How to Report a Trucking Company That Won't Pay You

Type "trucking company didn't pay me" into any driver forum and you'll get forty replies, half of them wrong. Somebody says call FMCSA. Somebody says FMCSA doesn't care. Somebody says sue, somebody says you can't afford to. All of them are partly right, because the correct door depends on facts most drivers never sort out first.

I run a 15-truck fleet, so I sit on the carrier side of every settlement we cut. I also drove and ran as an owner-operator before that. This guide is the map I wish someone had handed me the first time a carrier shorted me: which agency handles which problem, what to bring, the deadlines that kill claims, and how to make sure the carrier can't quietly do it to the next driver.

Everything below was checked against the statute or agency page on September 8, 2026. The sources are listed at the end.

First: which kind of driver are you?

The law splits truck drivers into two worlds, and each world has its own referee. Company drivers on a W-2 are protected by wage law: the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) plus your state's payday statute. Leased owner-operators are protected by the federal Truth-in-Leasing rules in 49 CFR Part 376, enforced by FMCSA and the federal courts. Lease-purchase drivers usually have a foot in both.

Why does this matter before you make a single call? Because the Wage and Hour Division will not enforce a lease, and FMCSA will not chase a shorted paycheck. Drivers lose months sending the right complaint to the wrong agency.

Two more guides go deeper on the money side. Twelve ways carriers short your pay shows how to audit your own settlement. Escrow, chargebacks and your Truth-in-Leasing rights walks through Part 376 line by line.

Step 1: Build the paper trail before you make a call

Every agency on this page will ask the same first question: can you show it? The Wage and Hour Division's own intake page asks for pay stubs, your personal records of hours worked and anything showing how and when you were paid. Drivers who lose these disputes rarely lose because they were wrong. They lose because they never kept the paper.

Start with the documents you have a legal right to:

• Your ELD records. Under 49 CFR 395.36 a carrier cannot make you go through the company to get your own logs, and on request it must give you copies of any records it still holds. Carriers must keep records of duty status and supporting documents for at least six months (49 CFR 395.8(k)). Pull them before you quit.
• Pay statements. Texas requires a written earnings statement every pay period showing every deduction and its purpose (Labor Code 62.003). New York must explain in writing how your wages were computed if you ask (Labor Law 195(3)). California must hand over your payroll records within 21 days of a request or owe a $750 penalty (Labor Code 226). Ohio's Pay Stub Protection Act, effective April 9, 2025, gives you ten days from a written request.
• The pay agreement. The offer letter, recruiter email, orientation packet or lease. If your pay terms only ever existed in a phone call, write down the date, the name and the promise now.
• Dispatch messages and load documents. Rate confirmations, bills of lading with in and out times, Qualcomm or app messages about detention, layover or extra stops.
• A one-page timeline. Date, load, what you were promised, what you were paid, the difference. Total it. That number is your claim.

Photograph everything into a cloud folder the carrier cannot touch. If you are still driving for them, do this quietly and completely before anything else.

Step 2: Send a written demand (the step most drivers skip)

A written demand does three things a phone call cannot. It creates a dated record that the carrier knew. It forces someone above your dispatcher to read a number. And in several states it starts a penalty clock. Colorado law doubles the unpaid wages, or awards at least $1,000, if the employer ignores a written demand for 14 days (C.R.S. 8-4-109). Florida requires written notice and a 15-day window before you can sue for unpaid state minimum wage (Fla. Stat. 448.110). Massachusetts requires a complaint to the Attorney General before a private suit.

Keep it to one page and keep it boring. Facts, dates, amounts, a deadline. A template:

To: [Carrier name], Attn: Payroll / Settlements
Re: Unpaid compensation, [your name], driver ID [number]

Between [date] and [date] I drove [number] loads for [carrier]. My agreed pay was [rate and terms, with the document that states them]. Settlements dated [dates] paid [amount]. The amount still owed is [amount], itemized on the attached page (paid miles versus actual miles, detention at [rate], deductions of [amount] I did not authorize in writing, final settlement of [date]).

Please pay the full amount by [date, 10 business days out] and send an itemized statement showing how each settlement was computed. If it is not paid by that date I will file with the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division and [state agency], and I will pursue the claim in court, including liquidated damages and attorney fees where the law provides them.

[Name, address, phone, email, date]

Send it by email and by certified mail, and keep the receipt. Do not threaten anything you don't intend to do, and do not accuse anyone of a crime. You are stating a debt, not filing charges.

Step 3 (company drivers): File with the Wage and Hour Division or your state

In fiscal year 2025 the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recovered more than $259 million in back wages for 176,957 workers, according to the agency's own enforcement data. It is the federal referee for company-driver pay, it costs nothing, and it does not need a lawyer. Call 1-866-487-9243 or use the contact form at dol.gov. Complaints are confidential: the agency does not disclose your name or even whether a complaint exists.

Here is what the FLSA actually guarantees a truck driver, because the rules are narrower than most drivers think and wider than most carriers admit.

Minimum wage applies. Overtime usually doesn't.

Section 13(b)(1) of the FLSA exempts interstate drivers from overtime, not from minimum wage. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #19 spells out the exemption, and it names the exception: in any week you drive a vehicle weighing 10,000 pounds or less, overtime applies. So the common carrier line "drivers are exempt from wage laws" is wrong. Your total pay for the week, after unlawful deductions, divided by all hours worked, must clear the federal minimum wage and your state's higher floor if it has one.

A bill to end the overtime exemption, the Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act, was reintroduced on March 6, 2025 as H.R. 1962 and S. 893. As of September 2026 it has not moved out of committee.

Mandatory orientation and training are hours worked.

Under 29 CFR 785.27, training time is unpaid only if it is outside regular hours, truly voluntary, not related to your job, and involves no productive work. Carrier orientation fails that test on its face. Section 785.28 adds that attendance "is not voluntary, of course, if it is required by the employer." Unpaid orientation week is one of the most common trucking wage claims, and one of the easiest to prove: the schedule is in the packet they gave you.

Deductions cannot take you below minimum wage.

Wages must be paid "free and clear" (29 CFR 531.35). Fact Sheet #16 says deductions for items that mainly benefit the employer, including damage to company property, cash shortages and vehicle repair costs, may not push a week's pay below the minimum wage. State law is often stricter: Texas, Illinois, New York and Indiana all require your written authorization for deductions, and California bars deductions for accidental loss or damage regardless of what you signed.

The clock and the payoff.

You have two years to bring an FLSA claim, three if the violation was willful (29 U.S.C. 255). If you win in court, the employer owes the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, plus your attorney fees and costs (29 U.S.C. 216(b)). Firing or punishing you for complaining is itself illegal under 29 U.S.C. 215(a)(3), and the remedy includes reinstatement and lost wages.

Reality check on speed.

WHD does not publish how long an investigation takes, and it is stretched thin. A Rutgers analysis found 611 investigators nationwide as of May 14, 2025, a 52-year low. File anyway, because a federal finding is powerful, but file with your state agency at the same time. State payday laws often move faster and carry automatic penalties.

State agencies and final-paycheck rules.

If your state isn't listed, search "[state] wage claim" and look for the .gov result. Most states have a form, and most forms take twenty minutes. The full state-by-state breakdown, including bonus clawbacks and training debt, is in Can a trucking company hold your last paycheck?

Step 3 (owner-operators): File a Truth-in-Leasing complaint with FMCSA, or sue

If you lease your truck to a carrier, the federal regulation that governs your money is 49 CFR 376.12, and it is more specific than most leases admit. Payment is due "within 15 days after submission of the necessary delivery documents." Every chargeback must be listed in the lease with "how the amount of each item is to be computed," and you must be given the documents to check it. The carrier cannot require you to buy insurance, equipment or services from it as a condition of the lease. Escrow must earn interest, be accounted for on demand, and be returned "in no event later than 45 days from the date of termination."

When a carrier breaks these rules you have two routes, and you can use both.

FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database (nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov, hotline 1-888-368-7238) accepts complaints from drivers and owner-operators, and FMCSA uses them to decide which carriers to investigate. It is free and takes half an hour. What it will not do is write you a check.

Federal court is where the money comes from. Under 49 U.S.C. 14704(a)(2), a carrier "is liable for damages sustained by a person as a result of an act or omission of that carrier" in violation of the leasing rules, and section 14704(e) says the court "shall award a reasonable attorney's fee." You do not have to complain to FMCSA first; the Eighth Circuit confirmed the private right of action in OOIDA v. New Prime in 1999. That fee-shifting is why transportation lawyers take Truth-in-Leasing cases on contingency, and why the settlements are large:

• C.R. England paid $37.8 million in 2019 to 17,519 drivers who entered its lease-purchase program, and cancelled about $48 million in disputed debt.
• Swift settled the Van Dusen misclassification case over its lease drivers for $100 million in 2019, covering roughly 20,000 owner-operators.
• New Jersey settled with STG Logistics for at least $2,775,000 on July 29, 2026, after alleging the company deducted fuel, tolls, parking, insurance and repairs from drivers' pay until some pay periods came out negative.
• Schneider agreed to a $350,000 settlement approved June 26, 2026 with 131 lease drivers who alleged Truth-in-Leasing and minimum-wage violations.

Those are class actions, not individual claims. For one driver's escrow or a few thousand dollars in chargebacks, the practical path is the demand letter, the FMCSA complaint, and small claims court, in that order. OOIDA reviews leases for members and will contact a carrier on your behalf (816-229-5791; membership is $45 a year). The full regulation, with what each paragraph means for your settlement, is in the Truth-in-Leasing guide.

Step 4: Punished for refusing an unsafe or illegal load? OSHA, within 180 days

The Surface Transportation Assistance Act (49 U.S.C. 31105) protects you when you refuse to drive because "the operation violates a regulation, standard, or order" on commercial vehicle safety, or because you have "a reasonable apprehension of serious injury." It also protects you for filing a safety complaint or cooperating with an investigation. The deadline is hard: 180 days from the retaliation.

Filing is easier than most drivers expect. Under 29 CFR 1978.103, "no particular form of complaint is required," it can be oral or written, in any language, with any OSHA office. If OSHA finds a violation it orders reinstatement "with the same pay and terms," back pay with interest, compensatory damages, litigation costs and attorney fees. Punitive damages can reach $250,000.

These are not theoretical. In January 2026 OSHA ordered Balkan Express of Fort Worth to reinstate a driver fired after reporting safety concerns and to pay more than $100,000 in back wages, interest, compensatory and punitive damages. In September 2024, TrueStart Transport of Maryland was ordered to pay $46,094 to a driver fired for refusing to haul an oversize load without an escort, after the company left the driver stranded at a Tennessee truck stop.

Step 5: Threatened to break the rules? FMCSA coercion complaint, within 90 days

Since 2016, 49 CFR 390.6 has prohibited carriers, shippers, receivers and brokers from coercing a driver to violate the safety regulations. Coercion means threatening to withhold work, pay or employment, or actually punishing you, to make you drive over hours, skip an inspection, haul an overweight load or break the drug-and-alcohol rules. Threatening to cut your pay or your loads counts. The threat itself is the violation.

The complaint goes to the National Consumer Complaint Database or your state's FMCSA Division Administrator, and under 49 CFR 386.12(c) it must be filed no later than 90 days after the event. It has to be signed and include your contact details, who coerced you, which regulation you were pushed to break, and "a concise but complete statement of the facts," with the date of each incident. Penalties for violating Part 390 rules run to $19,246 per violation under FMCSA's current schedule.

A coercion complaint does not recover your pay. Pair it with the wage or STAA complaint that does.

Step 6: Small claims court, when the number is under your state's limit

For a shorted final check or an escrow balance, small claims court is often the fastest route to an enforceable judgment. Filing fees are modest, hearings are short, and in most states you don't need a lawyer. In California you can't have one at the hearing at all.

Where do you file when the carrier is in another state? Generally where the carrier is based, where the work happened, or where the contract was to be performed. Texas lets you sue an out-of-state defendant in your own county. If you win against a carrier in another state, you may have to register the judgment there to collect, so weigh that before you drive to the courthouse. Bring the demand letter, the certified-mail receipt and your one-page timeline; judges like a plaintiff who did the math.

Step 7: Paid on a 1099 while they controlled everything? Two more doors

If the carrier set your loads, routes and rates, forbade you from working for anyone else, and you drove its truck, you may have been an employee with a contractor's tax form. The Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #13 lists the factors: control, opportunity for profit or loss, investment, permanence, skill, and whether the work is integral to the business. What you were called "is not relevant."

Two filings follow. IRS Form SS-8 asks the IRS to determine your status, and Form 8919 lets you pay only the employee half of Social Security and Medicare. A misclassified driver otherwise eats the employer's 7.65% share, and loses unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. States are active here too: California's AB5 was upheld against the trucking industry by the Ninth Circuit on May 16, 2025, and New Jersey has used its 2021 misclassification law to sue carriers directly. Add the misclassification facts to your WHD complaint; the two claims travel together.

Step 8: Make sure the next driver knows

Agencies recover money. They don't warn anyone. The carrier that shorted you is recruiting tonight, and the driver reading its job ad has no way to know unless someone who was there says so. That is the reason Oculus Reviews exists.

Search the carrier at oculusreviews.com/catalog by name or USDOT number, open its profile and tap Leave a Review. You'll sign in or create a free driver account, rate the company overall and then separately on pay, home time, dispatch and safety, and describe what happened. You can add your dates, position and equipment, and you can check Post anonymously so your name is hidden from public view; anonymous reviews are verified through a document upload that only our team sees. Companies can respond publicly. They cannot edit or delete what you wrote.

Write the review the way you wrote the demand letter. Dates, loads, what the settlement said, what you were promised, what you did about it. "Paid HHG miles at 52 cents while the offer letter said practical miles; settlements for March 3 to April 14 came out 6% short; filed with TWC on May 2" helps the next driver and holds up. "These crooks stole from me" helps no one and invites a fight you don't need. State facts. Let readers draw the conclusion.

What not to do

• Don't abandon the truck. An "abandonment" entry on your DAC report follows you for years, and it hands the carrier a chargeback story. Deliver the load, park where you were told, document the handover with photos and a text, then leave. If a bad entry appears anyway, here is how to dispute a DAC report.
• Don't hold freight hostage. It converts your wage claim into their cargo claim.
• Don't sign a "final settlement" release to get your check. Read it. If it waives claims, take a photo, don't sign, and note the date they conditioned your pay on it.
• Don't wait for the carrier to "look into it." The 90-day FMCSA clock and the 180-day OSHA and Texas clocks do not pause while payroll promises to call you back.
• Don't post the carrier's private documents online. Keep them for the agency. Describe them in your review.

Every deadline on one page

Frequently asked questions

Where do I report a trucking company for not paying me?

Company drivers report unpaid or shorted wages to the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243 or to their state labor agency. Leased owner-operators file Truth-in-Leasing complaints in FMCSA's National Consumer Complaint Database or sue under 49 U.S.C. 14704, which awards attorney fees. Retaliation for refusing an unsafe load goes to OSHA within 180 days.

Can FMCSA make a trucking company pay me?

Not for an ordinary paycheck dispute. FMCSA's complaint database covers coercion, harassment, hours-of-service and leasing violations, not wage law, which belongs to the Department of Labor and the states. If you are a leased owner-operator and the carrier broke the Truth-in-Leasing rules on settlements, chargebacks or escrow, FMCSA takes that complaint, and you can also sue in federal court.

How long do I have to file an unpaid wage claim as a truck driver?

Two years under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or three if the violation was willful. State deadlines are often shorter: Texas gives 180 days and Illinois one year. FMCSA coercion complaints must be filed within 90 days and OSHA retaliation complaints within 180 days.

Can a trucking company fire me for filing a wage complaint?

No. Section 15(a)(3) of the FLSA makes it illegal to fire or discriminate against an employee for filing a wage complaint; remedies include reinstatement, lost wages and an equal amount in liquidated damages. If you were punished for refusing an unsafe or illegal load, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act adds back pay, compensatory damages and punitive damages up to $250,000.

Do I need a lawyer to get unpaid wages from a trucking company?

Not to start. Wage and Hour complaints, state wage claims, FMCSA complaints and small claims court are all built for people without lawyers, and California bars attorneys from small claims hearings. For larger claims, both the FLSA and the Truth-in-Leasing statute make the carrier pay your attorney fees if you win, so employment lawyers take strong cases on contingency.

How do I warn other drivers about a trucking company that didn't pay?

Search the carrier on Oculus Reviews by name or USDOT number, open its profile and tap Leave a Review. Rate pay separately from home time, dispatch and safety, and put the dates, loads and dollar amounts in the text. You can post anonymously, and companies can respond publicly but cannot edit or delete a review.

Sources

All sources retrieved September 8, 2026.

• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, "How to File a Complaint" and "Information Needed to File a Complaint": dol.gov/agencies/whd/contact/complaints
• U.S. Department of Labor, WHD, "Data: Enforcement" (FY2025 back wages): dol.gov/agencies/whd/data
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #19, "The Motor Carrier Exemption Under the FLSA": dol.gov
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #16, "Deductions From Wages for Uniforms and Other Facilities": dol.gov
• U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #13, "Employment Relationship Under the FLSA": dol.gov
• 29 CFR 785.27 and 785.28 (training time); 29 CFR 531.35 (free and clear): law.cornell.edu
• 29 U.S.C. 255, 216 and 215 (limitations, liquidated damages, retaliation): law.cornell.edu
• 49 CFR 395.36 and 395.8 (driver access to ELD records; retention): law.cornell.edu
• 49 CFR 376.12 (Truth-in-Leasing lease requirements): law.cornell.edu
• 49 U.S.C. 14704 (private right of action, attorney fees): law.cornell.edu; OOIDA v. New Prime, 192 F.3d 778 (8th Cir. 1999)
• 49 U.S.C. 31105 and 29 CFR 1978.103 (STAA protections, 180-day deadline, filing): law.cornell.edu
• 49 CFR 390.6 and 386.12(c) (coercion; 90-day complaint): law.cornell.edu; Appendix B to Part 386 (penalty schedule, adjusted July 21, 2026)
• FMCSA, National Consumer Complaint Database: nccdb.fmcsa.dot.gov
• OSHA news releases: Balkan Express (Jan. 8, 2026), dol.gov; TrueStart Transport (Sept. 27, 2024), osha.gov
• FreightWaves, "C.R. England reaches $37.8 million lawsuit settlement," May 9, 2019: freightwaves.com; FreightWaves, Swift/Van Dusen $100 million settlement, March 15, 2019
• New Jersey Department of Labor, STG Logistics settlement release, July 29, 2026: nj.gov
• Land Line, "Mega carrier to settle high-profile wage, misclassification lawsuit" (Schneider), June 30, 2026: landline.media
• Rutgers SMLR, "Labor investigator staffing hits 52-year low," May 29, 2025: smlr.rutgers.edu
• State statutes and agency pages: California Labor Code 201-203, 226 and DLSE FAQs; Texas Labor Code 61.014, 61.018, 62.003 and TWC Payday Law page; 820 ILCS 115/5, 115/9, 115/14 and IDOL FAQ; 43 P.S. 260.5, 260.9a, 260.10; New York Labor Law 191, 193, 195, 198; Ohio Revised Code 4113.14, 4113.15, 1925.02; Indiana Code 22-2-5-1, 22-2-9-5, 33-29-2-4; Tennessee Code 50-2-103, 16-15-501; Georgia DOL FAQ; Florida Statutes 448.08, 448.110; Colorado Revised Statutes 8-4-109; Massachusetts G.L. c.149 s.150; Texas State Law Library small-claims guide (updated Aug. 26, 2026)
• Rep. Mark Takano, Guaranteeing Overtime for Truckers Act reintroduction, March 6, 2025: takano.house.gov
• Land Line, "California's AB5 upheld by Ninth Circuit," May 22, 2025: landline.media
• IRS, About Form SS-8 and About Form 8919; Tax Topic 751: irs.gov

This guide is general information from someone who runs trucks, not legal advice. Deadlines and dollar limits change; the sources above were checked on September 8, 2026. For your situation, talk to a labor attorney or your state labor agency.