Highest court backs law requiring rest, meal breaks for truckers

Highest court backs law requiring rest, meal breaks for truckers
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By Bob Egelko Updated 6:56 pm, Monday, May 4, 2015

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected challenges by trucking companies Monday to a century-old California law entitling thousands of truck drivers to meal breaks and rest periods.
The court denied a hearing sought by the Penske and Vitran Express trucking companies, which sought review of federal appeals court decisions in July 2014 upholding the law.
The statute requires employers to provide their drivers a paid 10-minute rest break every four hours and a paid 30-minute meal period every five hours. The trucking companies argued they were exempted by a federal law, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, that prohibits states from enforcing laws “related to a price, route or service of any motor carrier” that is transporting property.
Until July, most federal judges in California had agreed with the companies that the mandatory breaks were regulations that the federal law forbids. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overruled those decisions and said the state laws do not dictate prices, routes or services.
The requirements of paid break periods are “normal background rules for almost all employers doing business in the state,” Judge Susan Graber said in a 3-0 ruling in the Penske case.
Trucking companies argued that the state laws affect their prices and services by increasing their costs of doing business. But Graber observed that “nearly every form of state regulation carries some cost” and noted that the court had previously required trucking companies to comply with state minimum-wage laws.
The appellate court reinstated a suit by 349 Penske drivers who said they typically work more than 10 hours a day and are either required or encouraged to take unpaid breaks on their own time. The ruling covered only in-state trucking, but Deepak Gupta, a lawyer for the drivers, said the court’s reasoning should apply equally to California truckers who make deliveries in other states and to similar laws elsewhere in the nine-state circuit.
In seeking Supreme Court review, Penske’s lawyers argued that California’s laws “force motor carriers to alter their routes and services to accommodate the requisite breaks, and thereby impact carriers’ prices as well.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce supported the company’s request for a hearing. The Obama administration sided with the drivers in the appellate court.
The cases are Penske Logistics vs. Dilts, 14-801, and Vitran Express vs. Campbell, 14-819.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko