Travel Time

[Copier Whisperer]

Does anyone know of any definitive rulings or laws regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act regarding time while traveling from home to 1st call or to home from last call? I am interested especially when a tech is 2 or more hours away from home on the last call of the day. Does that 2 hour travel time home qualify as FLSA work time? It seems to me there should be a distinction between "Commute" time and "Travel" time. This has been such a gray area my 30+ years in the biz.

[drug-z]

This is somthing I have always wondered about aswell, some of the places i have worked say that I owe him an hour each side of the work day, Which i dont agree with as this makes it 11 hours (lunch included) away from home. Another place said work starts when you get on site.
The place I work now seem fairly relaxed about it so long as the work is done.
I would be interested to know if there is an actual rule as to how it works.

[prntrfxr]

U.S. Department of Labor - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - Fact Sheet

should have the answer to your question. If you return to the home page after reading and click on the "Wage & Hour Division: District Office Locations", select your state, then you can find a person to contact for your state who should be able to provide additional information.

[fixthecopier]

Well the law says anything work related has to be paid. It is illegal to train at home if you are not being paid. KM even stopped giving homework when you go to class because of that.

[charm5496]

We get paid the time it would take us drive back to the office from where we are at on our last call and it is long way from home. That being said our dispatchers do a pretty good job getting us a call close to home at the end of the day.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

Come on reality check...you need to stand up and talk to owner or manager. If you start your day from your house to go to a call and end your day to go home it should and is part of my work day. FYI I start and end my day in my driveway 8:30-5:00 if I do calls first and last during the day. If I go to the office I think/do the same...since my car is also used for a work area in part with use of cell phone calling.

[Billy Bob]

I dont know the actual law but I think any thing over actual miles/time to shop/office would be travel miles/time.

[Joe Foe from Buffalo]

FYI I copy and pasted this from the link posted early in this post

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.htm

"Travel That is All in a Day's Work: Time spent by an employee in travel as part of their principal activity, such as travel from job site to job site during the workday, is work time and must be counted as hours worked."

[Jules Winfield]

Chances are that the owner of your dealership knows what the law is, but will still try to nickel and dime techs every chance he gets. Unfortunately, this whole industry is kind of crooked that way. I'm sure there are techs here that will say that their company treats them well and all, but that's the exception - not the rule.

[charm5496]

I have talked to some techs were the owners are using GPS trackers to log miles and hours worked and is only paying them for the hours that they are in front of the customer and inbetween calls. That is a crooked individual in my IMO.

[Jules Winfield]

I have talked to some techs were the owners are using GPS trackers to log miles and hours worked and is only paying them for the hours that they are in front of the customer and inbetween calls. That is a crooked individual in my IMO.

True dat...

[kyoceradude]

Here is the way we work it. Working hours are from 8-5 with 1 hour lunch. If your normal travel time to the office is 1 hour and miles are 43. Now your first call is 1.5 hours from your home and 68 miles you should start your trip from home @ your normal time of 7:00 which would get you to your call @ 8:30 and the extra 25 mile is charged as travel. If your employer wants you @ your first call @ 8:00 a.m. then you need to leave your home @ 6:30 a.m. which would give you .5 hours OT. Anything over your normal commute time and commute mileage is chargeable to the company. If you finish your last call in BF Egypt and it takes you 2 hours to get home, then you would get paid till 6:00 p.m. Now if your first call is only 5 miles from your home, you can start charging mileage right away from your first call to your next. The 5 miles to your first call is considered commute miles and not reimbursed. Are you confused yet?

[ZOOTECH]

Here is the way we work it. Working hours are from 8-5 with 1 hour lunch. If your normal travel time to the office is 1 hour and miles are 43. Now your first call is 1.5 hours from your home and 68 miles you should start your trip from home @ your normal time of 7:00 which would get you to your call @ 8:30 and the extra 25 mile is charged as travel. If your employer wants you @ your first call @ 8:00 a.m. then you need to leave your home @ 6:30 a.m. which would give you .5 hours OT. Anything over your normal commute time and commute mileage is chargeable to the company. If you finish your last call in BF Egypt and it takes you 2 hours to get home, then you would get paid till 6:00 p.m. Now if your first call is only 5 miles from your home, you can start charging mileage right away from your first call to your next. The 5 miles to your first call is considered commute miles and not reimbursed. Are you confused yet?

This seems like the fairest way of doing it, but as mentioned earlier, not all owners or managers see it that way.

[kyoceradude]

That's because they are nothing but bean counters and try to figure every way to screw you out of what is rightfully yours. Now if they only want to pay you from 8-5 or 9-5, then you start in the office @ 8:00 and return to the office by 5:00. You will not be as productive or get as many calls done, but what is fair is fair. They can't have it both ways.

[Hemlock]

Chances are that the owner of your dealership knows what the law is, but will still try to nickel and dime techs every chance he gets. Unfortunately, this whole industry is kind of crooked that way. I'm sure there are techs here that will say that their company treats them well and all, but that's the exception - not the rule.

Exactly. But heaven forbid anyone suggests organizing for the benefit of collective bargaining.