Travel time

I was wondering if any of you who have to travel to work get paid for travel time or compensated in some other way. The company I work for doesn't have a policy, as such, seems to be more of a hit or miss deal- ie., if it takes an entire day to get from the shop to the site they will pay you for the day, and sometimes the trip home especially if you are hauling something for them. But right now I'm working 5 hours away, and while they pay my fuel and tolls they seem to think that getting there is my business. What's you guy's experience with being compensated for working away from home?

Need more info.

If you are an operator and driving your own vehicle to the job site, then unless they have a different policy, I'd say you are out of luck. It's not their choice where you live. If they have an extended job though, I would have expected them to cover your lodging once you get there.

If you are a mechanic driving their loaded up service truck and they send you to a job 5 hours away, I'd say they have to pay you.

Andrew

I am an operator, but sometimes I get roped into driving the lowboy if they don't have a driver available. Obviously, they pay me if I haul a machine. But for this thread let's look at it from the operator's standpoint. The company itself is local to me, their main shop is half an hour away, so it's not a question of where I choose to live. These guys have jobs going on from Massachusetts to Georgia. They do pay for the hotel.

They should be paying for your lodging and a per diem if you are working "out of town". To me "out of town" means anywhere 1.5 hours or more away from the home office. I wouldn't pay time going to or coming home from a project that was out of town. That being said, I don't travel out of town to do jobs as one can't compete with the locals when you add lodging and per diems - plus the fact of mobilization and no knowledge of the local market.

It's a tough, screwed up market out there.

Our company policy is we pay our employees travel time on any job more than half hour from the town we are based out of. Being in construction you have to expect to have to travel to each site which I think a half hour is reasonable. After that the employee is spending his own time, his gas, and his vehicle to get to the jobsite. I have found this agreeable with the employees, as well as the customers we bill to. If you want us to do the job, that's our price.

I work out of town (2-5 hours from home) for 99% of my work. Company vehicles and fuel. Mondays we get paid for the ride to the job, and if we bring equipment home or from one job to another we get paid for that travel time as well. When we are out of town we get $90/day per diem. I'm looking foward to contributing to HEF.

Seth

Welcome to the Forums Zephy!:drinkup

I understand the frustration dieseldave . About the same deal in my area with construction companies working out of town or out of state . Beyond a two hour drive most opt to stay near the job in a motel & eats paid for buy the company , then drive home on Friday for the weekend .

I have always worked as a contractor so if we were out of town working the cost was figured in to each job . Most of this work was for a communications company at cell tower sites .

It got to the point I was going to dedicate myself to traveling for them like a Gypsy with a back hoe & concrete forms . Well..... I got older , started a family ( 3 kids ) and made the decision to work closer to home . No more cell tower site's .:crying

Working away from home is a young single mans gig in my opinion .

Today we base most projects within 25 miles from home .

And life is good

For about 10 years I ran a small construction company that specialized in installing sports lighting equipment. We went all over the country doing it, but mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. I didn't have any permanent employees, I just hired guys as I needed them through staffing agencys. I did have one or two guys that worked with me fairly regularly during that time. The others I would hire locally from around the jobsite.

I always felt that the job started when we got to the work site. I did not pay my guys a wage for travel time. I wasn't willing to pay them to watch me drive. That said, I always offered them the opportunity to ride with me. I paid their meals and motel bills while traveling and paid their motel and a per deim while on the job. Time on the job was usually from a week to a month or so.

Not sure if this was the right thing to do or not but it is the way I did it.

I shut down the lighting company a few years ago. Now, I find myself with the shoe on the other foot. I have to evaluate whether a job is worthwhile or not for me to travel to it on my own dime. Most times I find that it is. Last year I worked for a subcontractor on a wind farm that was about 100 miles from home. I paid my own way from home to the camp and back on the weekends. Company provided transportation from the camp to the jobsite each day. I was very happy with the arrangement.

Tim