A practical guide for employers with field crews, multi-site teams and staff who travel for work.
For businesses with technicians, cleaners, home care workers, construction crews or sales staff, travel can be a large share of the day. If it is treated incorrectly, the error repeats every shift for every employee, and it quietly builds into a back-pay risk. Travel can also push weekly hours past 40 and trigger overtime.
EZTime labor rule alerts flag overtime and missed rest periods before payroll.
The federal rules come from the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Portal-to-Portal Act and the Department of Labor’s interpretive rules on hours worked (29 CFR Part 785). Below are the main situations, in plain language. Our glossary entry on compensable time explains the wider concept.
Normal travel from home to the employee’s regular place of work, and back home at the end of the day, is generally not hours worked. This is true whether the employee works at a fixed location or at different job sites within the normal commuting area.
The commute can become paid time in some cases, for example when the employee must first stop at the shop to pick up tools, instructions or a company vehicle. In that case the workday usually starts at the shop, and the drive from the shop to the job site is work.
Time spent traveling as part of the day’s work is hours worked. Typical examples:
This is where many employers underpay, especially when employees clock out at one site and clock in at the next. If the employee is traveling for work between those punches, that time generally needs to be paid. Our article on field employee time tracking covers practical setups.
When an employee who normally works in one city is sent for the day to another city and returns the same day, the travel is generally hours worked because it is performed for the employer’s benefit. The employer may deduct the time the employee would normally spend commuting.
For example (fictional), an employee who normally commutes 30 minutes each way is sent to a client three hours away and back the same day. The travel totals six hours; subtracting the usual one-hour round-trip commute leaves five hours of paid travel, in addition to the time spent working at the client.
Travel that keeps the employee away from home overnight is treated differently. Under federal rules:
| Travel segment | Paid? |
|---|---|
| Sunday flight from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. as a passenger | Yes, it falls within normal hours (even on a Sunday) |
| Sunday flight from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as a passenger | Generally no, outside normal hours |
| Thursday drive home of 4 hours, driving required by the employer | Yes, driving required by the employer is work |
| Working on a report during the flight | Yes, any work performed counts |
Using a company vehicle for the commute does not, by itself, make the commute paid time. Under the Employee Commuting Flexibility Act amendment, commuting in an employer vehicle is generally not compensable if the travel is within the normal commuting area, the use is subject to an agreement, and the employee is not doing other work along the way. Loading equipment, receiving dispatch instructions or making required stops can change that.
Some states follow the federal approach closely, while others are more protective. California, for example, has its own rules on compensable travel and may count time spent on employer-required transport. Some states also require reimbursement of vehicle expenses for employees who use personal cars. Check the rules in each state where your employees travel, and see our California labor laws overview as an example of how state rules differ.
Travel is easiest to pay correctly when it is recorded as it happens. The EZTime mobile app lets employees clock in from the field, with GPS location if you enable it, so managers can see when the workday started and where. Combined with timekeeping best practices and clear policies, this keeps travel hours visible in timesheets and in payroll exports, and overtime alerts warn you when travel pushes someone toward 40 hours.
A normal commute from home to work and back is generally not paid under federal law. Travel during the workday, such as between job sites, is paid.
Yes. For non-exempt employees, time spent traveling between work locations during the workday is generally hours worked.
Passenger time during the employee’s normal working hours is generally paid, even on weekends. Passenger time outside normal hours generally is not, unless the employee is working.
Yes. Paid travel time is added to the employee’s hours worked for the workweek.
No. Mileage or vehicle reimbursement covers expenses; travel time pay covers hours. Both may apply.
Field staff clock in from the EZTime app with a GPS stamp, and geofencing can limit clock-ins to approved locations.