E DG E
Driving for Old Dominion
O
ld Dominion Freight Line is a trucking com-
pany that hires two kinds of drivers. “Line
Haul” drivers drive long distances and spend
nights and weekends on the road. “Pickup and De-
livery” drivers only drive locally and stay home, but
they have to carry and stack heavy loads so their job
is more physically demanding. Out of 3,100 Pickup
and Delivery drivers in the company, only five were
women. Deborah Merritt worked for six years as a
THE
Line Haul driver, making long trips across the United
States, sometimes driving over five hundred miles a
day. Still, she never complained and did her job well.
But Merritt wanted a Pickup and Delivery job so she
would not have to spend time away from home. To
show she could do the job, she filled in for Pickup and
Delivery drivers when needed. Her supervisor said
Merritt did a good job on Pickup and Delivery and sev-
eral clients complimented her work. When a full-time
Pickup and Delivery job finally was available, Merritt
O N
told Bobby Howard, her Lynchburg, Virginia termi-
nal manager, that she wanted the job. Howard said
he did not have the authority to fill the position. But
later, he in fact hired someone else to take the job: a
male driver with less truck-driving experience. Merritt
did not complain however. A year later, a Pickup and
Delivery job became available again. Again, Howard
hired a less-experienced male driver. When Merritt
asked why he passed her over twice, Howard said
it “had been discussed and it was decided that they
could not let a woman have that position.” He pointed
out that “the company did not really have women . . .
[Pickup and Delivery] drivers.” An Old Dominion
driver put it simply: “We don’t have no females.”
Howard also told her that Old Dominion’s Regional
Vice President “was afraid [a female] would get hurt”
and “didn’t think a girl should have that position.”
An operations manager agreed, saying “this is not a
woman’s place.”
Another year passed and a Pickup and Delivery
job again became available. This time the company
gave the position to Merritt, but told her that she
Source: Deborah Merritt v. Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, no. 09-1498, April 9, 2010.
398
would be on probation for ninety days and she would
lose the job if she had any performance problems. No
male drivers had ever been required to go through
a probation period. Merritt worked as a Pickup and
Delivery driver for ninety days, and had no problems
carrying freight or doing anything else required of the
position. But seven months later, she injured her an-
kle while moving boxes. Her doctor said she could not
do Pickup and Delivery until it healed. Three months
later, Merritt’s ankle was well and her doctor told her
“nothing . . . prevented her from performing her duties
as a Pickup and Delivery driver. . . . [Her ankle was] as
well, if not better, . . . than before her injury.” So Mer-
ritt asked to have her Pickup and Delivery job back.
But Brian Stoddard, Vice President of Safety and Per-
sonnel said that she first had to take a “physical abil-
ity test” that would evaluate her strength, agility, and
cardiovascular endurance and have her perform the
tasks of a Pickup and Delivery driver. Merritt did not
pass the test; but the test had been used only rarely
and only when hiring new people. If male employees
were injured while on the job, Stoddard admitted, he
was “not necessarily going to send them for a [physi-
cal fitness] test.” Moreover, Merritt said, she could
obviously do the job since she did it for seven months
and filled in for other drivers even longer. Neverthe-
less, Stoddard fired her because of her “inability to
perform [the] job” as indicated by the test and later
replaced her with a male driver.
1. Was the fact that Deborah Merritt did not
pass the physical ability test sufficient
justification for firing her? Did Old Do-
minion Freight Line discriminate unjustly
against Merritt? If you think firing her was
unjust discrimination, then was it indi-
vidual or institutionalized discrimination?
Explain your answers.