Opinion ID: 903301
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Examples

Text: Analogy to the examples of exempt and non-exempt drivers listed in the DOL regulations also lends support to IMM’s position. Meza’s role at the company had a number of the characteristics listed in the descriptions of exempt driver-salesmen: Meza “provide[d] the only sales contact between the employer and the customers visited, [he] call[ed] on customers and [took] orders for products, [he] deliver[ed] products . . . and [he] receive[d] compensation commensurate with the volume of products sold.” 29 C.F.R. § 541.504(c)(1). As discussed above, supra Part II.C.ii., Meza “obtain[ed] or solicit[ed] orders for the employer’s products from persons who ha[d] authority to commit the customer for purchases.” Id. § 541.504(c)(2). He “call[ed] on new prospects for customers along [his] route and attempt[ed] to convince them of the desirability of accepting regular delivery of goods.” Id. § 541.504(c)(3). The applicability of any one of the regulations’ listed examples would be persuasive; that three aptly describe Meza’s duties is arguably decisive. Similarly, for the most part, the listed examples of non-exempt drivers mostly do not describe the kind of work Meza performed. IMM did not require that he restock or maintain vending machines. See id. § 541.504(d)(1). Meza’s 14 Case: 12-10785 Document: 00512277491 Page: 15 Date Filed: 06/18/2013 No. 12-10785 sales promotion work was performed as part of his own sales efforts, not those of his supervisors or of other employees. See id. § 541.504(d)(3) (stating that activities like “placing point-of-sale and other advertising materials, price stamping commodities, arranging merchandise on shelves, in coolers or in cabinets, rotating stock according to date, and cleaning and otherwise servicing display cases” describe the work of a non-exempt salesman “unless such work is in furtherance of the driver’s own sales efforts” (emphasis added)). It is true that Meza is on firmer ground in arguing that he was “[a] driver who often call[ed] on established customers day after day or week after week, delivering a quantity of the employer’s products at each call when the sale was not significantly affected by [his] solicitations of the customer . . . or the amount of the sale [was] determined by the volume of the customer’s sales since the previous delivery.” Id. § 541.504(d)(2). Meza claims that even if he began his employment as an outside salesman, the nature of the work changed over the course of his time with IMM, so that by the end there were so many stops on his route that he only had time to make deliveries and generate a list of items to be restocked based on what had been sold by each convenience store. Even if Meza’s assertion is accurate, however, he was still the only sales contact between IMM and the convenience stores on his route—any sales that were made were “significantly affected” by Meza. Furthermore, even if we were to concede that this illustration of a non-exempt driver describes Meza, he must still contend with the fact that he also fits easily within three of the regulations’ descriptions of exempt driver-salesmen. 15 Case: 12-10785 Document: 00512277491 Page: 16 Date Filed: 06/18/2013 No. 12-10785