overtime for drivetime

[dennis prather]

I would like to know if my company has to pay overtime for drive time. we furnish the trucks and tooling. we would like to get an eight hour day at our field locations.

[LConnell]

If the employee is not required to stop at a central location to collect tools, instructions, etc., and the employee is not required to do work on the drive (such as talk on the phone) and the employee leaves directly from home, it does not need to be paid. However, if any of these factors does exist, it must be considered paid time.

One of the ways that you can minimize overtime for the entire crew is through organization. Make sure that the employees know of their assignment for the next day before they leave from work the night before. Then, direct them to leave from home, going to the jobsite. If there is a need for tools, etc., to be collected and driven to the job site, instruct only one employee to do so. You will need to compensate that employee for the drive time (unless he/she is a manager or otherwise exempt from overtime). But, in this way, your costs will be kept at a minimum.

Employees may be reluctant to accept this change, especially if they do not wish to incur gas charges, etc. You an take the hard route and lay down the law. Or, you may wish to consider a one time raise to accompany the change in policy. "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[dennis prather]

the employees leave from a central location. can the drivetime be seperated as straight time after the daily eight hours at the jobsite.

[LConnell]

You can't separate out the time. However, if you are in a state that recognizes a 40 hour workweek standard for purposes of calculating overtime, an employee can work 10 hours in one day and not receive overtime, as long as they don't go over 40 in a week. (Some states have an 8 hour workday standard. In those states, you will have to pay overtime for the drive time over 8 in a day.)

What state are you in?

[dennis prather]

we are located in texas.

[dennis prather]

We are located in Texas. If this has to be paid as overtime. Is there an alternative so we do not have to pay overtime for drivetime to the jobsite.

[LConnell]

Texas recognizes a 40 hour workweek, rather than an 8 hour day. So, what are your alternatives?

1) You can take my first suggestion of having employees go to the site directly from their home, having only one person pick up the truck and go to the site. If that person is exempt, you will not incur overtime. If the person is non-exempt, you will only incur overtime for that one person (if everyone is working 40 hours except for the driver).

2) You can adjust the workweek so you work your crews 4 10-hour days, with a few working Monday through Thursday and the others working Tuesday through Friday (if your work occurs primarily on week days). You will still have to pay for the drive time but it will not be at the overtime rate.

Let me know if any of these suggestions may work for you. I'll try to think of others.

[ahorn]

I'm interested in knowing about the overtime vs. drive time in Ohio. If I drive a company vehicle with supplies and tools part of my 45 hours, is all 5 hours overtime?

What if the business has only 12 employees or less? Does that make a difference?

[LConnell]

Are you driving your vehicle home and part of that time is spent driving that vehicle to the first job? You can read about drive time at: http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/whdfs22.htm

[ahorn]

Thank you, the reference was helpful.

Here's the situation: employees arrive at a central warehouse in their own vehicles from home. They then pack a company vehicle with supplies and tools, drive this company vehicle to locations sometimes 2 hours away from the central warehouse, install the supplies, then drive the work vehicle back to the warehouse. The company has the employees account for the travel time they spend going to and from the worksite each day, and then at the end of the week, if they have worked over 40 hours, they get overtime, but travel time is only compensated as straight time. So if they have driven for 10 hours during the week, and work 50 hours, there is no overtime pay, as the 10 hours over 40 hours was driving time.

They claim it's legal, but I doubt it. I wondered if it's because they have less than 12 employees and it's a small company.

[LConnell]

I don't believe so. The reason is that it seems to me that they are changing the rate of pay to circumvent federal overtime laws. I would verify it with the state. You can contact them at: http://198.234.41.198/w3/webwh.nsf?Opendatabase

[Taihbsear]

I posted this somewhere else but I have a question.

I use my own vehicle.

Thank You I work out of my house in Arizona and frequently have to travel over 4 hours to certain job locations with my normal travel time being 90 minutes or moreto all others. The work at these locations will usually take more than 3 to 4 hours to complete and then I return home. This day sometimes will stretch from 8am to after 8pm or longer. I have been informed after 3 years they will not count this as overtime for any hours after 5pm (normal hours are 8am to 5pm with 1 hour lunch) which can end up being several hours of unpaid time.
My home is my office with my main office being in Southern Ca over 500 miles away. This employer requires me to travel this distance to fix this equipment.
They have an option of spending the night but I cannot always afford to do this because they take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks for my expenses to be reimburssed.
So because of this travel time I am actually being forced to work for free at my expense.

Thank You

[Taihbsear]

This is from the DOL.

An employee who travels from home before his regular workday and
returns to his home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary
home to work travel which is a normal incident of employment. This is
true whether he works at a fixed location or at different job sites.
Normal travel from home to work is not worktime.

What I want to know is what is considered normal travel time?

[LConnell]

Normal travel time is the usual amount of time you spend driving to the first job. The DOL takes the position that you are choosing to live where you do and to work where you do.

[Taihbsear]

Even though the time varies as much as from 90 minutes to 4 1/2 hours?
My company considers my home my office, so if I drive to my office everyday this would qualify as paid time would it not?

[LConnell]

Not if that is the arrangement that is a regular expectation of the job.