IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 12-20194

DONALD ALLEN; JAVIER BAUTISTA; ADAM D. CREWS, SR.; ODELL

GODFREY; JEROME JOHNSON; ET AL, 

Plaintiffs - Appellants

v.

COIL TUBING SERVICES, L.L.C.

Defendant - Appellee

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOSHUA BABINEAUX; DAVID BARRAS; ROSS WAYNE BOUTTE,

WILLIAM C. BROUSSARD; WILLIAM DANIEL BROWN, ET. AL.,

Plaintiffs - Appellants

v.

COIL TUBING SERVICES, L.L.C.

Defendant - Appellee

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Texas

Before JONES, DENNIS and HIGGINSON, Circuit Judges.

HIGGINSON, Circuit Judge:

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

F I L E D

June 13, 2014

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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Plaintiffs-Appellants alleged that they worked more than forty hours a

week, and that their employer, Defendant-Appellee Coil Tubing Services, L.L.C.

(“CTS”), wrongfully denied them overtime pay in violation of the Fair Labor

Standards Act (“FLSA”). The district court held, among other things, that the

Motor Carrier Act (“MCA”) exempted certain CTS employees from the overtimepay requirements of the FLSA based, in part, on the percentage of safetyaffecting interstate activities these employees engaged in company-wide. 

Undertaking a limited interlocutory review, we AFFIRM.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

CTS services oil wells. From 2005 to 2008, the company divided itself into

six geographic “districts.” The districts operated under a single U.S. Department

of Transportation (“DOT”) number, and were not legal entities distinct from

CTS. The districts sometimes borrowed personnel and equipment from each

other. They also sometimes solicited and accepted projects outside their

respective geographic boundaries.

Plaintiffs worked in four of the districts: Alice, Texas; Angleton, Texas;

Bridgeport, Texas; and Broussard, Louisiana. Their positions included:

Equipment Operator (“EO”), Service Technician I (“ST-I”), Service Technician

II (“ST-II”), Service Supervisor Trainee (“SST”), Service Supervisor (“SS”),

Service Coordinator (“SC”), and Field Engineer I (“FE-I”).

Plaintiffs’ duties varied by position. SCs coordinated projects. FE-Is

recorded the pressure of coil tubing units at well sites. EOs, ST-Is, ST-IIs, SSTs,

and SSs helped transport materials to project sites.

Plaintiffs initiated this suit for overtime pay in November 2008. “To

efficiently manage [the] case,” the district court ordered the parties to conduct

discovery on a cross-section of fourteen Plaintiffs, known as the “Bellwether

group.” On completion of discovery, the parties filed cross-motions for summary

judgment on whether exemptions to the FLSA, and, in particular, an MCA

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exemption allowing certain employers not to pay overtime to employees engaged

in safety-affecting interstate activities, applied to Plaintiffs.

The district court initially denied, in part, summary judgment for CTS

based, in part, on a district-by-district analysis of the employees’ interstate

activities. The district court explained: that EOs, ST-Is, ST-IIs, SSTs, and SSs,

but not FE-Is and SCs,1 had similar-enough job duties to be grouped together as

“Field Service Employees,” or “FSEs”; that FSEs who worked on land-based, but

not offshore, wells engaged in activities affecting motor vehicle safety; and that,

measuring interstate activities by district, only land-based FSEs in certain

districts had a reasonable expectation of engaging in sufficient interstate

activities.

The parties filed motions for reconsideration. Observing that “[n]either

party had argued for a district-by-district analysis,” the district court granted

CTS’ motion, and vacated its initial order.

The district court then granted, in part, summary judgment for CTS, using

a company-wide analysis to find that the MCA exemption applied to many of the

Plaintiffs. In a sixty-three page opinion issued January 11, 2012, the district

court used the same individualized analysis to establish the class of FSEs, and

to determine that only FSEs who worked on land-based wells engaged in

activities affecting motor vehicle safety. The district court then reasoned that

a company-wide analysis of these employees’ interstate activities was

appropriate because “[t]here is insufficient evidence or legal authority . . . to

treat the districts separately.” Measuring the interstate activities of land-based

FSEs on a company-wide basis, the district court found: that 7 percent of

projects required these employees to drive across state lines;that such trips were

1The district court denied the parties’ summary judgment motions relating to the FE-Is

and SCs on the basis that there was a genuine issue of fact as to whether the MCA exemption

applied to employees holding these positions.

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assigned indiscriminately; and that, therefore, land-based FSEs had a

“reasonable expectation” that they “could be assigned to drive interstate.” The

district court extended its rulings to all Plaintiffs, and not just those in the

Bellwether group.

The district court granted Plaintiffs’ request for permission to file an

interlocutory appeal under 29 U.S.C. §1292(b), explaining that its rulings,

“particularly those involving application of the [MCA exemption], involve

controlling questions of law as to which there is substantial ground for difference

of option,” and that “an immediate appeal from those rulings is likely to

materially advance the ultimate termination of this litigation.” This court then

granted Appellants’ motion for leave to appeal.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

“Althoughwe ordinarily review a district court’s summary judgment ruling

de novo, our appellate jurisdiction under [28 U.S.C.] § 1292(b) extends only to

controlling questions of law, thus, we review only the issue of law certified for

appeal.” Tanks v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 417 F.3d 456, 461 (5th Cir. 2005). The

district court certified for interlocutory appeal the rulings in its January 11,

2012 order, “particularly those involving application of the [MCA exemption].” 

We therefore limit our review to these rulings, particularly whether the MCA

exemption applies.

THE MCA EXEMPTION

Section 207 of the FLSA requires an employer to pay overtime

compensation to any employee working more than forty hours in a workweek.2

2 Section 207(a)(1) provides in full:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, no employer shall employ any of

his employees who in any workweek is engaged in commerce or in the

production of goods for commerce, or is employed in an enterprise engaged in

commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, for a workweek longer

than forty hours unless such employee receives compensation for his

employment in excess of the hours above specified at a rate not less than one

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See 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1); Singer v. City of Waco, 324 F.3d 813, 818 (5th Cir.

2003). “Exemptions under the FLSA are construed narrowly against the

employer, and the employer bears the burden to establish a claimed exemption.”

Songer v. Dillon Res., Inc., 618 F.3d 467, 471 (5th Cir. 2010).

At issue on appeal is the MCA exemption, “which states that the FLSA’s

overtime requirement ‘shall not apply . . . to . . . any employee with respect to

whom the Secretary of Transportation has power to establish qualifications and

maximum hours of service pursuant to the provisions of section 31502 of Title

49’ of the MCA.” Id (alterations in original) (quoting 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1)). 

Section 31502, in turn, provides that the DOT “may prescribe requirements for

. . . qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees of, and standards

of equipment of, a motor private carrier, when needed to promote safety of

operation.” 49 U.S.C. § 31502(b)(2). The DOT may establish these requirements

for employees who 

(1) Are employed by carriers whose transportation of passengers or

property by motor vehicle is subject to his jurisdiction under section

204 of the [MCA] . . . and (2) engage in activities of a character

directly affecting the safety of operation of motor vehicles in the

transportation on the public highways of passengers or property in

interstate or foreign commerce within the meaning of the [MCA].

29 C.F.R. § 782.2(a); see Songer, 618 F.3d at 472. “For the motor carrier

exemption to apply . . . [the employees] must meet both of these requirements.”

Barefoot v. Mid-Am. Dairymen, Inc., No. 93-1684, 1994 WL 57686, at *2 (5th Cir.

Feb.18, 1994) (per curiam) (unpublished).

To satisfy the first requirement—whether the employer is “subject to [the

DOT’s] jurisdiction,” 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(a)—an employer “must be engaged in

interstate commerce.” Songer, 618 F.3d at 472. The MCA defines interstate

and one-half times the regular rate at which he is employed.

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commerce as commerce “between a place in . . . a State and a place in another

State.” 49 U.S.C. § 13501(1)(A). However, this definition “has not been applied

literally by the courts. In fact, we have defined it as the actual transport of

goods across state lines or the intrastate transport of goods in the flow of

interstate commerce.” Songer, 618 F.3d at 472 (internal quotation marks

omitted).

To satisfy the second requirement—whether the employees “engage in

activities of a character directly affecting the safety of operation of motor

vehicles . . . in interstate . . . commerce,” 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(a)—“neither the name

given to his position nor that given to the work that he does is controlling.” 29

C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(2) (citing Pyramid Motor Freight Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U.S. 695,

707 (1947)). Rather, “what is controlling is the character of the activities

involved in the performance of [the employee’s] job.” 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(2); see

Levinson v. Spector Motor Serv., 330 U.S. 649, 674-75 (1947) (observing that “[i]t

is the character of the activities rather than the proportion of either the

employee’s time or of his activities” that controls). As a “general rule,” 

if the bona fide duties of the job performed by the employee are in

fact such that he is (or, in the case of a member of a group of drivers,

driver’s helpers, loaders, or mechanics employed by a common

carrier and engaged in safety-affecting occupations, that he is likely

to be) called upon in the ordinary course of his work to perform,

either regularly or from time to time, safety-affecting activities . . .

he comes within the exemption in all workweeks when he is

employed at such job. . . . Where this is the case, the rule applies

regardless of the proportion of the employee’s time or of his

activities which is actually devoted to such safety-affecting work in

the particular workweek, and the exemption will be applicable even

in a workweek when the employee happens to perform no work

directly affecting “safety of operation.” 

29 C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(3); see Songer, 618 F.3d at 474. “On the other hand, where

the continuing duties of the employee’s job have no substantial direct effect on

such safety of operation or where such safety-affecting activities are so trivial,

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casual, and insignificant as to be de minimis, the exemption will not apply to[the

employee] in any workweek so long as there is no change in his duties.” 29

C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(3) (citing Pyramid, 330 U.S. at 707-08).

To measure whether employees are “likely to be . . . called upon in the

ordinary course of [their] work to perform . . . safety-affecting activities” that are

interstate in nature, 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(3), we look to whether the employees

“could reasonably have been expected to [engage] in interstate commerce

consistent with their job duties.” Songer, 618 F.3d at 476 (finding that a

reasonable expectation arosewhen about 2.75 percent of “loads were transported

across state lines”); see Morris v. McComb, 332 U.S. 422, 433-34 (1947) (applying

the MCA exemption to drivers who spent about 4 percent of their time

transporting goods in interstate commerce); Starrett v. Bruce, 391 F.2d 320, 323-

24 (10th Cir. 1968) (applying the MCA exemption to a driver, even though the

driver’s employer derived no income from interstate transport, because the

employer solicited interstate business and would have assigned the driver to

interstate trips if the employer had obtained such business).

The parties do not dispute that CTS satisfies the first requirement—being

“subject to [the DOT’s] jurisdiction,” 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(a)— because it is a motor

carrier that engages in interstate commerce. Rather, the parties dispute the

second requirement: whether the FSEs engaged in activities that affected “the

safety of operations of motor vehicles in the transportation on the public

highways of passengers or property in interstate or foreign commerce.” 29 C.F.R.

§ 782.2(a). Within the framework of this second requirement, the parties do not

contest that an individualized analysis is appropriate to determine whether

Appellants have similar-enough duties to belong to the class of employees that

engages in safety-affecting activities. The parties only contest whether, in

measuring the interstate activities of this class of employees, an “employee-byemployee,” “district-by-district,” or “company-wide” analysis is appropriate.

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We hold that a company-wide analysis is appropriate in this case because

this court’s precedent effectively forecloses an employee-by-employee analysis,

and the facts of this case, and arguments advanced by the parties, do not support

a district-by-district analysis.

This court’s Songer decision declined to adopt an employee-by-employee

analysis. In Songer, truck drivers sought overtime under the FLSA. 618 F.3d

at 468. The drivers argued that “[s]imply being an interstate driver for a

commercial carrier is not enough . . . a driver must be personally engaged in

interstate transportation to be exempt.” A unanimous panel declined to adopt

this argument, observing that the “application of the MCA exemption to an

employee ‘depends . . . on the class of work involved in the employee’s job.’”

Songer, 618 F.3d at 472 (emphasis added) (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(a)). The

panel first observed that “Plaintiffs, as truck drivers subject to DOT

requirements, are employed in positions that affect the operational safety of

motor vehicles.” Songer, 618 F.3d at 473 (internal quotation marks omitted). 

Then, evaluating these drivers as a class, the panel found: that about 2.75

percent of the drivers’ trips were interstate; that the drivers’ employer

indiscriminately assigned such trips; and that, therefore, the drivers “could

reasonably have been expected to drive in interstate commerce consistent with

their job duties.” See id. at 475-76. This is Songer’s binding analysis:

Plaintiffs assert that the Secretary’s jurisdiction only applies to

transportation across state lines, and therefore that Defendants

must demonstrate that each driver personally transported property

by motor vehicle across state lines. But the Supreme Court held in

Morris that the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), the

predecessor to the DOT, had jurisdiction to regulate all of defendant

carrier’s drivers, even though two of the 42 drivers had not engaged

in interstate trips during the relevant period, and that the drivers

were not entitled to overtime under the FLSA. Morris, 332 U.S. at

434–36, 68 S.Ct. 131. In that case, the carrier’s few interstate trips

(4% of all trips during the relevant period) were distributed

indiscriminately to all drivers. Id. at 433, 68 S.Ct. 131. The Supreme

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Court noted that, in practical terms, the safety concerns facing a

carrier who sent every driver on an interstate trip would be the

same if the carrier sent only some or most of its drivers on interstate 

trips. See id. at 434, 68 S.Ct. 131. 

Id. at 474. 

The district court in this case explicitly and closely adhered to our Songer

decision’s reasonable expectation analysis. The district court created a chart

that listed each member of the Bellwether group, and included the member’s

title, district, and start and end dates. Then the district court looked to each

member’s job duties to find that, notwithstanding their different positions,

members working as EOs, ST-Is, ST-IIs, SSTs, and SSs had sufficiently similar

duties to belong to a class of employees known as FSEs. Tellingly, the district

court delimited this class by excluding FE-Is and SCs because there was

“insufficient evidence about whether the FE-Is or the SCs engaged in safetyaffecting transportation duties and whether there was a reasonable expectation

that their work would affect the safety of interstate transportation.” The district

court further delimited this class by excluding FSEs who worked on offshore

projects because “the factual record is conflicting and there remain open legal

issues” as to whether offshore FSEs engaged in safety-affecting transportation

activities affecting interstate commerce.3 The district court, after this extensive

individualized methodology,then found: that 7 percent of projects company-wide

required this class of employees to cross state lines; that CTS assigned such

interstate trips indiscriminately; and that, therefore, these employees had a

“reasonable expectation” that they “could be assigned to drive interstate.”4

3 We note also the district court’s fact-intensive assessment even of those offshore

employees as to whether they were, like Plaintiff Broussard, prohibited from driving.

4 Echoing Songer, the district court emphasized that “[t]hese employees have similar

job duties, were or could have been called upon to drive in interstate commerce during their

employment, and receive project assignments that changed often. Any driver could have been

assigned to an interstate project at any time,” and concluded that “the evidence establishes

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Given that this analysis adheres to the reasonable expectation approach of

Songer, we cannot say that, after using an individualized analysis to form the

class of employees known as land-based FSEs, the district court erred by not

repeating the individualized analysis to measure the interstate activity of each

member of the class. 

Relevant other Fifth Circuit and Supreme Court decisions are consistent

with Songer. For example, in Barefoot, a unanimous panel found that twenty-six

truck drivers engaged in interstate commerce even though “the drivers conceded

that, among the twenty-six of them,” only about “twenty trips were made across

state lines.” See 1994 WL 57686, at *3. Likewise, in Morris, the Supreme Court

found that forty-three drivers, who, as a group, devoted “about 4% of their time

and effort . . . to services in interstate commerce,” engaged in interstate

commerce even though two of the drivers did not take interstate trips. 332 U.S.

at 432-34. By contrast, the circuit court cases cited by Appellants in support of

an employee-by-employee analysis are distinguishable.5

Appellants argue that, by using “singular nouns and pronouns,” the

relevant statutes and regulations, including 29 U.S.C. §§ 207(a), 213(b) and 29

C.F.R. § 782.2, envision an employee-by-employee analysis. Read in context,

however, the use of singular terms suggests only that a district court should use

an individual analysis to determine if an employee belongs to a particular

“class.” See, e.g., 29 C.F.R. § 782.2 (observing the exemption depends on “the

class of work involved in the employee’s job” and “extends to those classes of

that, objectively, there was a reasonable expectation that any CTS Field Service Employee

could be assigned to drive interstate.” 

5 For example, in Goldberg v. Faber Indus., Inc., the Seventh Circuit declined to apply

the MCA exemption to drivers based, in part, on the fact that the drivers were assigned to

“designated” intrastate routes. 291 F.2d 232, 234 (7th Cir. 1961). By contrast, in this case,

interstate routes were assigned indiscriminately. Moreover, the Seventh Circuit in

Goldberg positively applied Morris, which, as noted already, involved a group that had two

non-interstate drivers. See 291 F.2d at 235.

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employees” who engage in safety-affective activities) (emphases added). As

discussed above, by finding that certain employees had similar-enough duties to

belong to a class of employees known as FSEs, and then by limiting this class,

the district court used such an analysis.6

Because Songer forecloses an employee-by-employee analysis, and because

Appellants do not provide a persuasive reason to depart from Songer, the

question narrows to whether the district should have used a district-by-district

or company-wide analysis to measure the interstate activities of land-based

FSEs.

Given the arguments advanced by the parties, and the facts of the case, a

company-wide analysis was appropriate. The FLSA provides that overtime-pay

requirements and exemptions apply only to an “employer.” See 29 U.S.C. §

207(a)(1). The district court found that CTS “was Plaintiffs’ only ‘employer’

during the relevant time periods; Plaintiffs were not employed by the various

districts.” Appellants did not argue in district court that the districts were their

employers, and they do not challenge on appeal the finding that CTS “was [their]

only ‘employer.’” Appellants therefore have waived any argument to the

contrary.7 See F.D.I.C. v. Mijalis, 15 F.3d 1314, 1326-27 (5th Cir. 1994).

6 Appellants also maintain that CTS is judicially estopped from arguing for a companywide analysis because CTS argued for an employee-by-employee analysis in Yaklin v. W-H

Energy Servs., Inc., No. C-07-422, 2008 WL 1989795, at *1 (S.D. Tex. May 2, 2008)

(unpublished). To the extent that this estoppel argument is within the scope of our limited

interlocutory review, see Tanks, 417 F.3d at 461, it is unpersuasive. Although “judicial

estoppel is not governed by inflexible prerequisites,” its application generally requires, among

other things,that “a court accepted the prior position.” Love v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 677 F.3d 258,

261 (5th Cir. 2012) (internal quotation marks omitted). Even if CTS did argue for an

employee-by-employee analysis in Yaklin, Appellants do not argue, and the Yaklin opinion

does not support, that the Yaklin court accepted CTS’ argument. See 2008 WL 1989795, at *3.

7 The FLSA defines an “employer” to “include[ ] any person”—that is, “an individual,

partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representative, or any organized

group of persons,” 29 U.S.C. § 203(a)—“acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an

employer in relation to an employee.” 29 U.S.C. § 203(d). Because we find that waiver applies,

we decline to address whether the districts were “employers” under this definition.

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By waiving this textual argument, Appellants’ opposition to a companywide analysis reduces to their contention that “the percentages of interstate

travel for [some districts] tell courts nothing about the reasonable expectation

of a worker dispatched from [other districts].” However, Songer looks at the

reasonable expectations of the employees as a class, even if, in doing so, the

effect is to apply the MCA exemption to employees who rarely, or never, engage

in interstate commerce. See 618 F.3d at 472-76. Songer does not instruct us to

subdivide a class of employees by geography, and the facts of this case do not

support such an artificial division. For example, the districts: operated under

a single DOT number; were not independent legal entities; borrowed personnel

and equipment from each other; and solicited and accepted projects outside their

geographic areas. Accordingly, as the district court found, “[t]here is insufficient

evidence or legal authority . . . to treat the districts separately instead of

conducting the MCA Exemption analysis based on CTS as a single ‘employer.’”8

8 With the highest respect, we are unconvinced by the dissenting opinion’s insistence

that precedent “prohibits” courts from determining a particular employee’s reasonable

expectation by reference to a class of similarly situated employees. Post, at 14. Indeed, the

dissent itself uses this “prohibited” mode of analysis by classifying employees by districts. In

what it deems “The Proper Analysis,” the dissent does not “make a determination vel non for

each plaintiff-employee,” but instead divies up the plaintiffs by district: “the vast majority of

jobs handled by the Alice, Angleton, Bridgeport, and Broussard districts were purely intrastate

jobs.” Post, at 30, 31. As evidence of the reasonable expectation of a particular employee, the

dissent looks to the percentage of each district’s jobs that were interstate: “in Alice and

Bridgeport, less than one percent of the jobs handled by those districts during the period

recorded were interstate.” Post, at 31. The dissent concludes its district-by-district analysis:

“Based on this evidence, a reasonable factfinder could determine that the likelihood of these

field service employees in the Alice, Angleton, Bridgeport, and Broussard districts driving

interstate is so minimal and remote, they cannot be ‘reasonably expected’ to be ‘called upon

in the ordinary course of [their] work to [drive interstate].’” Post, at 32 (quoting Songer, 618

F.3d at 474). The dissent may disagree with our choice of classification, preferring a districtby-district class to company-wide class, but it is still utilizing classifications in its analysis.

The dissent further does not convincingly explain how its proposed individualized

methodology coincides with Songer or Morris. As we explained, Morris found jurisdiction to

regulate “all of defendant carrier’s drivers, even though two of the 42 drivers had not engaged

in interstate trips.” Songer, 618 F.3d 467. If Morris applied an “individualized” assessment

of the two employees that had not engaged in interstate trips, it could not have found that

these employees had a reasonable expectation of engaging in interstate trips: they had not

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In sum, the district court did not err in using a company-wide analysis

because this court’s precedent effectively precludes an employee-by-employee

analysis, and because neither the parties’ arguments, nor the relevant facts,

support a district-by-district analysis.9

CONCLUSION

Accordingly, we AFFIRM the district court’s application of the MCA

exemption.

done so before. It is only by reference to other employees’ experience that Morris’s conclusion

makes sense. The dissent revealingly explains that Songer “made the common sense

observation that, because of company policies that were factually common to all employees (i.e.,

the indiscriminate assignment of interstate trips), each and every employee, all of whom had

the same likelihood of driving interstate, was reasonably likely to drive interstate.” Post, at

24. What the dissent frames as a “common sense observation” we call a class-based analysis;

there is a minimal semantic gap between our views. Moreover, the district court made this

exact “common sense observation” when it found that “[t]hese employees have similar job

duties, were or could have been called upon to drive in interstate commerce during their

employment, and receive project assignments that changed often. Any driver could have been

assigned to an interstate project at any time.” Accordingly, both of our opinions use

classifications to determine whether a particular employee has a reasonable expectation. We

simply part ways over the relevant class of comparison, and the factual conclusion reached by

the district court, “that the evidence establishes that, objectively, there was a reasonable

expectation that any CTS Field Service Employee could be assigned to drive interstate.”

9 CTS also argues that the district court erred by extending its January 11, 2012 rulings

to all Plaintiffs, and not just the Bellwether group. Even if this argument is within the scope

of our limited interlocutory review, see Tanks, 417 F.3d at 461, it is unpersuasive. Appellants

rely on an Eleventh Circuit case, Hogan v. Allstate Insurance Co., for the proposition that

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c) requires that “a minimum 10-day notice . . . must be

explicitly given to all plaintiffs,” and not just “test plaintiffs.” 361 F.3d 621, 628 (11th Cir.

2004) (per curiam). However, Rule 56 was amended in 2010—subsequent to the Hogan

decision, but before the district court’s January 11, 2012 rulings—to remove the referenced

ten-day notice requirement. See Atkins v. Salazar, 677 F.3d 667, 678 n.15 (5th Cir. 2011) (per

curiam). Further, CTS requested that the district court’s rulings apply to all plaintiffs in a

March 2011 filing, and then did so again in its motion for reconsideration. As a result,

attorneys for the non-Bellwether Plaintiffs, who also represented the Bellwether Plaintiffs,

had “a full opportunity to argue against” the application of the district court’s rulings to all

Plaintiffs. See Atkins, 677 F.3d at 681.

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JAMES L. DENNIS, Circuit Judge, dissenting:

I respectfully dissent because the district court and the majority of this

court have departed from controlling Supreme Court and circuit precedent and

have misinterpreted and misapplied Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulation 29

C.F.R. § 782.2(a) and this court’s decision in Songer v. Dillon Resources, Inc., 618

F.3d 467 (5th Cir. 2010), to except more than a hundred employees from

overtime wage protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”).

The issue is whether the Motor Carrier Act (“MCA”) exemption to the

FLSA excepts the oil-well-service plaintiffs-employees here from overtime

protection because their individualjob activities can conceivably affect the safety

of interstate transportation. If an employee is subject to the jurisdiction of the

Department of Transportation (“DOT”) under the MCA to regulate the

qualifications and maximum hours of service of the employee, then that

employee loses the FLSA’s protection over overtime pay. An employee is subject

to such MCA jurisdiction only, inter alia, if he is reasonably likely to carry out

job duties affecting the safety of interstate transportation (or international

transportation, although such is not involved in this case). 

In Pyramid Motor Freight Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U.S. 695 (1947), the

Supreme Court held that, when the MCA exemption is invoked as a defense in

an FLSA action for overtime pay, (1) the district court must “determine whether

or not the activities of each [employee]” are reasonably likely to affect the safety

of interstate transportation and that (2) the court may declare exempt from

overtime wage protection only “those [employees] who are engaged in such

activities.” Id. at 707-08 (emphasis added).1 Later that same year, in Morris v.

1 As further explained below, for an employee to be “engaged in” activities that affect

the safety of interstate transportation means that “the employee’s job duties are such that he

is (or is likely to be) called upon in the ordinary course of his work to perform safety-affecting

activities.” E.g., Songer, 618 F.3d at 474 (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(3)) (alteration omitted,

emphasis added).

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McComb, 332 U.S. 422 (1947), the Court reaffirmed that, in “an action to recover

overtime compensation for individual employees,” it is “necessary to determine”

“the extent to which” an employee seeking overtime pay carried out activities

reasonably likely to affect the safety of interstate transportation. Id. at 430.

Thus, under the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, MCA jurisdiction turns

on the individual job circumstances of “each” employee seeking overtime pay. 

Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., 330 U.S. at 707. An employee loses the FLSA’s

protection over overtime pay under the MCA exemption only if the employee,

based on the circumstances of his job, is reasonably likely to carry out activities

affecting the safety of interstate transportation operations. See also Mitchell v.

C & P Shoe Corp., 286 F.2d 109, 114 (5th Cir. 1960) (holding that MCA

jurisdiction turns on the “activities of the particular employee, rather than the

employer”); accord Opelika Royal Crown Bottling Co. v. Goldberg, 299 F.2d 37,

42-43 (5th Cir. 1962). The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence requiring individual

analysis of each employee’s actual job circumstances for purposes of the MCA

exemption has not been overruled or modified. 

Here, however, the district court and the majority have failed to focus on

the circumstances of each employee’s actual job, as required by law, to determine

whether that employee is exempted from overtime wage protection. Instead,

they have erroneously concluded that, when a district court deems multiple

employees’ job duties and assignments to be, in the court’s opinion, “sufficiently

similar,” the court may lump all of the employees together in a single “group”

(the district court’s word) or “class” (the majority’s word)2so as to determine on

a “company-wide basis” the applicability of the MCA exemption “to that group

as a whole.” 846 F. Supp. 2d 678, 694-95; ante, at 9-10. According to the district

2

I note in the interest of clarity that this case is not a class action. See Fed. R. Civ. P.

23 (class action rules). The distinct “class” concept the majority creates today is unique to the

MCA exemption to the FLSA and is unrelated to class actions under Rule 23.

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court, this “group”-based analysis that is conducted on a “company-wide basis”

allows the court to look at the job activities of the national company’s Wyoming

employees, who are not parties to this litigation seeking overtime pay, and to

declare that, based on their activities, the Texas and Louisiana employees in this

case are exempted from overtime wages. The district court recognized that,

factually, the Wyoming employees are distinct from the Texas and Louisiana

employees. Specifically, the district court recognized that, as a matter of fact,

the Wyoming employees are very likely to affect the safety of interstate

transportation in the course of their jobs and the Texas and the Louisiana

employees are not. Nevertheless, the district court concluded that, as a result

of“company-wide,”“group-based” analysis, the Wyoming employees, who are not

seeking overtime wages in this case, and the Texas and Louisiana employees,

who are, should all be lumped together and should all be denied overtime wage

protection despite their factual differences. The majority of this court now

affirms.3

3 The majority characterizes the differences in our analysis as a “minimal semantic

gap.” Ante, at 13 n.8. Respectfully, it appears that the majority has, with the best of

intentions, mistakenly elided the diverge in our views. It is uncontroversial and I of course

agree that, when particular evidence is factually common to multiple employees, such evidence

is indeed relevant to the individual job circumstances of multiple employees. E.g., if an

employer applies a particular company policy to all of its employees,then such policy obviously

illuminates the individual job circumstances of each employee. Such analysis, however, is not

what the district court here did. As further explained below, the district court recognized that

the evidence regarding the job circumstances of the Wyoming employees differed materially

from the evidence regarding the job circumstances of the Texas and Louisiana employees.

Looking at statistical evidence, the district court concluded that the Wyoming employees were

very likely to carry out job activities affecting the safety of interstate transportation. And,

looking at other statistical evidence, the district court further concluded that many of the

Texas and Louisiana employees were very unlikely to do such. Despite the factual differences,

however, the district court ruled that, as a matter of law, the likelihood of the Wyoming

employees affecting interstate transportation safety should be imputed to the Texas and

Louisiana employees. The difference between the majority’s analysis and my own is not a

semantic question as to how to refer to evidence that is factually common to multiple

(continued...)

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Thus, in granting and affirming summary judgment for Coil Tubing

Services, the employer here, my colleagues mistakenly have failed to require the

employer to carry its heavy burden under its affirmative MCA exemption

defense to show, on an individual basis, that each employee’s job activities

demonstrate that he is exempt from FLSA overtime protection. As support for

this “group”- or “class”-based analysis that is conducted on a “company-wide

basis,” the district court and majority point to the DOL’s § 782 regulations and

this court’s recent Songer decision. The district court and the majority,

unfortunately, have misread these sources. The DOL’s § 782 regulations and

Songer did not abrogate, nor could they have abrogated, the Supreme Court’s

jurisprudence requiring individual analysis of each employee’s job

circumstances. Because the district court’s legal errors skewed and undermined

its entire decision, its summary judgment should have been reversed rather than

affirmed.

I. Introduction

Under the FLSA, employers are generally prohibited from “employ[ing]

any of [their] employees” “for a workweek longer than forty hours unless such

employee receives [time-and-a-half compensation for the overtime hours].” 29

U.S.C. § 207(a)(1).4 Under the MCA exemption to the FLSA, that entitlement

3

(...continued)

employees. The difference is a substantive one, viz., whether courts are permitted under the

MCA exemption to use a “group”- or “class”- based analysis (or however else it may be called)

that imputes “facts,” as a matter of legal fiction, to an employee when such ‘facts” are belied

by the evidence.

4 The FLSA’s protection over overtime wages reaches only those employees who are

“engaged in commerce or the production of goods for commerce,” and “commerce” “means

trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States

or between any State and any place outside thereof.” 29 U.S.C. §§ 207(a)(1), 203(b). Here, it

is undisputed that the employees at issue in this case are “engaged in commerce” within the

(continued...)

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to overtime pay “shall not apply with respect to” “any employee with respect to

whom the Secretary of Transportation [that is, the DOT] has power5to establish

qualifications and maximum hours of service pursuant to the provisions of

section 31502 of Title 49 [that is, the MCA].” Id. § 213(b)(1). Thus, under the

FLSA, an employee is entitled to overtime pay unless the employee falls within

the scope of the DOT’s regulatory jurisdiction under the MCA or is otherwise

exempt from the FLSA for reasons not involved in this case.6 

4

(...continued)

meaning of the FLSA. The disputed issue is rather whether the FLSA’s protection over

overtime wages does not apply to the employees because the DOT “has power to establish

qualifications and maximum hours of service [of them] pursuant to the provisions of section

31502 of Title 49.” Id. § 213(b)(1).

5

It is well settled that the MCA exemption turns on whether the DOT has power—i.e.,

legal jurisdiction—to regulate the worker’s qualifications and maximum hours of service under

the MCA, not whether the DOT has actually exercised its power to do so. Southland Gasoline

Co. v. Bayley, 319 U.S. 44, 47-48 (1943); Songer, 618 F.3d at 472.

6 Although the scope of the MCA exemption to the FLSA and the scope of the DOT’s

regulatory jurisdiction are generally one and the same, there may be an exception to that rule

following passage of the SAFETEA–LU Technical Corrections Act of 2008, Pub. L. 110–244,

122 Stat. 1572, which, in part, provides generally that, from the date of the act’s enactment,

June 6, 2008,the MCA exemption does not apply to employees who would otherwise fall within

its ambit if the following requirements are met:

(1) [the employee] is employed by a motor carrier or motor

private carrier (as such terms are defined by section 13102 of

title 49, United States Code, as amended by section 305);

(2) [the employee’s] work, in whole or in part, is defined—

(A) as that of a driver, driver’s helper, loader, or mechanic; and

(B) as affecting the safety of operation of motor vehicles weighing

10,000 pounds or less in transportation on public highways in

interstate or foreign commerce, except vehicles—

(i) designed or used to transport more than 8 passengers

(including the driver) for compensation;

(ii) designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers

(including the driver) and not used to transport passengers for

compensation; or

(iii) used in transporting material found by the Secretary of

Transportation to be hazardous under section 5103 of title 49,

(continued...)

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MCA jurisdiction (that is, the jurisdiction of the DOT under the MCA to

establish the qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees) has

three elements. First, under 49 U.S.C. § 31502(b), the DOT may regulate the

qualifications and maximum hours of service of only those workers who are

employed by either a “motor carrier” or a “motor private carrier.”7 A “motor

carrier” is “a person providing motor vehicle transportation for compensation.” 

Id. § 13102(14). A “motor private carrier” is generally a person who transports

his own property “for sale, lease, rent, or bailment or to further a commercial

enterprise.” Id. § 13102(15).8

Second, the DOT’s jurisdiction “is limited to those employees whose

activities affect the safety of [the transportation] operation,” and the DOT “has

6

(...continued)

United States Code, and transported in a quantity requiring

placarding under regulations prescribed by the Secretary under

section 5103 of title 49, United States Code; and

(3) [the employee] performs duties on motor vehicles weighing

10,000 pounds or less.

Id. § 306(a), (c). For a discussion of the SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act, see, e.g.,

McCall v. Disabled Am. Veterans, 723 F.3d 962 (8th Cir. 2013). This interlocutory appeal does

not address the district court’s resolution of the plaintiffs’ post-June 6, 2008, claims to which

the SAFETEA-LU Technical Corrections Act applies, but rather only the district court’s

resolution of the pre-June 6, 2008, claims, and therefore, the act is not implicated here.

7 Section 31502(b) provides:

The Secretary of Transportation may prescribe requirements

for—

(1) qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees of,

and safety of operation and equipment of, a motor carrier; and

(2) qualifications and maximum hours of service of employees of,

and standards of equipment of, a motor private carrier, when

needed to promote safety of operation.

8

“The term ‘motor private carrier’ means a person, other than a motor carrier,

transporting property by motor vehicle when (A) the transportation is as provided in section

13501 of this title [see infra, note 10]; (B) the person is the owner, lessee, or bailee of the

property being transported; and (C) the property is being transported for sale, lease, rent, or

bailment or to further a commercial enterprise.” Id. § 13102(15).

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no jurisdiction to regulate the qualifications or hours of service of any others.” 

United States v. Am. Trucking Ass’ns, 310 U.S. 534, 553 (1940). To determine

whether an employee’s job activities affect the safety of the transportation

operation, the courts have clarified the relevant inquiry to be whether “the

employee’s job duties are such that he is (or is likely to be) called upon in the

ordinary course of his work to perform safety-affecting activities.” E.g., Songer,

618 F.3d at 474 (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 782.2(b)(3)) (alteration omitted). Put

another way, the question is whether the employee “can be reasonably expected”

to engage in activities that affect the safety of transportation. Id. If the

likelihood of engaging in safety-affecting activities is too remote and improbable,

then the employee will not fall under MCA jurisdiction. Coleman v. Jiffy June

Farms, Inc., 324 F. Supp. 664, 670 (S.D. Ala. 1970), aff’d, 458 F.2d 1139 (5th Cir.

1971); Kimball v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 504 F. Supp. 544, 548 (E.D. Tex.

1980); Yaklin v. W-H Energy Servs., Inc., No. 07-CV-422, 2008 WL 4692419, at

*6 (S.D. Tex. Oct. 22, 2008).9

Third, the DOT’s jurisdiction reaches only (1)internationaltransportation,

i.e., transportation that crosses the national border,(2)interstate transportation,

i.e., transportation that crosses state borders, or (3) intrastate transportation of

goods in the flow of interstate commerce. 49 U.S.C. §§ 31502(a), 13501; Songer,

618 F.3d at 472.10 Generally speaking, there must be an international or

9 The DOT has created a “four-month rule” under which “[e]vidence of driving in

interstate commerce or being subject to being used in interstate commerce” is “proof” that the

driver falls under MCA jurisdiction “for a 4-month period from the date of the proof.” 46 Fed.

Reg. 37902.

10 Section 31502(a) provides, “This section applies to transportation—(1) described in

sections 13501 and 13502 of this title; and (2) to the extent the transportation is in the United

States and is between places in a foreign country, or between a place in a foreign country and

a place in another foreign country.” 

(continued...)

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interstate nexus of some sort, as the DOT’s jurisdiction does not reach purely

intrastate transportation. E.g., Kline v. Wirtz, 373 F.2d 281, 282 (5th Cir. 1967);

Walling v. Comet Carriers, 151 F.2d 107, 110 (2d Cir. 1945).

In sum then, under the MCA, the DOT may regulate the qualifications and

maximum hours of service only for (1) employees of a “motor carrier” or “motor

private carrier” (2) whose activities affect the safety of transportation, (3) and

that transportation has an international or interstate nexus.

Here, there is no question of the first two elements. First, there is no

question that Coil Tubing Services, an oil-well-service company, requires its

employees in the course of their jobs to transport the company’s property,

including chemicals, tools, and coil tubing equipment, between the company’s

10

(...continued)

Section 13501 provides:

The Secretary and the Board have jurisdiction, as specified in

this part, over transportation by motor carrier and the

procurement of that transportation, to the extent that

passengers, property, or both, are transported by motor carrier—

(1) between a place in—

(A) a State and a place in another State;

(B) a State and another place in the same State through another

State;

(C) the United States and a place in a territory or 

possession of the United States to the extent the transportation

is in the United States;

(D) the United States and another place in the United States

through a foreign country to the extent the transportation is in

the United States; or

(E) the United States and a place in a foreign country to the

extent the transportation is in the United States; and

(2) in a reservation under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United

States or on a public highway.

Under our case law, § 13501 also impliedly includes within its ambit “the intrastate

transport of goods in the flow of interstate commerce.” Songer, 618 F.3d at 472; Shew v.

Southland Corp., 370 F.2d 376, 380-81 (5th Cir. 1966).

Section 13502 relates to Alaska and is irrelevant here.

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district offices and the jobsites, the customers’ wells, and therefore qualifies as

a “motor private carrier” under the statute. See Sinclair v. Beacon Gasoline Co.,

447 F. Supp. 5, 10 (W.D. La. 1976), aff’d, 571 F.2d 978 (5th Cir. 1978) (holding

that “a natural gas well servicing company whose drivers carry tools and

equipment in company-furnished pickup trucks . . . is private carrier of property

by motor vehicle”). Second, although the principal job of the employees here is

to service the customers’ oil wells and that, by itself, does not have an affect on

the safety of transportation, the employees also transport Coil Tubing Services’s

property, i.e., the equipment, etc., to the jobsite via motor vehicle, and “[i]t is

obvious that one who drives a vehicle” “directly affects the safety of such

operations as long as he is driving.” Crooker v. Sexton Motors, Inc., 469 F.2d

206, 209 (1st Cir. 1972); see also Songer, 618 F.3d at 473. Thus, there is no

question that, as the employees here are required to drive motor vehicles, they

affect the safety of transportation when doing so. The third requirement for

MCA jurisdiction is the interstate nexus, i.e., that the employee’s job activities

are such that the employee is reasonably likely to affect the safety of interstate,

not merely intrastate, transportation.11 Whether each employee here is

reasonably likely to drive interstate and thus affect the safety of interstate

transportation is the disputed issue in this case. 

11 There is no contention in this case that Coil Tubing Services employees work

internationally or transport goods in the flow of interstate commerce. Thus, the only question

here is whether an employee’s actual job activities affect interstate transportation safety.

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II. The District Court’s and Majority’s Flawed 

“Group”- or “Class”-Based Analysis

A.

From November 2005 through November 2008, Coil Tubing Services

employed the 191 plaintiffs-appellees in this case as “field service employees”

tasked with servicing clients’ oil wells. During the relevant period, the company

organized its business into six “districts”: the “Alice,” “Angleton,” and

“Bridgeport” districts in Texas, the “Broussard” and “Bossier City” districts in

Louisiana, and the “Rock Springs” district in Wyoming. However, none of the

plaintiffs in this case worked out of the Bossier City or Rock Springs districts;

they all worked out of the Alice, Angleton, Bridgeport, and Broussard districts. 

See 846 F. Supp. 2d at 686 (listing employees, titles, district assignments, and

start and end dates of bellwether plaintiffs).

Initially, in its first summary-judgment ruling that was later vacated and

supplanted by the decision now under review,12the district court held that there

was a reasonable likelihood of employees in the Angleton and Broussard districts

driving interstate, and, thus, they fell under the MCA and were not entitled to

FLSA overtime pay. But, the district court further held that the likelihood of

employees in the Alice and Bridgeport districts driving interstate was “so low”

that there was not an “objectively reasonable expectation” of those employees

driving interstate, and, thus, they did not fall under the MCA exemption. Coil

Tubing Services argued that employees in all of the districts should fall under

the MCA because, in all of the company’s districts nationwide, approximately

seven percent of the “land project” (as opposed to offshore) jobs “required one or

12 The district court’s first summary-judgment ruling has not been published but it is

included in the record on appeal. See R. 7233-97.

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more service crews to mobilize coil tubing equipment across state lines.” But the

district court, in its first decision, agreed with the plaintiffs that the company’s

seven percent “aggregate” figure was “skewed by the extremely large number of

interstate projects handled by the Rock Springs District” in Wyoming, in which

none of the plaintiffs actually worked. “More than 56% of the Rock Springs

projects were out-of-state,” the district court explained, “while the other districts

had far fewer interstate projects.” By contrast, the district court proceeded to

explain, in Alice and Bridgeport, less than one percent of the jobs handled in

those districts during the relevant time were interstate; in Angleton, less than

two percent of the jobs were interstate; and, in Broussard, around five percent

of the jobs were interstate.

After the district court’s first ruling, Coil Tubing Services moved the court

to reconsider, and the court did. In its second decision, which is now under

review, the district court cited regulations, codified at 29 C.F.R. § 782, of the

DOL, the agency charged with enforcing the FLSA. 846 F. Supp. 2d at 690.13

Those regulations of the DOL set out “the construction of the law [regarding the

MCA exemption] which the [DOL] believes to be correct.” 29 C.F.R. § 782.0. The

regulations state, “[t]he [MCA exemption] depends both on the class to which his

13 As an initial matter, the district court should have recognized that the DOL does not

have authority to define the scope of MCA jurisdiction, as the DOL’s regulations acknowledge.

29 C.F.R. § 782.1(a) (“The Fair Labor Standards Act confers no authority on the Secretary of

Labor or the Administrator to extend or restrict the scope of this exemption.”). Accordingly,

the DOL’s views on the scope of MCA jurisdiction are not entitled to deference from the courts.

Levinson v. Specter Motor Serv., 330 U.S. 649, 676-77 (1947); Packard v. Pittsburgh Transp.

Co., 418 F.3d 246, 251 n.5 (3d Cir. 2005); Troutt v. Stavola Bros., Inc., 107 F.3d 1104, 1108 n.1

(4th Cir. 1997); Benson v. Universal Ambulance Serv., Inc., 675 F.2d 783, 785 (6th Cir. 1982);

Johnson v. Hix Wrecker Serv., Inc., 651 F.3d 658, 661 n.1 (7th Cir. 2011). But see Baez v. Wells

Fargo Armored Serv. Corp., 938 F.2d 180, 182 n.4 (11th Cir. 1991).

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employer belongs and on the class of work involved in the employee’s job.” Id.

§ 782.2(a). And they proceed to explain:

The power of the Secretary of Transportation to

establish maximum hours and qualifications of service

of employees, on which exemption depends, extends to

those classes of employees and those only who: (1) Are

employed by carriers whose transportation of

passengers or property by motor vehicle is subject to his

jurisdiction under section 204 of the Motor Carrier Act,

and (2) engage in activities of a character directly

affecting the safety of operation of motor vehicles in the

transportation on the public highways of passengers or

property in interstate or foreign commerce within the

meaning of the Motor Carrier Act.

Id. (citations omitted).

Based on § 782’s language regarding “classes of employees” and the “class

of work involved in the employee’s job,” the district court concluded that it

should not address whether “the activities of each individual employee in issue

directly affected the safety or operation of commercial motor vehicles in

interstate transportation.” 846 F. Supp. 2d at 694 (emphasis added). Rather,

the district court concluded that it must apply a “group analysis” on a “companywide basis.” Id. at 694-95. 

To conduct such a “group analysis” on a “company-wide basis,” the district

court defined a “group” of Coil Tubing Service employees that it named “field

service employees.” Id. at 684. The court defined that “group” to encompass all

of Coil Tubing Services’s employees that had “job duties and assignments” that,

in the court’s opinion, were “sufficiently similar to permit some grouping.” Id.

at 694-95. Then, the district court turned to the fact that seven percent of all

jobs companywide were interstate (that is, the aggregate figure that the district

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court had previously rejected as “skewed”) and reasoned that—even though the

seven percent figure did not accurately represent the experience of the

company’s Texas and Louisiana employees—it nevertheless somehow applied to

the Texas and Louisiana employees under the district court’s “company-wide”

“group analysis.” Id. at 703-04 & n.48. Accordingly, the district court held that

seven percent of jobs companywide being interstate was sufficient to subject all

employees, regardless of their districts, in the “field service employees” “group”

to MCA jurisdiction and granted summary judgment to Coil Tubing Services

regarding the FLSA overtime pay claims of every employee in the judicially

defined “group.” Id. at 703, 715.14

In essence, the district court held that,

because the company has employees in Wyoming who very frequently carry out

duties affecting the safety of interstate transportation but are not parties to this

case, that somehow creates a legal fiction that the plaintiffs here, the company’s

employees in Louisiana and Texas, are deemed to also carry out those same

duties just as often. The district court decided such even though the evidence

showed it to be false.

Now, the majority affirms the district court’s analysis and, in a published

opinion, sets it as the law of this circuit. According to the majority, to determine

whether employees are subject to MCA jurisdiction, courts should use an

“extensive individualized methodology” to include all of a company’s employees

with “sufficiently similar duties” (in the court’s opinion) in a judicially defined

“class” of employees and then decide whether such “class,” rather than the

individual employees within it, has a reasonable expectation of carrying out

14 The district court’s grant of summary judgment for Coil Tubing Services was partial.

The district court ruled in favor of some of the plaintiffs in certain regards that were not

appealed and, thus, are not at issue now.

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activities that affect the safety of interstate transportation. Ante, at 9-10. 

Without getting into the details about who exactly is in the “class” here and what

connection they have to the case, if any, the majority affirms the district court’s

analysis. See id.

15

In short, in deciding MCA jurisdiction (specifically, whether an employee’s

job duties are reasonably likely to affect the safety of interstate transportation),

the district court and the majority of this court agree that, if employees have

“sufficiently similar” job duties, the court may lump them all together into a

single “group” or “class” and then decide the jurisdictional question with respect

to the “group” or “class” rather than the individual employees in it. This is

wrong. Contrary to the district court and the majority, an employee is exempt

from FLSA overtime protection only if the MCA applies to that employee

individually—i.e., that employee’s actual job circumstances are such that the

employee is reasonably likely to affect the safety of interstate transportation. 

The relevant Supreme Court and circuit precedent requires individual analysis

of the employee’s actual job and prohibits the district court’s and majority’s

“group”- or “class”-based analysis. 

15 The majority says that the “parties do not contest that an individualized analysis is

appropriate to determine whether Appellants have similar-enough duties to belong to the class

of employees that engages in safety-affecting activities.” Ante, at 7. This statement about

what the parties “do not contest” misrepresents the employees’ position. The employees

indeed challenge the conclusion that they should be categorized and analyzed as “a class of

employees” with “similar-enough duties.” They contend that the requisite MCA analysis

encompasses no judicial sorting of employees into categories at all. See Appellants’ Br. 17

(“[T]he MCA is analyzed on an individual basis . . . . No meaningful authority, however,

supports the whole company analysis proposed by CTS. Thus, the district court erred by

adopting a modified version of it.”), 24 (“[A]n individual analysis is required to determine the

character and timing ofthe employee’s duties, and therefore the application ofthe exception.”).

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It appears that the district court and the majority have adopted their

improper analysis based on two misunderstandings about the jurisprudence. 

First, the district court and majority appear to believe that the DOL’s

regulations codified at 29 C.F.R. § 782.2, which refer to “classes of employees,”

authorize the “group”- or “class”-based analysis that they applied here. See 846

F. Supp. 2d at 690 (citing § 782.2(a)); ante, at 5-6 (same). Second, the district

court and majority also contend that their “group”- or “class”-based analysis is

required by Songer v. Dillon Resources, Inc., a 2010 decision of this court. See

846 F. Supp. 2d at 694 (citing Songer); ante, at 8-9 (same). They are mistaken

on both points. The history of the FLSA and MCA, to which I now turn, clearly

indicates that the MCA exemption has always turned on the job circumstances

of each individual employee. 

B.

1. The Statutory Enactments

The MCA was enacted in 1935 “to regulate transportation by motor

carriers.” § 202(a), 49 Stat. 543. When first enacted, the statute was enforced

not by the DOT, which was not created until decades later, but by a predecessor

agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission (“ICC”). §§ 203(a)(3), 204.

During the initial years following the ICC’s creation in 1935, the agency

promulgated a series of regulations imposing certain rules regarding the

qualifications and maximum hours of service for certain workers, but the agency

did not issue any formal determinations as to what it perceived to be the scope

or the reach of its regulatory authority. For example, in 1936, the year after the

MCA was enacted, the ICC promulgated its first regulations establishing

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qualifications for certain drivers while expressing no view on the ICC’s authority

to regulate workers other than drivers. See Ex parte No. MC–4, 1 M.CC. 1.

In 1938, the FLSA was enacted to “eliminate” “labor conditions

detrimental to the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for

health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.” § 2, 52 Stat. 1060. In its

original form, the FLSA contained, as it still does today, the MCA exemption. 

§ 13(b)(1) (“The provisions of section 7 shall not apply with respect to any

employee with respect to whom the Interstate Commerce Commission has power

to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service pursuant to the

provisions of section 204 of the Motor Carrier Act, 1935.”).

2. The Interstate Commerce Commission’s Jurisdictional 

Pronouncements 

The MCA exemption in the FLSA “brought sharply into focus the coverage

of employees by the Motor Carrier Act.” Am. Trucking Ass’ns, 310 U.S. at 540. 

In 1938, the ICC, noting that the FLSA had made the question of its jurisdiction

important, instituted proceedings “for the purpose of determining the extent of

our jurisdiction under section 204(a) of the Motor Carrier Act, 1935, to establish

reasonable requirements with respect to qualifications and maximum hours of

service of employees of common and contract carriers and of private carriers of

property by motor vehicle.” Ex parte No. MC–28, 13 M.C.C. 481, 481 (1939). 

The ICC described the dispute before it as follows:

Representatives of common and contract carriers, with

one exception, assert that our jurisdiction under section

204(a)(1) and (2) extends to all employees of common

and contract carriers and is not limited to those

employees whose activities affect the safety of

operation. Representatives of organized labor, on the

other hand, contend that our jurisdiction is limited to

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employees whose activities affect the safety of

operation.

Id. at 482. In 1939, the ICC sided with organized labor and announced that the

agency’s jurisdiction extends only to those employees “whose activities affect the

safety of operation of motor vehicles engaged in transporting passengers and

property in interstate and foreign commerce.” Id. at 488. That, however, left

open the question, what sorts of employees have activities that affect the safety

of operation? In that regard, the ICC wrote:

It is clear to us that we have power to prescribe

qualifications and maximum hours for drivers and their

helpers employed by private carriers of property who

are engaged in driving or operating motor vehicles

transporting property in interstate and foreign

commerce. It may be that the activities of other

employees are such that “to promote safety of

operation” we have power to prescribe qualifications

and maximum hours of service for them. As to what

classes or types of employees, if any, may be included in

this category, we do not decide here.

Id. at 483.

This, it appears, was the first time the phrase “classes of employees” (to

be precise, “classes or types of employees”) appeared in the law books in

connection with the MCA. Here, the ICC used the phrase to refer to categories

of job duties and to distinguish between those duties that affect the safety of

operation (and thus fall within the ICC’s jurisdictional ambit) and those that do

not (and thus do not). The ICC thought it clear that “drivers” and “their helpers”

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are “classes or types of employees” that affect the safety of operation but did not

decide “what [others], if any, may be included in this category.” Id.

16

In 1941, the ICC began looking at other classes of employees, specifically,

“mechanics and other garage workers,” “loaders,” and “dispatchers.” Ex parte

No. MC–2, 28 M.C.C. 125, 132. As for “mechanics,” the ICC concluded that they

“devote a large portion of their time to activities which directly affect the safety

of operation of motor vehicles operated in interstate or foreign commence” and,

thus, fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction. Id. at 133. But, as for “other garage

employees,” such as “men who do nothing but paint vehicles,” their work, the

ICC concluded, does not affect the safety of operation, and thus, the ICC may not

regulate them. Id. As for “loaders,” “whose sole duties are to load and unload

motor vehicles and transfer freight between motor vehicles and between the

vehicles and the warehouse,” they too fell within the ICC’s jurisdiction, the

agency concluded, because “[t]he evidence makes it entirely clear that a motor

vehicle must be properly loaded to be safely operated on the highways of the

country.” Id. at 133-34. But “dispatchers,” the ICC concluded, do not affect the

safety of operations. Id. at 135. And, the ICC reaffirmed its prior determination

that “driver’s helpers,” like the drivers themselves, affect safety of operations. 

Id. at 136. In determining that “mechanics,” “loaders,” and “driver’s helpers”

carry out job duties that affect the safety of transportation, the ICC carefully

16 Shortly after the ICC’s decision in Ex parte No. MC–28 issued, a number of

companies challenged the agency’s conclusion that its jurisdiction reaches only those

employees whose activities affect the safety of operation, but the ICC reaffirmed its initial

decision. No. MC–C–189, 16 M.C.C. 497 (1939). The issue was brought to the Supreme Court,

and, in 1940, the Court agreed with the ICC that the agency’s jurisdiction “is limited to those

employees whose activities affect the safety of operation” and it “has no jurisdiction to regulate

the qualifications or hours of service of any others.” Am. Trucking Ass’ns, 310 U.S. at 553.

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defined what it meant by each of those terms, delineating who should, and who

should not, be considered each. Finally, the ICC concluded that no other

employees of motor carriers and motor private carriers besides “drivers and

those classes of employees” already discussed “perform duties which directly

affect safety of operation.” Id. at 139. In sum, in 1941, the ICC determined that

“drivers,” their “helpers,” “mechanics,” and “loaders,” as thoroughly defined by

the Commission, all carry out duties affecting safety of operation and thus fall

under MCA jurisdiction, and all other employees of “motor carriers” and “motor

private carriers” do not.17

3. The Supreme Court’s 1947 Trilogy

In 1947, the Supreme Court established several important legal principles

relating to the ICC’s jurisdiction under the MCA. First, in Levinson v. Specter

Motor Service, 330 U.S. 649, the Court held that the ICC’s “findings of fact”

regarding whether particular job activities affect safety of operations were

“squarely within the jurisdiction of the Commission” and were entitled to great

deference. See id. at 669, 672-73 (describing the findings of fact as having a

“claim to finality” and stating that, “[w]e see no reason to question [the ICC’s]

considered conclusion that the activities of full-duty drivers, mechanics, loaders,

and helpers, as defined by it, affect safety of operation of the carriers by whom

they are employed”).18

 

17 The ICC's opinion termed its determinations as to whether the work activities at

issue affect safety “findings of fact” and the corresponding jurisdictional decisions “conclusions

of law.” Id. at 138-39.

18 The principal issue in Levinson was whether the ICC has jurisdiction over a “partialduty loader”—that is, a worker who spent a “substantial part” of his working hours doing the

activities that the ICC, in Ex parte No. MC–2, described as the duties of “loaders” (i.e., loading

(continued...)

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Second was Pyramid Motor Freight Corp. v. Ispass, 330 U.S. 695, a

companion case to Levinson. In Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., the defendantemployer invoked the MCA defense, contending that the plaintiffs-employees fit

into the ICC’s definitions of “loaders” and, thus, fell under the MCA exemption. 

The district court dismissed the case, holding that determination of whether the

employees carry out job duties that affect safety of operation was not the role of

the court, but was rather a task for the ICC. 59 F. Supp. 341, 343-44 (1945). 

The Supreme Court rejected the district court’s conclusion that the

determination should be referred to the ICC because, in Ex Parte No. MC–2, the

ICC had already defined the “loaders” job classification subject to MCA

jurisdiction. 330 U.S. at 706-07.

Under these circumstances, there is no occasion for us

to refer to the Commission any question presented in

this case . . . . The District Court must determine

simply whether or not the respective employees who

seek to recover overtime compensation under [the

FLSA] are excluded from [doing so] because they are

within the above classification [“loaders”].

Id. at 707. Accordingly, the Supreme Court remanded to the district court and,

importantly, ordered the district court to “determine whether or not the

activities of each [employee], either as a whole or in substantial part, come

within the Commission’s definition of the work of a ‘Loader.’” Id. (emphasis

added). The Court proceeded to explain that, “[i]f none of the . . . activities of the

18

(...continued)

and unloading motor vehicles and transferring freight) and the rest of his time doing other

activities that did not have an effect on the safety of motor vehicle transportation operations.

Id. at 651-52. The Court answered that question in the affirmative, holding that the ICC has

jurisdiction over workers who spend a “substantial” amount of their time doing the work of

loaders. Id. at 685.

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respective respondents, during the periods at issue, come within the kind of

activities which, according to the Commission, affect the safety of operation of

motor vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce within the meaning of the

Motor Carrier Act, then those [employees] of which that is true are entitled to

[overtime pay under] the Fair Labor Standards Act.” Id. at 708 (emphasis

added). “On the other hand, if the whole or substantial part of [the] activities of

the respective respondents, during the periods at issue, do come within the kind

of activities which, according to the Commission, affect such safety of operation,

then those respondents who are engaged in such activities are excluded from

[overtime pay].” Id. (emphasis added). In short, the Court held in Pyramid

Motor Freight Corp. that, in an FLSA action in which the MCA exemption is

asserted as a defense, the role of the court is to determine separately whether

the activities of “each” employee affect the safety of interstate transportation,

and the court may deny overtime pay only to “those [employees] who are engaged

in such activities.” Id.

The third and final decision in the Supreme Court’s 1947 trilogy was

Morris v. McComb, 332 U.S. 422. The question presented was whether an

employee who spends most of his time at work carrying out duties that do not

affect safety of transportation and only a fraction of his time carrying out

activities that do falls under the MCA. Id. at 426. There, the evidence in the

record showed that the employer, a cartage business, employed drivers to

transport property. Id. at 427. About four percent of the company’s jobs

involved the transportation of goods moving in interstate commerce. Id. at 432-

33. The company assigned those jobs to the drivers “indiscriminately.” Id. at

433. The Court held that, in such circumstances, where about four percent of a

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company’s transportation jobs with an interstate nexus are shared

indiscriminately among the company’s drivers, thus making the interstate

commerce trips a “natural, integral, and apparently inseparable part” of each

driver’s job, that amount of interstate driving was sufficient to invoke MCA

jurisdiction for those drivers. Id. at 433-34.19

Importantly, Morris also reaffirmed Pyramid Motor Freight Corp.’s

requirement of individual analysis of each employee’s job activities. In Morris,

the DOL, which had brought the suit, did not seek to recover unpaid overtime

that was due to any particular employee, but rather sought only an injunction

against the company to pay overtime in the future to any employees who would

not, because of his job duties, fall under the ICC’s definition of a “class of work”

invoking MCA jurisdiction (i.e., drivers, their helpers, mechanics, and loaders)

without deciding whether any particular employee fell under such a class. Id.

at 424-25, 430. The Court stated that, “if this were an action to recover overtime

compensation for individual employees,” “it would be necessary to determine”

“the extent to which” the employees carried out job duties affecting the safety of

transportation. Id. at 430. See also Troutt v. Stavola Bros., Inc., 107 F.3d 1104,

1109 (4th Cir. 1997) (observing that Morris “followed the same approach

articulated in Pyramid”).

Thus, the legal regime after 1947, created by the ICC’s jurisdictional

pronouncements and the Supreme Court’s decisions, provided that (1) the ICC’s

jurisdiction under the MCA reached only each employee whose activities affect

the safety of interstate transportation operations (Am. Trucking Ass’ns, 310 U.S.

19 The Court also held that the mechanics who work on the vehicles that spend

approximately four percent of their time in interstate commerce trips fall under the MCA. Id.

at 432 (“What is thus true for the driver is true also for the mechanic who repairs his truck.”).

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at 553), (2) it fell to the ICC to determine which sorts of job activities affect

safety of such operations, and the ICC had done that (Levinson, 330 U.S. at 669,

672-73), and (3) in an FLSA action for overtime pay, it was the duty of the courts

to determine through the “judicial process” whether each plaintiff’s job involved,

wholly or in sufficient part, a “class of work” that the ICC had determined

affected interstate transportation safety (Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., 330 U.S.

at 698, 707; see also Morris, 332 U.S. at 430). And that, according to the

Supreme Court, is where things stand today. Since 1947, the Supreme Court

has never again addressed the MCA exemption.

4. This Circuit’s Post-1947 Jurisprudence

In the decades following the Supreme Court’s 1947 trilogy, this court

understood Pyramid Motor Freight Corp.’s teaching, that MCA jurisdiction vel

non turns on the individual employee’s job duties. In Mitchell v. C & P Shoe

Corp., 286 F.2d 109 (5th Cir. 1960), we said:

Because of the view it took of the matter, the court

below made no findings on the question of whether the

individual plaintiffs devoted a ‘substantial’ part of their

work to the interstate operations of the C & P Shoe

Corporation. Since it is activities of the particular

employee, rather than the employer, which determine

coverage, we remand the case for such findings.

Id. at 114 (emphasis added, footnote omitted).20

Two years later, in Opelika Royal Crown Bottling Co. v. Goldberg, 299 F.2d

37 (5th Cir. 1962), this court held that some of the employer’s employees fell

20 After the district court made its findings on remand in Mitchell, the case was again

appealed to this court sub nom., Wirtz v. C & P Shoe Corp., 336 F.2d 21 (5th Cir. 1964).

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under the MCA because of their job duties, but other of the employer’s employees

did not, because of their individual job duties. See id. at 42-43.

Until today, the district courts in this circuit have, as we did in Opelika

Royal Crown Bottling Co., determined MCA jurisdiction on an employee-byemployee basis, turning separately on each individual employee’s job activities. 

See, e.g., McCann v. W.C. Pitts Constr. Co., No. 3:10-CV-52, 2011 WL 3924855,

at *8 (S.D. Miss. Sept. 7, 2011); Villegas v. Dependable Constr. Servs., Inc., No.

4:07-CV-2165, 2008 WL 5137321, at *24-26 (S.D. Tex. Dec. 8, 2008).

In 2010, this court decided Songer, 618 F.3d 467, which, the majority says,

“effectively forecloses an employee-by-employee analysis.” Ante, at 8; see also

846 F. Supp. 2d at 694. This is a misunderstanding of the case. If the majority

were correct, it would mean that the case worked a revolution in the Supreme

Court’s jurisprudence. Songer could not “foreclose[] an employee-by-employee”

analysis because the Supreme Court, in Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., held that

employee-by-employee analysis is required, as did prior panels of this court in

Mitchell and Opelika Royal Crown Bottling Co., and none of those decisions has

been overruled; nor has any statute been amended in a manner that is

contended to have altered the requisite individual employee analysis.

In Songer, the plaintiffs-employees were full-time truck drivers. 618 F.3d

at 468. Their employer had a number of routes, many of which were interstate,

and no driver was assigned a dedicated route. Id. at 470, 475-76. Routes were

assigned by a single “dispatch service” “indiscriminately—i.e., any driver could

be called upon at any time to make an interstate or intrastate trip.” Id. at 470. 

“The drivers’ employment could be terminated if they refused an assignment.” 

Id. “In other words, any driver could have been assigned to an interstate trip.” 

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Id. at 475. Accordingly, the evidence showed that “all the drivers,” all of whom

accepted routes from the same dispatch service, had a reasonable likelihood of

driving interstate. Id. at 476.

Nowhere in Songer’s analysis did this court make a determination of

reasonable likelihood vel non of driving interstate by dint of an employee’s

membership in any sort of judicially defined “group” or “class,” as the district

court and the majority did here. In Songer, this court simply made the common

sense observation that, because of company policies that were factually common

to all employees (i.e., the indiscriminate assignment of interstate trips), each and

every employee, all of whom had the same likelihood of driving interstate, was

reasonably likely to drive interstate. See id. at 470 (“any driver could be called

upon at any time to [drive] interstate”) (emphasis added). Cf. Brennan v.

Schwerman Trucking Co. of Va., Inc., 540 F.2d 1200, 1205 (4th Cir. 1976)

(holding that, because interstate and intrastate trips were assigned

indiscriminately among the company’s drivers, “each of [the] drivers may affect

the safety of operation of motor vehicles engaged in interstate commerce”)

(emphasis added). In other words, Songer, no differently than any other case

before it, did nothing more than examine the relevant evidence to make an

individual determination as to MCA jurisdiction with respect to each employee,

based on the circumstances of that employee’s job.

In sum, following the Supreme Court’s 1947 trilogy, this court has, in

accordance with Pyramid Motor Freight Corp.’s mandate, determined MCA

jurisdiction on an individual basis, turning on each employee’s actual job

circumstances.

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5. Other Circuits’ Post-1947 Jurisprudence

After 1947, at least three of our sister circuits have, like us, acknowledged

Pyramid Motor Freight Corp.’s requirement for individual analysis of each

employee’s actual job duties. The Third Circuit has stated that, to determine

MCA jurisdiction, the court must determine “whether each plaintiff, during the

relevant time periods, performed duties which substantially affected the safety

of operation.” Harshman v. Well Serv., Inc., 248 F. Supp. 953, 958 (W.D. Pa.

1964) (emphasis added), aff’d, 355 F.2d 206 (3d Cir. 1965) (affirming “for the

reasons so well stated in the opinion of [the district court]”). The Fourth Circuit

likewise agrees that the court must focus on the employee’s actual activities “on

an individual basis.” Troutt, 107 F.3d at 1107-10. And, the Seventh Circuit has

explained that it is erroneous to determine MCA jurisdiction on the basis of “the

employer’s operations” because MCA jurisdiction “depends upon the activities

of the individual employees.” Goldberg v. Faber Indus., Inc., 291 F.2d 232, 234-

35 (7th Cir. 1961) (emphasis added).

6. The Department of Labor Regulations and Other 

Post-1947 Developments

In 1948, the DOL, which was then (and is still now) charged with enforcing

the FLSA, see § 4, 52 Stat. 1060, 1061; 29 U.S.C. § 204, promulgated the

regulations codified at 29 C.F.R. § 782, the regulations on which the district

court and the majority here rely. 13 Fed. Reg. 2346 (codified at 29 C.F.R. § 782

(1949)). The DOL’s regulations have been amended only slightly over the years,

so they are today almost identical to their original enactment in 1948. Compare

29 C.F.R. § 782 (current), with 13 Fed. Reg. 2346 (1948).

The DOL’s regulations state their purpose on their face: they reflect “the

construction of the law [regarding the MCA exemption] which the [DOL] believes

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to be correct in the light of the decisions of the courts and the Interstate

Commerce Commission.” Id. And indeed, the DOL’s regulations do nothing

more than describe the jurisprudential principles that followed from the abovediscussed ICC jurisdictional pronouncements and case law, primarily the

Supreme Court’s 1947 trilogy.

29 C.F.R. § 782.2 says: “The [MCA exemption] depends both on the class

to which his employer belongs and on the class of work involved in the

employee’s job.” It continues:

The power of the Secretary of Transportation

[previously “Interstate Commerce Commission”] to

establish maximum hours and qualifications of service

of employees, on which exemption depends, extends to

those classes of employees and those only who (1) are

employed by carriers whose transportation of

passengers or property by motor vehicle is subject to his

[previously “the Commission’s”] jurisdiction under

section 204 of the Motor Carrier Act and (2) engage in

activities of a character directly affecting the safety of

operation of motor vehicles in the transportation on the

public highways of passengers or property in interstate

or foreign commerce within the meaning of the Motor

Carrier Act.

§ 782.2. The regulations proceed to discuss the “classes of employees” that the

ICC had determined fall under MCA jurisdiction: “drivers” (§ 782.3 (citing Ex

parte No. MC–2; Ex parte No. MC–3; Ex Parte No. MC–4)), “drivers’ helpers” (§

782.4 (citing Ex Parte No. MC–2)), “loaders” (§ 782.5 (citing Ex parte No.

MC–2)), and “mechanics” (§ 782.6 (citing Ex parte No. MC–2)).

Over a decade later, in 1966, the DOT was created and authority to enforce

the MCA was transferred to it from the ICC. Department of Transportation Act,

§ 6(e), 80 Stat. 931, 939. 

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In 1971, the DOL revised its § 782 regulations to recognize the transfer of

MCA authority from the ICC to the DOT. 36 Fed. Reg. 21778. Aside from

acknowledging the transfer of authority, the regulations were substantially

untouched. Since that 1971 revision, the DOL has never again revised the § 782

regulations.

As for the DOT, since 1966, when it was created and given authority to

enforce the MCA, it has never issued regulations on the maximum scope of its

jurisdiction over qualifications and maximum hours of service as had the ICC

decades before.21 Thus, although the ICC lost its MCA authority in 1966, its

1930s and 1940s regulations still represent the most recent expression of the

official agency view of the scope of MCA jurisdiction.

In 1995, the ICC was eliminated entirely. ICC Termination Act, § 101, 109

Stat. 803 (“The Interstate Commerce Commission is abolished.”).

That brings us to today.

C.

This history makes several things clear. First, the phrase “classes of

employees” in the DOL’s regulations, on which the district court and the

majority here cite in support of their novel analysis, references the four

categories of job activities that the ICC decades ago concluded affect the safety

of interstate motor vehicle transportation: “drivers,” “drivers’ helpers,” “loaders,”

and “mechanics.” When § 782 says that the MCA exemption “depends on” “the

class of work involved in the employee’s job” and extends only to certain “classes

21

In 1981, the DOT did, however, issue a “notice of interpretation” regarding its

jurisdiction over certain drivers. 46 Fed. Reg. 37902. But that notice of interpretation did not

purport to speak as to the maximum scope of the agency’s jurisdiction in other respects. Id.

at 37903 (“This interpretation relates solely to the jurisdiction over drivers.”).

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of employees,” what § 782 means is simply that the court, in deference to the

ICC’s findings of fact, should determine whether the employee’s job duties are

such that the employee falls under the ICC’s definition of a “driver,” “driver’s

helper,” “loader,” or “mechanic.” Put another way, the only “class” inquiry

contemplated by § 782 is, the court must determine what activities the

employee’s job entails and whether those activities are such that the employee

fits into the ICC’s definition of a “driver,” “driver’s helper,” “loader,” or

“mechanic.”22 

Here, there is no question that some of the employees drive motor vehicles

and, hence, are within the ICC’s definition of the “drivers” “class” if and when

they drive interstate. That question, whether the driver-employees at issue in

this case are reasonably likely to drive interstate, should be resolved in the

ordinary manner, by examining the relevant evidence, drawing reasonable

inferences, etc.—in other words, through the “judicial process.” Pyramid Motor

Freight Corp., 330 U.S. at 707. In reading § 782’s reference to “classes of

employees” as calling for courts to define their own “groups” or “classes” of

employees and to determine MCA jurisdiction vel non with respect to such

judicially defined “groups” or “classes,” the district court and majority have

committed clear error.

22

It could be contended that, since the ICC’s authority under the MCA was transferred

to the DOT in 1966 (and the ICC was abolished entirely in 1995), courts ought to determine

de novo whether job activities affect the safety of motor vehicle transportation rather than

deferring to the antiquated ICC findings. But that question should be left for another day.

Here, we deal only with driving motor vehicles, and, regardless of what the ICC has said on

the topic,“[i]t is obvious that one who drives a vehicle in interstate commerce directly affects

the safety of such operations as long as he is driving.” Crooker, 469 F.2d at 209.

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Second, it is clear that, until today, in the history of FLSA-and-MCAexemption litigation, the courts have never defined their own “groups” or

“classes” of employees to determine MCA jurisdiction on that basis, as the

district court and majority have done here. In Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., and

reaffirmed later that same year in Morris, the Supreme Court clearly required

individual analysis of “each” employee’s actual job duties. The district court’s

and majority’s “company-wide,” “group”- or “class”-based analysis, which

determines MCA jurisdiction based on the activities of a “group” or “class” of

employees that the court has defined itself, is in clear conflict. See Pyramid

Motor Freight Corp., 330 U.S. at 698, 708 (the district court must “determine

whether or not the activities of each [employee]” “affect[] the safety of operation

of motor vehicles in interstate or foreign commerce,” and the district court may

deny overtime pay only to “those [employees] who are engaged in such

activities”); Morris, 332 U.S. at 430 (observing that, “if this were an action to

recover overtime compensation for individual employees, it would be necessary

to determine” “the extent to which [the employees] devoted themselves to [work

affecting transportation safety]”). And, the district court’s and majority’s

analysis conflicts with the prior decisions of this court requiring individual

analysis. Compare ante, at 8 (adopting “company-wide” analysis and stating

that “this court’s precedent effectively forecloses an employee-by-employee

analysis”), with Mitchell, 286 F.2d at 114 (holding that “it is the activities of the

particular employee, rather than the employer, which determine coverage”), and

Opelika Royal Crown Bottling Co., 299 F.2d at 42-43 (applying individual

analysis). Finally, the majority’s opinion creates a split with the decisions of at

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least three of our sister circuits. See Harshman, 248 F. Supp. at 958, aff’d, 355

F.2d 206; Troutt, 107 F.3d at 1107-10; Goldberg, 291 F.2d at 234-35.

This case involves workers in Texas and Louisiana, and the question is

whether they are reasonably likely to drive interstate. To answer that question,

the court must examine evidence that is relevant to the work of those employees. 

There is no legal reason the court may point to other employees in Wyoming who

are very likely to drive interstate and declare that, as a result of some legal

fiction, the same is true of the Texas and Louisiana workers, even if belied by the

evidence. The district court’s and majority’s creation of a “company-wide,”

“group”- or “class”-based mode of analysis that does just that is in clear conflict

with the Supreme Court’s mandate that we “determine whether or not the

activities of each [employee]” “affect[] the safety of operation of motor vehicles

in interstate or foreign commerce” and deny overtime pay only to “those

[employees] who are engaged in such activities.” Pyramid Motor Freight Corp.,

330 U.S. at 698, 708.

III. The Proper Analysis

To decide whether the employees here are reasonably likely to drive

interstate, rather than merely intrastate, the district court and this court should

simply look at the evidence and make a determination vel non for each plaintiffemployee. We should look to the testimony about the realities of the job as well

as any documentary records. The employee’s job description, if the company has

issued one, is relevant too, although not dispositive, since it may not reflect the

realities of the job. Pyramid Motor Freight Corp., 330 U.S. at 707 (the district

court “shall not be concluded by the name which may have been given to [the

employee’s] position or to the work that he does”); Ale v. Tenn. Valley Auth., 269

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F.3d 680, 688-89 (6th Cir. 2001) (“[C]ourts must focus on the actual activities of

the employee in order to determine whether or not he is exempt from the FLSA’s

overtime regulations.”) (emphasis added).

As discussed above, Coil Tubing Services divides its operations into six

districts, and the employees at issue here were stationed in four of the six: the

Alice, Angleton, and Bridgeport districts in Texas and the Broussard district in

Louisiana. The company generally assigns well-servicing jobs to the

geographically closest district, and the employees in that district are required

to handle the job. If the equipment and personnel needed for a job are not

available in the district to which it is assigned, the district can borrow workers

and equipment from another district, but, according to the evidence in the

record, such instances of inter-district borrowing are “rare” and “exceptional.”

Record evidence shows that the vast majority of jobs handled by the Alice,

Angleton, Bridgeport, and Broussard districts were purely intrastate jobs—that

is, Texas-based workers worked in Texas and Louisiana-based workers worked

in Louisiana—and only a tiny number of jobs required crossing state borders. 

In Alice and Bridgeport, less than one percent of the jobs handled by those

districts during the period recorded were interstate. In Angleton, less than two

percent of the jobs were interstate. And, in Broussard, around five percent of the

jobs were interstate. Moreover, these figures likely over-represent the actual

likelihood of any given employee driving interstate because, when traveling to

the jobsite, only one employee would have to drive each vehicle, and others

would ride as passengers. Thus, while there was less than a one percent

chance—about 0.33% of a chance, the evidence shows—that any given job in the

Alice district would involve interstate transportation, there was even less than

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a 0.33% chance of any given Alice worker driving interstate for any given job

assigned to the district. Inversely, when a worker in the Alice district was given

a job that was assigned to that district, there was a greater than 99% chance

that the worker would not drive interstate.

The record contains employee testimony that tends to corroborate the

unlikelihood of driving interstate or, indeed, driving at all. For example, one

employee in the Alice district, Jesus Hernandez, testified that, in his five years

working there, he only drove interstate once. An employee in the Angleton

district, Cody Patin, testified that, during his half year working there, he only

drove a motor vehicle a single time, when he drove “a supervisor’s truck to go get

lunch for everybody one day.” There is similar testimony from a number of other

employees in the record.

Based on this evidence, a reasonable factfinder could determine that the

likelihood of these field service employees in the Alice, Angleton, Bridgeport, and

Broussard districts driving interstate is so minimal and remote, they cannot be

“reasonably expected” to be “called upon in the ordinary course of [their] work

to [drive interstate].” Songer, 618 F.3d at 474; see Coleman, 324 F. Supp. at 670;

Kimball, 504 F. Supp. at 548; Yaklin, No. 07-CV-422, 2008 WL 4692419, at *6. 

Accordingly, there is a genuine dispute of material fact as to the reasonable

likelihood of these employees driving interstate.

Regarding the fact that Coil Tubing Services’s employees in Wyoming

drive interstate very often, there is no factual indication in the record why that

is relevant to the Texas and Louisiana employees. True, there is evidence that

on “rare” and “exceptional” occasions, one district can borrow another district’s

employees for a job if needed. But, again, according to the record evidence, such

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instances are unusual, and, importantly, there is no indication in the record that

an employee has ever been sent from Texas or Louisiana to Wyoming. Thus, a

reasonable factfinder could determine that there is simply no reasonable

likelihood of a Texas or Louisiana employee being dispatched to participate in

a Wyoming job. Contrary to the district court’s and the majority’s suggestions,

this is not a case like Songer in which all employees accept their job assignments

from a single dispatch. See 618 F.3d at 470. In terms of the work that the

employees here could be expected to carry out, the record evidence shows

material differences between the assignments given to the Wyoming employees

and the Texas and Louisiana employees at issue in this case.

The evidence in the record reveals a genuine dispute of material fact as to

whether the employees here were reasonably likely to be called upon to drive

interstate in the course of their work for Coil Tubing Services. Accordingly, the

district court’s grant of summary judgment for the company and against the

employees on their FLSA claims was improper and should be reversed.

IV. Conclusion

The plaintiffs-employees at issue in this case work inTexas and Louisiana. 

The evidence shows that they are, as a matter of fact, extremely unlikely to be

called upon to drive interstate in the course of their work. Nevertheless, the

district court and majority point to other employees in Wyoming who are not

parties to this litigation but who are likely to drive interstate and, by dint of the

legal fiction of “group” or “class” membership, say that the Texas and Louisiana

workers are no different—that is, they too are likely to drive interstate, despite

the evidence showing the precise opposite. The district court and the majority

cite the DOL’s regulations and Songer as support for their decisions, but they

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have unfortunately misread and misapplied these sources of law, neither of

which support the “group”- or “class”-based analysis that was applied here on a

“company-wide basis” to except more than a hundred employees from overtime

wages. The law requires, and has always required, individual analysis of each

employee’s actual job circumstances. It has never been permissible for courts to

disregard the actual evidence in favor of legal fictions in which broad swathes

of employees are swept together so as to exempt from overtime wages great

numbers of employees based on the activities of others. Simply stated, the

district court must “determine whether or not the activities of each [employee]”

are reasonably likely to affect the safety of interstate transportation. Pyramid

Motor Freight Corp., 330 U.S. at 707-08 (emphasis added). The evidence shows

that the plaintiffs, employees in Texas and Louisiana, are extremely unlikely to

drive interstate. The law does not allow us to exempt them from overtime pay

based on the job activities of other workers in Wyoming who are not a part of

this case. I respectfully dissent.

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