Travel Time Between Job Sites: How to Count It in Your Hours Worked and Overtime
A utility service technician clocks in at the yard at 6:30, drives to a first job, then a second, then a third, and heads home. A plant maintenance electrician gets a call at 1:10 a.m. for a failed panel at a site 50 minutes away. A telecom or elevator technician works a 10-hour day made of four short visits and a lot of road.
On a timesheet that only starts when you reach the customer's door, the driving disappears. Under federal wage rules, some of it should be on the clock, and the part that is can push a normal-looking week over 40 hours. This post sorts the travel that counts from the travel that does not, and puts numbers on both.
Step 1: Which travel counts as hours worked
The U.S. Department of Labor's hours-worked regulations (29 CFR Part 785) split travel into a few groups. These are the ones shift workers run into:
| Situation | Counts as hours worked? | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Home to work and back, ordinary day | No, "whether he works at a fixed location or at different job sites" | § 785.35 |
| Job site to job site during the workday | Yes, "must be counted as hours worked" | § 785.38 |
| Reporting to a meeting place for instructions or tools, then traveling to the work place | Yes, "regardless of contract, custom, or practice" | § 785.38 |
| Home to a substantial-distance emergency job after you finished your day | Yes, "all time spent on such travel is working time" | § 785.36 |
The dividing line is the principal activity. Travel that is part of doing the job (moving from one task to the next, carrying the tools, answering an emergency) is work. Travel that is only getting to the start of the day, or home from the end of it, is not. Section 785.34 adds that an employer's contract or custom can make ordinary commuting time paid, but the regulation says ordinary home-to-work travel "need not be counted as hours worked even if the employer agrees to pay for it."
The regulation's own example is a good test. An employee who normally finishes on the employer's premises at 5 p.m. is sent to another job that ends at 8 p.m. and is required to return to the premises, arriving at 9 p.m.: all of the time, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., is working time. If that employee goes home instead of returning, the travel after 8 p.m. is home-to-work travel and is not hours worked.
Step 2: A 42-hour week, counted two ways
Take a utility service technician paid $28.00 an hour under the federal rule, with a Monday-to-Thursday schedule. Each day:
- 9.0 hours at customer sites
- 1.5 hours driving between sites (already net of any unpaid meal period)
- The drive from home to the first stop, and back, is ordinary commuting and is left out.
Counting only time at the customer's door: 9.0 hours x 4 days = 36 hours. 36 x $28.00 = $1,008.00. No overtime.
Counting travel between sites too: (9.0 + 1.5) = 10.5 hours a day x 4 days = 42 hours in the workweek.
- First 40 hours: 40 x $28.00 = $1,120.00
- Hours over 40: 2. Overtime pay is at least one and one-half times the regular rate (§ 778.107), so $28.00 x 1.5 = $42.00 an hour, and 2 x $42.00 = $84.00
- Total: $1,120.00 + $84.00 = $1,204.00
Another way to check it: 42 x $28.00 = $1,176.00 straight time, plus the half-time premium on 2 hours (2 x $14.00 = $28.00) gives the same $1,204.00.
The difference between the two methods is $1,204.00 - $1,008.00 = $196.00 for the week: 6 hours of travel at straight time ($168.00) plus the $28.00 premium. No single shift looked long, yet the week crossed the line. Remember that each workweek stands alone: a short week next week does not cancel it.
This example assumes one hourly rate for every hour and no differentials or bonuses. If your pay has more than one rate, the overtime rate changes; see overtime with two pay rates.
Step 3: A call-out at 1:10 a.m., counted in full
Say you are an on-call plant electrician at $34.00 an hour. You have already worked 40 hours this workweek. At 1:10 a.m. you get an emergency call for a customer site and drive there.
| Segment | Time |
|---|---|
| Drive from home to the site | 50 minutes |
| Work on site | 2 hours 25 minutes (145 minutes) |
| Drive home | 50 minutes |
| Total | 50 + 145 + 50 = 245 minutes = 4.083 hours |
Because you are already at 40 hours, all of it is overtime at $34.00 x 1.5 = $51.00 an hour: 4.0833 x $51.00 = $208.25.
If the phone app only started the clock on arrival, you would be paid for 145 minutes, which is 2.4167 hours x $51.00 = $123.25. The missing 100 minutes of driving is worth $85.00 (1.6667 hours x $51.00).
Two limits are in the regulation itself. Section 785.36 describes a call-out "to travel a substantial distance" for an emergency job for the employer's customer, and it does not say how far "substantial" is. And for an employee called in to report back to the regular place of business, the Divisions state they are taking no position on whether that travel is working time. That is a gray area, not a promise either way, so ask how your employer treats it.
Step 4: What this does not settle
- Overnight trips. Travel that keeps you away from home overnight has its own rule in § 785.39, including travel hours that fall on days off. It is a separate topic.
- Who is covered. This is the federal minimum for non-exempt employees. Exempt status, a union agreement, a written company policy or your state's wage rules can add pay on top. Some states count more time than the federal rules do.
- The pay rate for the travel hours. Federal rules require that the hours be counted and overtime be paid on hours over 40. If your employer pays a different rate for drive time, the weighted-average method above is how overtime is usually worked out; ask payroll which method they use.
- Daily overtime states. If your state has daily overtime, the 10.5-hour day in Step 2 may carry premium pay on its own. See 12-hour shifts in daily overtime states.
What to check on your own timesheet
- Where does the clock start? At the yard or shop, at the first customer, or when you leave home? Only the first stop-to-stop travel is clearly paid; know which your timesheet is using.
- Is stop-to-stop driving in your total? Add up one week by hand: site time plus every drive between sites.
- Did a late job send you back to the premises? If you were required to return, that drive is part of the day; if you went straight home, it is not.
- How are call-outs recorded? From the phone call, from leaving your driveway, or from arrival on site?
- Did the total cross 40? Count the whole workweek, not each day. Your employer sets the day the workweek starts; see the employer-designated workweek.
This post is general information on federal rules (the FLSA and the Department of Labor's regulations in 29 CFR Parts 778 and 785, text as published on the eCFR through 2026-10-07), not legal advice. Your classification, contract and state law decide your actual pay.
Weeks like this are easier to check when your rotation is on a calendar. Duty Pals, a shift calendar for Android, is free on Google Play, and the free shift pattern calculator on this site lays a rotation against real dates, so you can see how many shifts, and so how many hours, land in each workweek.