Is Travel Time Paid? Commutes, Job-Site Driving and Overnight Trips Explained
- Your normal commute is not work time, even if you go to different job sites.
- Travel between job sites during the workday is paid.
- On overnight trips, travel during your normal working hours counts as work, even on a weekend.
Travel time is one of the most common sources of unpaid hours, especially in construction, home services and field sales. Here is what the Labor Department’s hours-worked regulations say.
The normal commute
Under 29 CFR 785.35, travel from home before the regular workday and back home at the end of the day is “ordinary home to work travel,” and that “is true whether he works at a fixed location or at different job sites.” It is not work time.
Travel that is part of the day’s work
29 CFR 785.38 says travel “from job site to job site during the workday, must be counted as hours worked.” If you are required to report to a meeting place to get instructions, do other work, or pick up and carry tools, the travel from that place to the work site is also paid, “regardless of contract, custom, or practice.”
The regulation gives a worked example: an employee who normally finishes at 5 p.m. is sent to another job, finishes there at 8 p.m., and must return to the employer’s premises by 9 p.m.; all of that time is work. If the employee goes straight home instead, the travel after 8 p.m. is treated as a commute.
Overnight travel
29 CFR 785.39 says travel that keeps you away from home overnight is work time when it “cuts across the employee’s workday,” and that applies to the same hours on nonworking days too. If you normally work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, travel during 9 to 5 on a Saturday counts. Regular meal periods aren’t counted. As an enforcement policy, DOL doesn’t count time spent as a passenger on a plane, train, boat, bus or car outside your regular hours.
Checklist for field workers
- Required to stop at the shop or yard first? Travel from there is paid.
- Driving between customers? Paid.
- Flying out Sunday afternoon for a Monday job? Hours that overlap your normal weekday schedule count.
- Keep a simple log of departure and arrival times.
Sources: 29 CFR 785.35, 29 CFR 785.38, 29 CFR 785.39.
Published October 27, 2026. Sources are linked in the text.
Header image: original graphic by JobPayRaise.com.
Comments (1)
One related detail from the same part of the regulations: the passenger exception doesn’t cover drivers. An employee who drives a truck, bus, car, boat or plane, or is required to ride along as a helper, is working while riding, except during bona fide meal periods or when allowed to sleep in adequate facilities the employer provides. Source: 29 CFR 785.41.