it is the fight worth having with help. The checkup asks about this directly.

One driver's problem is usually the terminal's problem

Pay systems are systems: the detention policy that shorts one driver shorts every driver on the board, and the paper trail (settlement sheets, ELD logs, dispatch records) is unusually good in this industry. That is why the checkup asks whether coworkers are affected. A single short paycheck is a complaint; a terminal-wide practice, documented in the company's own records, is leverage.

For a small clear-cut shortage, the state's free wage complaint process moves fastest. For the systemic stuff, see the options in order.