Travel Time

amyhedlu

At our company we have road crew installers who travel to different job sites to work for 9-12 days and then come home and are off work for 5 days. We are looking at setting a travel time limit of 10 hours that will be paid at their hourly wage with no O/T. Does anyone else have a policy like this or am I opening myself up to some legal problems?

Pork

Regulation part 785, SECTION 785.33 travel time, portal-to-portal, home to work; ordinary situation, home to work in emergency situations, home to work on special one-day assignment in another city, travel that is all in a day's work, travel away from home community, when private auto is used, work performed while traveling are all topics that you should read and insure someone fully understands the different situations faced for compensation.

I do not believe you may set a compensation time limit nor should you want to. Use the established procedures and pay accordingly as authorized by the supervisor/manager of the concerned individual. If I ride and do no work I am not entitled to working hour compensation; however, if I drive or navigate or assist in maintaining the service of the vehicle, like changing a flat or pumping the gas, I am working and the company owes me for the time worked. This time is then added to my regular hours worked and if it goes over 40 guess what, I get overtime. If I do no work my riding time is just that riding time and I do not get paid, but then I don't have the cost of taking my personal vehicle to the distant work site (for which my company will only pay .25 per mile).

My son works for a company who pays my son perdiem of $25.00 a day for all his travel and meals, he is an hourly paid ee and drives thousands of miles during the year going to "shows" where he has to set-up the display and then work the display. I advised him along time ago to keep good records of his many trips, because the company will owe him a fortune when they get read to part company.

Unfortunately for him, he is not taking my advice: he loves his company, his work, and the travels and his boss the owner of the company. While he is loyal and dedicated and presently forgives the company, there very well could be a smart person like me that has read and under stands these issues and would cover their ass with facts, dates, times, and documentation even if it is on toilet paper it will be a better record than the company has; they will have only the facts of what they paid and not what they OWE!!!

PORK

Brad Forrister

As Pork's post indicates, compensability of travel time is fairly complex - and your question doesn't give quite enough specifics. Is this 10 hours of travel in one day? Or are you combining the travel on both ends of the assignment? Do they drive themselves? Do they report to work first?

But a couple of cut-to-the-chase observations:

1. The question of compensability of travel time is usually all or nothing. If it's compensable, you pay it. If not, you don't pay it. But it would be a big mistake to put an artificial limit on it and then ignore the overtime implications. If it took 12 hours to travel, you're on tap for 12 hours, and setting a 10-hour limit doesn't get you off the overtime hook.

2. What's the problem you're trying to solve? If someone's turning in 12 hours of travel for a destination that's only four hours away, you have a discipline issue. If it really takes 12 hours, why do you not want to pay it?

Brad Forrister
Director of Publishing
M. Lee Smith Publishers

amyhedlu

I'll expand a little on the situation: We have employees who live all over the US that we fly them to a job site on Monday and then they report for work. They work for 9 days and then they fly home. On the trip home they do not work only travel. The costs associated with the travel time are usually not billable to our customers. We were just seeing if there was anyway to reduce the hours that are payable for travel or pay them at a different rate. I have some ee's that get paid $28/hr to sit on an airplane or at an airport because of a delay.

Pork

IT READS LIKE YOUR COMPANY IS ON THE HOOK FOR SOME TRAVEL TIME. IF I DISPATCH A MECHANIC FROM HIS HOME TO A REMOTE SITE AND HE HAS TO SPEND 9 DAYS THERE WORKING WITH REST PERIODS, WE WOULD OWE THE EMPLOYEE FROM THE TIME HE LEAVES HIS HOME IN TRAVEL, PLUS HOURS PHYSICALLY WORKING AND THE TRAVEL TIME RETURNING TO HIS HOME. RESTING PERIODS ARE NOT COMPENSATABLE, NOW MY EMPLOYEE HAS A COMPANY TRUCK WHICH HE IS DRIVING. IF HE PICKS UP ANOTHER EMPLOYEE HIS HELPER WHO DOES NOT DRIVEM, NAVIGATE, NOR SERVICE THE VEHICLE THEN I DO NOT OWE THE MECHANIC HELPER EXCEPT FOR THE TIME HE IS PHYSICALLY WORKING. RIDING IS CONSIDERED TO BE RESTING PERIODS. AS A MATTER OF COMPETITION, WE CHOOSE TO PAY OUR HELPERS WHO COME TO THE SHOP, CLOCK IN, AND THEN TRAVEL WITH THE MECHANIC TO THE DAILY WORK SITE AND RETURN TO THE SHOP, CLOCK OUT, AND GO HOME.

YOU CAN GET A FREE COPY OF THE REFERENCED REGULATION BY CALLING YOUR FRIENDLY FEDERAL WAGE AND HOUR OFFICE. IF THEY HAVE SOMEONE ON DUTY YOU CAN ASK THEM FOR THE PARTICULARS. I HAVE FOUND THEM TO BE VERY HELPFUL BEFORE THE FACT OF A COMPLAINT, AFTER THE FACT OF A COMPLAINT THEY ARE NOT SO NICE AND FRIENDLY, BECAUSE THEY FEEL LIKE WE THE EMPLOYER SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!!!

PORK