employees paid travel

[iand74]

I'm looking for some input on this issue...

Do employees need to be paid for travel time back to the shop at the end of the day if they are in a company van?

ie: get to the shop at 7:00, travel 30 minutes, work untill 3:30, then 30 minute travel back to the shop.

with a 1/2 hour lunch, is this an 8 hour day or an 8 1/2?

thanks

 

[jumper]

Depends on local and state laws. The rules are not set in stone, but there are guidelines.

Personally, I would call it a 8 hr. day.

 

[charlie b]

Speaking only as a potential client, if you charge me for the time, and don't pay the employee for the time, I would call it inappropriate. So let me turn the question around and ask whether you charge your customer for that extra 30 minutes.

 

[jumper]

Speaking only as a potential client, if you charge me for the time, and don't pay the employee for the time, I would call it inappropriate. So let me turn the question around and ask whether you charge your customer for that extra 30 minutes.

Good call Mr.B:thumbsup:

I gotta say: few big guys think about us grunts. Thanks.

 

[cmreschke]

In Michigan it is considered 8 1/2 hours as a matter of fact per the department of labor. As I think it should be.
Fwiw if the job requires travel time in your van do you charge your customers for said time?

 

[cmreschke]

Man he's a fast typer

 

[iwire]

Where I am, and I think you will find in most areas you are required to pay the employee from the time you require them to be at any location.

So if you require them at the shop at 7AM so they can ride to the job in the company truck you would be paying for that time and until you get them back to the starting point.


That is one of the primary reason most construction companies have their employees report to the job and not the shop.

Furthermore, where I am anyway, travel time is not required to be paid at OT rates even if it is beyond 40 hours.

So they could do 40 hours of electrical work plus 5 hours of riding time and the payment would be 45 hours of straight time, not 40+ 5 at 1.5 rate.

 

[charlie b]

For what it may be worth, this Thursday I will take the usual bus to the office, then check out a company car. A group of us are taking a trip to a client's office that is about an hour away from our office. The entire time we will will be away from the office will be billable time to the client, and will count as paid time for those of us making the trip. I don't expect it to go over an 8 hour day, but that would not change anything.

 

[satcom]

I'm looking for some input on this issue...

Do employees need to be paid for travel time back to the shop at the end of the day if they are in a company van?

ie: get to the shop at 7:00, travel 30 minutes, work untill 3:30, then 30 minute travel back to the shop.

with a 1/2 hour lunch, is this an 8 hour day or an 8 1/2?

thanks

We pay the employee for every second he is in the company van, I my state the comp insurance covers his medical on all commercial vans, not an auto policy medical, so take care so you don't get into a pile of trouble, and expenses if he gets into an accident.

 

[Strife]

You DON'T NEED TO ANYTHING(just about)
You could pay them 5-6 bucks an hr(whatever the minimum wage in your state is), but let's see how many GOOD electricians you'll get for that money.
I worked for a company one time...., a particular instance comes to mind, we go on a weekend to do some work, put the 6 hrs it took us to do it on the time card. Come Monday the boss rips me a new one for taking that long, then, right in front of me proceeds to write the charges at 9 hrs. Long story short, I wasn't working for that company 3 months later.
So there are few things to consider:
1: Is the time billable? If the employee comes with 8:30 hrs billable, and the customer is happy, what's your problem? Is it greed? You get paid for 8:30, why shouldn't your employee?
2: Even if it's not billable, little things like these can leave a bitter taste in your employee's mouth. Do you make enough to eat the extra half an hr? If not, then don't pay them, but if it is, and you don't pay them.... you really gonna lose some good guys.
3: How far do you send them at the end of the day? I've done service work for about 6-7 years. NOTHING takes ONLY half an hr in South Florida. More often than not it took 1hr plus to get back, paying them for half an hr seems fair to me.
4: Have you considered letting the employees taking the van home? I mean, if you have a job, you expect the employee to be there at 7:00 and leave at 3:30, that means they leave home at 6:30, and is back home at 4:00(considering half hr drive), why would you expect your service people to get home at 4:30?(never mind the fact that your shop might be further from their house). Again, during my "service times" I worked for someone that was least an hr drive from most jobs, but most jobs were 30 minutes from my house. Sure enough the owner let me take the van home and I would clock out when I left the job. From my perspective: If I'm 30 min away from home and you expect me to drive 1 hrs back to the shop, then another 30 min back home, I BETTER GET SOMETHING.

I'm looking for some input on this issue...

Do employees need to be paid for travel time back to the shop at the end of the day if they are in a company van?

ie: get to the shop at 7:00, travel 30 minutes, work untill 3:30, then 30 minute travel back to the shop.

with a 1/2 hour lunch, is this an 8 hour day or an 8 1/2?

thanks

 

[iwire]

For what it may be worth, this Thursday I will take the usual bus to the office, then check out a company car. A group of us are taking a trip to a client's office that is about an hour away from our office. The entire time we will will be away from the office will be billable time to the client, and will count as paid time for those of us making the trip. I don't expect it to go over an 8 hour day, but that would not change anything.

I assume you are a salary type of guy, hourly guys are treated much differently.

 

[iwire]

You DON'T NEED TO ANYTHING(just about)
You could pay them 5-6 bucks an hr(whatever the minimum wage in your state is), but let's see how many GOOD electricians you'll get for that money.

That is true where I am, but we do pay the full rate.

1: Is the time billable? If the employee comes with 8:30 hrs billable, and the customer is happy, what's your problem? Is it greed? You get paid for 8:30, why shouldn't your employee?

That really has nothing at all to do with it, what we bill out is none of the employees business.

2: Even if it's not billable, little things like these can leave a bitter taste in your employee's mouth. Do you make enough to eat the extra half an hr? If not, then don't pay them, but if it is, and you don't pay them.... you really gonna lose some good guys.

Now that is something to consider. Will the money saved cost you more in poor morale.

3: How far do you send them at the end of the day? I've done service work for about 6-7 years. NOTHING takes ONLY half an hr in South Florida. More often than not it took 1hr plus to get back, paying them for half an hr seems fair to me.

Well see now your number 1 could come back and bite you, we have customers that pay in 15 minute increments, so we may get paid just 15 minutes. Of course we do pay the employee for all their time.

4: Have you considered letting the employees taking the van home? I mean, if you have a job, you expect the employee to be there at 7:00 and leave at 3:30, that means they leave home at 6:30, and is back home at 4:00(considering half hr drive), why would you expect your service people to get home at 4:30

Who said these guys were 'service people'?

 

[iand74]

thanks for the responses,

just to be clear i'm not the boss-i'm the guy in the van. but i wanted to get some feedback before i bring it up. my impression is that this is essentially a legal issue. does anyone know what state agency i should contact to find out?

 

[cmreschke]

thanks for the responses,

just to be clear i'm not the boss-i'm the guy in the van. but i wanted to get some feedback before i bring it up. my impression is that this is essentially a legal issue. does anyone know what state agency i should contact to find out?

Where are you at?

 

[infinity]

An hourly employees deserves to get paid for every minute he works even if some of that time is spent traveling back to the shop. We usually let the guys take the van home to avoid the cost of leaving from and returning to the shop. Plus they get free transportation.

 

[petersonra]

In Michigan it is considered 8 1/2 hours as a matter of fact per the department of labor. As I think it should be.
Fwiw if the job requires travel time in your van do you charge your customers for said time?

why would you have to pay them for the 1/2 hour lunch?

what the employee gets paid for and what the client gets billed for are related but not the same thing. Some places bill less for travel time then regular time even though they pay the employees the same rate. some places have paid lunch time when on the road but don't bill it to the customer. I knew of at least one place that gave their people on the road a 2 hour straight time bonus for each day they are on the road.

 

[ritelec]

I'm looking for some input on this issue...

Do employees need to be paid for travel time back to the shop at the end of the day if they are in a company van?

thanks

Definitive yes.


Had a buddy whi did landscaping years ago.............. he received his check at the end of the 40 hr. week. His check was for 20 hours................his employer did not pay traveling from job to job......not right.

satcom......."we pay the employee for every second he's in the company van"...........like it or not that's the way it should be..............(not if he's sleeping)...(sorry my union brother dudes who sleep on the job).

 

[ritelec]

thanks for the responses,

just to be clear i'm not the boss-i'm the guy in the van. but i wanted to get some feedback before i bring it up. my impression is that this is essentially a legal issue. does anyone know what state agency i should contact to find out?

Legal or not I've no clue.............

If your off the clock, park the van and have your boss pick it up.

also in response............no "payed lunch".............and actually, my son did a stint at ups and they where not getting that 10 or 15 minute break (paid)...........did some research, and in Jersey it's not mediatory (the break) it falls under child
work laws.

 

[ritelec]

An hourly employees deserves to get paid for every minute he works even if some of that time is spent traveling back to the shop.

+1

 

[petersonra]

Definitive yes.


Had a buddy whi did landscaping years ago.............. he received his check at the end of the 40 hr. week. His check was for 20 hours................his employer did not pay traveling from job to job......not right.

satcom......."we pay the employee for every second he's in the company van"...........like it or not that's the way it should be..............(not if he's sleeping)...(sorry my union brother dudes who sleep on the job).

the place I used to work paid engineers straight time upto 40 hours per week and time and a half after 45. The 5 hours between 40 and 45 was unpaid. two guys got sent to itally one time and mostly due to flight delays ended up getting 87 hours of pay one week. Someone got offended by this and made a rule up that exempt employees could get no more than 8 hours of travel time paid in any one day. you can imagine how the people doing the traveling reacted. an amazing number of trips would start in the evening on one day and end the next day.