time in the truck

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I suspect the rules are a little different from state to state but as I understand it, whether someone is required to be paid for travel time or not depends on whether the employer is in control of the travel or not. If the employer provides transportation as a convenience to the employee, it is not required to be paid.

The whole thing gets pretty murky with people who drive company vehicles. My understanding is if you are driving a company vehicle from home, there is no need to pay you for the time spent going to the first stop. If you have to go someone and get it first, then the time spent driving the company truck is payable.

There are some interesting labor law decisions on this as applies to people who have to fly as part of their job. In at least one case I read about, an employer was able to successfully argue he should not have to pay travel time for an employee he paid to fly somewhere for a job.
 
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j_erickson said:
It wasn't made up willy nilly. It is legal. It is stated in the employee manual that up to 40 minutes travel is paid at half the hourly rate. Any time exceeding 40 minutes is paid at the standard rate.

In fact I break my own policy too often. As I said earlier we are working on Cape Cod whick is over an hour and a half away. I'm paying them for the entire ride both ways. OT rate. But I guess you're right, I need to stop being willy nilly and stick to the policy and keep the 40 minutes each way for myself. And as far as "fair", everyone I hire knows all my policies up front. If it is not "fair" then do not come to work here.
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John,
Not trying to argue with you, yet, just trying to understand your company policy.
If I work for you and I just want to work 8 hours per day period. I show up at the shop at 7:00AM load & leave, get back to the shop at 3:30PM
Allowing 40 minutes of travel time, my pay for that day would equal 7.25 hours normal pay & .75 hours @ 1/2 of normal pay correct?
I rounded off the numbers for simplicity sake.
 
j_erickson said:
It wasn't made up willy nilly. It is legal. It is stated in the employee manual that up to 40 minutes travel is paid at half the hourly rate. Any time exceeding 40 minutes is paid at the standard rate.

In fact I break my own policy too often. As I said earlier we are working on Cape Cod whick is over an hour and a half away. I'm paying them for the entire ride both ways. OT rate. But I guess you're right, I need to stop being willy nilly and stick to the policy and keep the 40 minutes each way for myself. And as far as "fair", everyone I hire knows all my policies up front. If it is not "fair" then do not come to work here.
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There are alternatives to "take it or leave it."
 
j_erickson said:
It wasn't made up willy nilly. It is legal. It is stated in the employee manual that up to 40 minutes travel is paid at half the hourly rate. Any time exceeding 40 minutes is paid at the standard rate.

In fact I break my own policy too often. As I said earlier we are working on Cape Cod whick is over an hour and a half away. I'm paying them for the entire ride both ways. OT rate. But I guess you're right, I need to stop being willy nilly and stick to the policy and keep the 40 minutes each way for myself. And as far as "fair", everyone I hire knows all my policies up front. If it is not "fair" then do not come to work here.
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I believe you are making a mistake John. I believe you are setting "precedent" and you are now required to pay travel time both ways at full pay, no matter what the "manual" says.
 
Bob Kraemer said:
John,
Not trying to argue with you, yet, just trying to understand your company policy.
If I work for you and I just want to work 8 hours per day period. I show up at the shop at 7:00AM load & leave, get back to the shop at 3:30PM
Allowing 40 minutes of travel time, my pay for that day would equal 7.25 hours normal pay & .75 hours @ 1/2 of normal pay correct?
I rounded off the numbers for simplicity sake.
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I don't mean to answer for John, but I believe you have it Bob.
 
hardworkingstiff said:
Curious minds are interested in the "alternatives", what are they?
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An alternative might be to contact you local State labor dept and find out from the source what is and what isn't proper, and legal.
 
LawnGuyLandSparky said:
An alternative might be to contact you local State labor dept and find out from the source what is and what isn't proper, and legal.
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lets go under the assumption that what he's doing is legal and proper...what alternatives do you suggest?

should he just let the employees decide how they individually want to be treated? or should he just give his employees the reigns to determine how his business is run?

what do you suggest?
 
If your electricians are performing construction as opposed to service work, there is no benefit to having them meet at the shop and then drive to the job. Give them directions to the job and have them start and finish their day there. You will not have to pay any travel time for that. If a couple of guys for convienence want to meet somewhere and then drive in the company truck, then they would not be paid for "travel" time either...they are just carpooling.

With that being said, essentially they are required to be paid from the time they arrive at work to the time that they are able to go home. If they were required to come to the shop in the morning, they should be paid until they reach their vehicle again and are able to go home.
 
Essentially if you want to retain good employees you need to be fair with them about travel time. If you aren't then you get what you get and quit your whining about crappy employees.
 
yeah...those horrible bosses...raking in the money while their men kill themselves for a hay penny.....

but, what are the alternatives?
 
wireman71 said:
Essentially if you want to retain good employees you need to be fair with them about travel time. If you aren't then you get what you get and quit your whining about crappy employees.
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I've got good employees and am not whining. I have never complained about my employees on this site.

And I'm guessing that I'm fair. I've only had one quit in the past 15 years, and that was to go on his own. I even had one I fired (and since went on his own) say that if he ever closed shop and went back to work for someone, I would be the only one he'd go back to.

I'm done arguing this point. There's got to be anouther good argument I can jump into.;)
 
agreed...just don't mistake having a good relationship and being fair with allowing your employees to dictate your policies...
 
I was like many of the others I got paid from the shop til going home time and did not get paid to drive back, which I always thought sucked.

How it all came to a head was I showed back up at the shop one day at 3:30 and my boss got all over me about the fact that I got paid from 7:00 to 3:30 and I pointed out that was the time and he told me that wasn't how it worked.

The next morning I showed up at the shop around 6:30 like I did every morning and sat there and drank my coffee while I watched the boss load the truck. Finally he asked if I was gonna help or not. I reminded him that I got paid from 7:00 to 3:30 and I would be happy to help him load the truck in about a half hour or we were gonna have to have a talk about 6 years of owed over time.

We never had a conversation like that again.
 
I know I said I wasn't going to talk about it anymore, but you guys have me thinking:

I am down (by choice) to 4 full time employees. Instead of doing things the way I am, I can have 2 of the 4 meet at the jobsite and the other 2 pick up the vans at the shop. The 2 that pick up the vans will get to the site 15 - 45 minutes later than the 2 that go straight to the site.

Since an apprentice needs to be supervised, I'll need the licensed guys to go to the site and start working. Now they will be working the full 8 hours instead of travelling some of them. On the flip side, I will be paying full time to the apprentices for their travel. I will benefit in dollars by the difference between the journeyman's pay and the apprentice pay. Cumulatively, about $20/ hr. And for additional benefit, I will get anywhere from 10 - 40 additional minutes of work performed each day by 2 men.

The only down side to all this is that the 2 journeymen have to leave their house earlier than they do now (depending on job location relative to their house) to be on site at 7:00, will need to work longer physically (as opposed to riding), and will need to pay for the extra gas in their own vehicles.

So instead of continuing the way I have been and sticking it to my guys, I can go the aforemetioned route and keep everyone happy. I really am considering that some of you guys were right.

And in about a week I am starting a 6500 square foot house in a town that is 45 minutes away. So that's about a 2 week rough. I'll see the benefits right away. And when we go to the Cape, I'll really rake it in.
 
Cape Cod:
Harwich, MA US
to:
Milford, MA US

Total Est. Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes
Total Est. Distance: 97.18 miles

97.18 miles is exactly 47.18 miles further than what would require you pay an unemployment benefit claim for "jobsite too far."
 
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