Current and former shuttle truck drivers for Ford Motor Company's Chicago assembly plant sued Laci Transport Inc., Bosman Trucking Inc. and other defendants, claiming they were owed overtime wages under the Fair Labor Standards Act for driving routes entirely within Illinois. The drivers transported automobile parts manufactured outside Illinois between Ford storage lots and the assembly plant, as well as returning empty shipping containers to the lots.
Circuit Judge Ilana Rovner wrote that the drivers' routes were exempt from FLSA overtime requirements because they were part of interstate commerce under the Motor Carrier Act. "The transportation by the shuttle drivers to and from the storage lots is a part of the interstate shipment of the parts from the out-of-state manufacturing plants to the Assembly Plant," Rovner said, applying the court's precedent in Collins v. Heritage Wine Cellars that found temporary warehousing doesn't break the continuity of interstate journeys.
U.S. District Judge John F. Kness had granted summary judgment for the defendants in the consolidated class actions, finding the MCA exemption applied. The drivers argued that Ford's storage lots and assembly plant should be considered one "Ford Assembly Campus," making their routes purely intrastate, but the district court rejected that characterization.
The ruling reinforces the broad scope of interstate commerce exemptions for truck drivers, even when their actual driving routes are entirely intrastate. The decision could impact similar overtime claims by drivers who handle goods in temporary storage as part of larger interstate transportation chains, particularly in the automotive industry where just-in-time delivery models are common.