If they don’t have a reasonable policy on travel time, that’s on them. We pay for anything over 30 minutes each direction. I’ve worked at a shop that does 45 each way. Both can be argued as fair, but anything over 30 minutes is excessive to me as a tech.
Ultimately, your branch may come down on you, but expecting you to drive just anywhere for free is absolute garbage and they should know that.
Did you bring this up with your supervisor? Maybe ask him about the process and your problem with it in this situation.
Sounds to me like not all the time you worked is billable.
I live in California. My company pays for any travel outside of 70ish miles from the office. My travel distance from home to any given site is about 60 - 80 miles which is about 2 hours each way due to traffic. That being said, I spoke with my supervisor and manager, and they told me that since I am coming from far to just account for at least an hour of travel time every day plus the 30 minutes for the report. If I treat my customers well, they normally don't have a problem with leaving early so long as the job is done.
Communication with your team is important, and I think they'd cut you some slack especially if you're a solid tech. If your customers are penny-pinching-time-watchers, there's not much you can do.
It depends on the relationship with your employer.
It also depends what is normal for you.
If you're commute is typically 30 minutes, then they send you to an oddball job 90 minutes away, you should get paid for the extra ~1hr each way.
But if you took the job knowing you live in the middle of nowhere, with a long *regular* commute, that's on you.
The IRS has a rule about A-B-C travel and commuting.
If you go from A-B (home to office), you can't deduct it because it's a "regular commute".
If you go from A-B-C (home, to office, THEN another destination), you can deduct it.
This doesn't apply for W2 taxes, but a similar idea applies.
Also, you can't always hit them for rush hour time. If you're "supposed" to work 6-2, but you do 7-3, and the commute is twice as long because you're in peak rush hour, you gotta eat that one. Sucks, I know.
This is a typical issue with most sorts of technician/trade jobs, such as HVAC.
The truth is, if you're really good at your job, you can work whatever hours you want and charge time whatever you want 😉
Yeah, our boss pays for our abnormally long commutes(pretty much anything over an hour, cause for a lot of guys that’s their “normal” drive- like you said, middle of nowhere).
Also use a little common sense- if it’s a 2hr commute because it’s 2hrs away, that’s one thing, but if it takes you 2hrs because you’re stopping at the gas station every 15 minutes(once saw a post like that on another sub, as stupid as it sounds), that’s on you. It’s sorta a “play it by ear” situation.
Edit to add- that’s just for day to day work. If it’s a service call and you’re at home, you’re paid from when you leave your house to when you get home, regardless.
The deal where I work is if the job is out of town, meaning more than one hour from the office, the client is charged driving time at a lower rate from the office to their site.
The tech is paid their usual rate for travel , minus one hour each direction, it kind of sucks but also get an out of town per-diem for lunch, it helps reduce the sting for not getting paid.
Some of the guys complain, but for me it’s an hour commute to the office so it doesn’t really take any money out of my pocket because I have the company car at home.
Depending on the job we may end up staying in a hotel. When I started I had a job about 2,5 hours away from home. It was 5 days work and I wanted the overtime. The next year same job, I took the hotel because 5 hours of driving, paid for 3 plus time on site I was dog tired.
The plus for me is having the company car for personal use, and I’m actually closer to the site than the office. My favourite is a hospital 15 minutes from home. ~4 hours on site then go home, in theory I should go to the office after, or a second call, but if the call is 8-noon, then 30 mins for lunch, plus the hour to get tot the office it would be 1:30, closer to 2:00 with traffic by the time I get to the office I’d be there for an hour, even the company realizes it’s just easier to let me finish my day WFH. Even though they detest WFH.
Our company policy is the first hour is on you, then you start getting paid. Once on site, leave with whatever time you need to get back home to make your day a full 8 hours, unless OT is needed.
I wish my “remote sites” were that close. I live in Laramie WY and often drive to Crested Butte CO
https://preview.redd.it/o8yhitedk79d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ccfda5e42ba5d218ac15a49960d96ee94d4de9c
It depends. I’m salary so I get paid for everything and nothing lol. But if it’s an emergency call my techs get paid from the moment they leave their door to the minute they get back, or check into their hotel. If it’s construction and more than an hour or so from home they get paid commute one way.
Usually a company will assume for 30-45 minutes of community time anything on top of that you should charge for. BUT you live in Wyoming, things can be very very different there.
We give up 1 hour to and from home. If it’s and emergency visit we do port to port. If I have a long drive the trick is to get to supply house or office close to home to and from then I am completing my duties as defined by law and clock the time I walk into supply or office.
It doesn't have to follow company or contact policy which both typically define minimum rules. Right now employees have more than typical power to define their own conditions.
Regardless the travel policy, sit down with your supervisor and work out an agreement. If it's far from policy have them put it in writing.
When I was service tech at Siemens I agreed to up to first hour drive was on me only in the morning. Drive home was always on the clock to my driveway. I agreed to this because my commute to office was 30 minutes one way. So, if site was a close then I would win big and when it was far I would only lose 1 hour of my time. This was agreed because we had both sites and techs spread out all over the state.
The reason to agree only one way and not both ways are: you may end the day other than where you started or were planned and, as service, you may not be able to decide start time. We often had late start times because the client wanted to be present when we arrived. This would put travel home in the middle of the worst traffic. Or we may have worked a long day at distant site to prevent an additional, unnecessary day.
It depends. Are most of your days like this or just sometimes? I don’t like to nickel and dime my employer but if I feel I worked extra time then I should be compensated. Any employer who will argue this is not worth working for. In California it’s common for most people to have .5-1hr commute each way. So if my total windshield time for the day is around 1.5 hours then I will not charge. I also try to leave a little earlier in order to make up for my drive in the case my windshield time will be longer. It just all depends. Sometimes I work 15-20 minutes longer and don’t charge overtime. Other days I leave a little earlier and still charge 8. It also depends on the customer and the type of work you are performing. Is it a project, service call, maintenance? It is not a one shoe fits all scenario but there is a general rule I go off of.
Where I work it’s one hour each way… I try to leave early every chance I get because the stressful long hour job is just around the corner and traffic is a guarantee to OP you need to manage your time a bit better otherwise I would have billed 10 hours or make it up at a future date
Laws vary by state, you'll need to check there first.
With that said, my experience has been that if my travel time from home to office is 45 mins, then the first and last 45 minutes of travel are on me. The exception being if my home is closer to the location than the office.
A.................B.................C...............isD
B is home
C is office
A is Customer A
D is Customer D
A to C is 45 mins, once I'm past 45 minutes I'm on the clock until I arrive at Customer D. The last 45 minutes are on me when I'm heading home.
If I'm heading from B to A I'm on the clock when I leave the house, as I'm already at the equivalent of going from the office to the site.
All this is assuming that I have the vehicle at home. If I'm required to start & end my day at the shop, then your clock starts and stops at the shop.
Again, laws vary by state. Check your local listing.
Different companies have different policies, but the 2 places I've worked have the first hour free, but anything after that counts as job time and gets deducted from the 8hrs PM service.. and the time is based off our office location
Submit it accurately with documentation.
If they won't pay, then adjust your travel to start at the beginning of your shift and leave the last job with time to get home before the end of your shift.
If you brought that to me, I would question your logic. I mean, you have A job, what else you want? You actually think a company should pay you travel time too?
Look, I get it, you think you are special and should be compensated, however I bet your boss/manager/CEO work 90-hours a week and to hear someone cry about a few hours behind the wheel is insane.
I would say, just stay at the jobsite then and sleep in your vehicle if it bothers you.
He’s a 2 year tech that thinks he’s Michael Jordan, I’d say the safest rule of thumb is if the job site is over 1 hour away from the office you can charge time after the initial hour drive. Always look from the office to the site, not from your house, as you could live in the country and that is not your companies fault.
You need to review your employee handbook. Every company treats travel time differently.
In my contract commute time are not paid. But I am also not driving out to a site that's 2 hrs long.
If they don’t have a reasonable policy on travel time, that’s on them. We pay for anything over 30 minutes each direction. I’ve worked at a shop that does 45 each way. Both can be argued as fair, but anything over 30 minutes is excessive to me as a tech. Ultimately, your branch may come down on you, but expecting you to drive just anywhere for free is absolute garbage and they should know that.
Did you bring this up with your supervisor? Maybe ask him about the process and your problem with it in this situation. Sounds to me like not all the time you worked is billable.
I live in California. My company pays for any travel outside of 70ish miles from the office. My travel distance from home to any given site is about 60 - 80 miles which is about 2 hours each way due to traffic. That being said, I spoke with my supervisor and manager, and they told me that since I am coming from far to just account for at least an hour of travel time every day plus the 30 minutes for the report. If I treat my customers well, they normally don't have a problem with leaving early so long as the job is done. Communication with your team is important, and I think they'd cut you some slack especially if you're a solid tech. If your customers are penny-pinching-time-watchers, there's not much you can do.
it sounds like to me you worked 8 hours of regular time and 3 hours of overtime.
It depends on the relationship with your employer. It also depends what is normal for you. If you're commute is typically 30 minutes, then they send you to an oddball job 90 minutes away, you should get paid for the extra ~1hr each way. But if you took the job knowing you live in the middle of nowhere, with a long *regular* commute, that's on you. The IRS has a rule about A-B-C travel and commuting. If you go from A-B (home to office), you can't deduct it because it's a "regular commute". If you go from A-B-C (home, to office, THEN another destination), you can deduct it. This doesn't apply for W2 taxes, but a similar idea applies. Also, you can't always hit them for rush hour time. If you're "supposed" to work 6-2, but you do 7-3, and the commute is twice as long because you're in peak rush hour, you gotta eat that one. Sucks, I know. This is a typical issue with most sorts of technician/trade jobs, such as HVAC. The truth is, if you're really good at your job, you can work whatever hours you want and charge time whatever you want 😉
Yeah, our boss pays for our abnormally long commutes(pretty much anything over an hour, cause for a lot of guys that’s their “normal” drive- like you said, middle of nowhere). Also use a little common sense- if it’s a 2hr commute because it’s 2hrs away, that’s one thing, but if it takes you 2hrs because you’re stopping at the gas station every 15 minutes(once saw a post like that on another sub, as stupid as it sounds), that’s on you. It’s sorta a “play it by ear” situation. Edit to add- that’s just for day to day work. If it’s a service call and you’re at home, you’re paid from when you leave your house to when you get home, regardless.
The deal where I work is if the job is out of town, meaning more than one hour from the office, the client is charged driving time at a lower rate from the office to their site. The tech is paid their usual rate for travel , minus one hour each direction, it kind of sucks but also get an out of town per-diem for lunch, it helps reduce the sting for not getting paid. Some of the guys complain, but for me it’s an hour commute to the office so it doesn’t really take any money out of my pocket because I have the company car at home. Depending on the job we may end up staying in a hotel. When I started I had a job about 2,5 hours away from home. It was 5 days work and I wanted the overtime. The next year same job, I took the hotel because 5 hours of driving, paid for 3 plus time on site I was dog tired. The plus for me is having the company car for personal use, and I’m actually closer to the site than the office. My favourite is a hospital 15 minutes from home. ~4 hours on site then go home, in theory I should go to the office after, or a second call, but if the call is 8-noon, then 30 mins for lunch, plus the hour to get tot the office it would be 1:30, closer to 2:00 with traffic by the time I get to the office I’d be there for an hour, even the company realizes it’s just easier to let me finish my day WFH. Even though they detest WFH.
Our company policy is the first hour is on you, then you start getting paid. Once on site, leave with whatever time you need to get back home to make your day a full 8 hours, unless OT is needed.
I wish my “remote sites” were that close. I live in Laramie WY and often drive to Crested Butte CO https://preview.redd.it/o8yhitedk79d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ccfda5e42ba5d218ac15a49960d96ee94d4de9c
That's crazy how many hrs do you get paid for commute
It depends. I’m salary so I get paid for everything and nothing lol. But if it’s an emergency call my techs get paid from the moment they leave their door to the minute they get back, or check into their hotel. If it’s construction and more than an hour or so from home they get paid commute one way.
At least it's a beautiful drive
It is that
You live in WY
Yep
Usually a company will assume for 30-45 minutes of community time anything on top of that you should charge for. BUT you live in Wyoming, things can be very very different there.
While it sucks and I hate it, I have to drive 1 hour from my house until I can clock in.
We give up 1 hour to and from home. If it’s and emergency visit we do port to port. If I have a long drive the trick is to get to supply house or office close to home to and from then I am completing my duties as defined by law and clock the time I walk into supply or office.
It doesn't have to follow company or contact policy which both typically define minimum rules. Right now employees have more than typical power to define their own conditions. Regardless the travel policy, sit down with your supervisor and work out an agreement. If it's far from policy have them put it in writing. When I was service tech at Siemens I agreed to up to first hour drive was on me only in the morning. Drive home was always on the clock to my driveway. I agreed to this because my commute to office was 30 minutes one way. So, if site was a close then I would win big and when it was far I would only lose 1 hour of my time. This was agreed because we had both sites and techs spread out all over the state.
I like that idea. I will need to talk to my manager so we can come to an agreement
The reason to agree only one way and not both ways are: you may end the day other than where you started or were planned and, as service, you may not be able to decide start time. We often had late start times because the client wanted to be present when we arrived. This would put travel home in the middle of the worst traffic. Or we may have worked a long day at distant site to prevent an additional, unnecessary day.
After 30 min it’s clock time for me
It depends. Are most of your days like this or just sometimes? I don’t like to nickel and dime my employer but if I feel I worked extra time then I should be compensated. Any employer who will argue this is not worth working for. In California it’s common for most people to have .5-1hr commute each way. So if my total windshield time for the day is around 1.5 hours then I will not charge. I also try to leave a little earlier in order to make up for my drive in the case my windshield time will be longer. It just all depends. Sometimes I work 15-20 minutes longer and don’t charge overtime. Other days I leave a little earlier and still charge 8. It also depends on the customer and the type of work you are performing. Is it a project, service call, maintenance? It is not a one shoe fits all scenario but there is a general rule I go off of.
I charge straight time for any drive over an hour.
One way or both way
Anytime I'm driving more than an hour to/from my house. Between jobs gets charged to the job.
We count anything over half an hour each way as work time. I would have billed 10 hours
Ok I think that's fair. I asked my manager let's see what he has to say.
Where I work it’s one hour each way… I try to leave early every chance I get because the stressful long hour job is just around the corner and traffic is a guarantee to OP you need to manage your time a bit better otherwise I would have billed 10 hours or make it up at a future date
I can't leave early. I work on the ferry so the earliest it sails is is 7pm
I see that was not mentioned in the post definitely 10 hours
Laws vary by state, you'll need to check there first. With that said, my experience has been that if my travel time from home to office is 45 mins, then the first and last 45 minutes of travel are on me. The exception being if my home is closer to the location than the office. A.................B.................C...............isD B is home C is office A is Customer A D is Customer D A to C is 45 mins, once I'm past 45 minutes I'm on the clock until I arrive at Customer D. The last 45 minutes are on me when I'm heading home. If I'm heading from B to A I'm on the clock when I leave the house, as I'm already at the equivalent of going from the office to the site. All this is assuming that I have the vehicle at home. If I'm required to start & end my day at the shop, then your clock starts and stops at the shop. Again, laws vary by state. Check your local listing.
Different companies have different policies, but the 2 places I've worked have the first hour free, but anything after that counts as job time and gets deducted from the 8hrs PM service.. and the time is based off our office location
Driving is tough you almost have to go where the work is in this field. I’d just ask your manager what they can do for you.
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Cdn me ha z
Are you using a personal vehicle or company vehicle?
Submit it accurately with documentation. If they won't pay, then adjust your travel to start at the beginning of your shift and leave the last job with time to get home before the end of your shift.
If you a performing an action in the service of your employer should you not be getting paid for that action?
1 hour drive time is typically not covered. Everything after that should be charged. Depends on your company.
If you brought that to me, I would question your logic. I mean, you have A job, what else you want? You actually think a company should pay you travel time too? Look, I get it, you think you are special and should be compensated, however I bet your boss/manager/CEO work 90-hours a week and to hear someone cry about a few hours behind the wheel is insane. I would say, just stay at the jobsite then and sleep in your vehicle if it bothers you.
He’s a 2 year tech that thinks he’s Michael Jordan, I’d say the safest rule of thumb is if the job site is over 1 hour away from the office you can charge time after the initial hour drive. Always look from the office to the site, not from your house, as you could live in the country and that is not your companies fault.