The highly technical application of the motor carrier exemption to the FLSA’s overtime payment requirement often requires an analysis of the goods being transported by the purported motor carrier. If the goods in question are still traveling in the “continuous stream of interstate travel,” triggering Department of Transportation jurisdiction over the motor carrier, the exemption

The requirements of the FLSA’s motor carrier exemption have been historically difficult to apply. This is particularly true after the 2005 enactment of SAFETEA-LU, a federal transportation bill that unintentionally modified the definition of a qualifying motor carrier, and the subsequent passage of the 2008 Technical Corrections Act, an amendment to SAFETEA-LU clarifying the latter’s impact

The motor carrier exemption is one of the original exemptions contained in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.   But seventy years later courts continue to clarify its contours. In just the past few months, several decisions have addressed the exemption—some addressing basic threshold issues and others addressing changes made by dizzying legislation passed between 2005-2008