Travel time between jobs, sites and clients

This is less a set of instructions about travel time than an argument, and it is worth saying so at the start.

Three kinds of journey

The ordinary commute to a regular workplace is generally not working time in most systems. Travel between two work locations during the working day usually is, because it is done at the employer's direction.

Travel from home to a first assignment, for workers with no fixed base, has been treated as working time in several jurisdictions. Which category a journey falls into is what decides the answer, not the distance.

No fixed base changes things

Care workers, engineers, installers and other mobile workers often have no permanent workplace, and courts in several jurisdictions have found their first and last journeys of the day to count as working time. That has significant consequences for minimum wage calculations, since unpaid travel can drag the effective hourly rate below the legal floor.

Where it helps most, enforcement in these sectors has been an ongoing issue in a number of countries. If this describes your work, it is worth checking the current position with your labour authority or a union.

Working time and paid time are separate questions

Time can count as working time for the purposes of hours limits and minimum wage calculation without automatically attracting the normal hourly rate under the contract. Contracts and collective agreements sometimes set a different rate for travel.

What cannot usually happen is total pay divided by total working time falling below the applicable minimum. That calculation is the one to run if a role involves substantial travel.

Expenses are a different line again

Mileage, fares, parking and tolls incurred for work travel are usually reimbursable, and in some systems there are defined rates or tax reliefs. Reimbursement is not pay and does not compensate for the time. Claims frequently go unmade because the process is tedious relative to the individual amounts.

Setting up a standing claim routine at the start of a job captures amounts that add up substantially.

Gaps between assignments

Scheduled gaps during which you are required to remain available or cannot practically go home occupy a middle position that depends on the constraints imposed. A long unpaid gap in the middle of a split shift is a real cost and is common in transport, care and hospitality.

In practice, some collective agreements pay a split-shift allowance for exactly this reason. Ask whether one exists in your sector rather than assuming there is no provision.

Some of this will suit you and some will not, and that is the point.

Run the effective rate

Divide total pay by total time committed, including all travel and unpaid gaps, before comparing one job to another. Roles with high nominal rates and heavy travel frequently lose to lower-rated local work on that measure. It is also the figure that reveals whether a minimum wage issue exists.

In practice, where it appears to, that is a matter for your labour authority rather than a negotiation.

The takeaway

Divide pay by all the time committed, including travel. That number decides whether the job pays what it claims.

Small and repeatable beats ambitious and abandoned, almost every time.