When Drive Time Counts as Paid Hours

When drive time counts as paid hours (and when it doesn't)

The ordinary home-to-work commute isn't paid time anywhere — federal law explicitly excludes it. But once the workday starts, any drive that follows is paid, even back home or to the next job. The trap is what counts as "starting work": logging into the dispatch app, picking up tools at the yard, or taking a customer call — that's the workday starting.

California is broader. If you require employees to ride employer-provided transit (a shuttle, a van), California pays the ride time — even if the policy is technically "optional." If the employee can't realistically decline, the ride is paid. Travel-time class actions in California settle in the $10M–$50M range for policies that are compliant federally.

How to track travel time without missing hours

• Find out when each employee's workday starts (app login, yard arrival, first customer call).
• Make sure your time clock captures every drive after the workday starts.
• If you require yard pickup before customer visits, pay the yard-to-customer drive.
• In California, treat any mandatory shuttle or transit as paid time.
• Keep GPS and app-login records to defend (or prove) drive-time claims.

Where service businesses get caught

• A plumber who picks up tools at the yard before the first customer — that drive is paid.
• A home-health nurse who logs in before driving to the first patient — the drive counts as paid.
• Telling California employees the parking-lot shuttle is "optional" when they can't realistically skip it — California pays it.
• GPS shows trucks at customer sites before time records start — back-pay per minute, per employee, per day.

Capture every drive minute — or pay for it later

The cost of capturing drive time is a payroll-system tweak. The cost of not capturing it is back-pay across two or three years, doubled in federal court, and in California a class action measured in tens of millions. Pay the drive after the workday starts; the math is always in your favor.