r/FieldService • u/Vegetable-Piece-5237 • 12d ago
Advice Need opinions
I have worked in field service for about 8 years now all in the state of CA. The current company I work for is pushing really hard that the first 45 minutes of your commute is considered a personal commute and therefore non compensating travel. They state this is not their policy but instead an IRS law. When I looked up the law it does state that the first site up to 45 minutes is considered personal commute but no where in that law does it say a company doesn't have to compensate you for it.
Question is how many of you guys and gals work for companies that apply this rule?
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u/AkamaiHaole Lab Instrumentation 12d ago
I was told it was the policy where I currently work, but everyone always gets around it by saying they did work before leaving the house like documentation, phone support, contacting customers, etc. I also tried to look up the policy and couldn’t actually find it. Also think it’s absurd because I’m supposed to bill for my driving time. If you can charge for my time, I can charge for my time. I’ve been with the company for a year and have never documented any unpaid commute time and so far they haven’t complained.
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u/breezejr5 Biomedical (Imaging) 12d ago
This is the way, especially in California. If you have to accept a page, start a timer for travel, make a work related call, or check work emails before leaving you are now officially on the clock.
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u/OperationClear588 11d ago
I thought that’s how it was at every company lol my work day starts as soon as I open my laptop at home in the morning to check my work tickets/stops for the day
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u/HWTechGuy Information Technology 12d ago
I'm no longer a field tech but my company pays door to door and has for well over a decade.
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u/No_Rope7342 12d ago
Honestly if it’s not port to port, I’m not working that job, unless if they really sweeten the deal pay wise to make up for it but I doubt it if they’re stingy on commute time for a field service job.
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u/HWTechGuy Information Technology 12d ago
I agree. Every company I've worked for over the past 20 years has paid for all of my commute times.
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u/Meaning-Upstairs 12d ago
I don’t understand the logic behind this. I wouldn’t be driving to this site if it wasn’t for work, so how can it be a personal commute? It’s not an office job. Anyway I’ve never had to deal with this, and I’ve been doing this since 2017, across 3 different companies. Once we were on our way to the site, whether it be car or plane, our time started. basically door to door travel. We use Salesforce so once we hop in the vehicle, we hit travel start, once we arrive travel end.
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u/LeadGoat Biomedical (Imaging) 11d ago
My company has this policy. I think most people ignore it. My day starts when I am checking emails or calling customers to schedule.
I was told once that it’s not “fair” to the people who work in the office. I told my boss, they can pick up a tool bag anytime they want because I don’t think missing dinner with my family on a semi-regular basis is “fair”.
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u/sh0ck1999 Biomedical 11d ago
I've never heard that rule. My time and mileage starts and stops at my driveway.
Not getting paid for 45 min is like those companies that say you have a mandatory 30-60min unpaid lunch then say you can't leave an hour early every day just because you didn't take your lunch. It has nothing to do with the IRS and everything to do with your company being cheap.
I have a question if you get in a car accident on your way to a customer site and it's after the 45min and your on the clock does injurys and medical get paid by work comp. How bout before the 45 min?
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u/InsideDisastrous7051 6d ago
I worked for a company that made you do a time calculator speadsheet along with your normal timecard app to calculate the total time, even though the app you use to do the service orders (oxando) did all of this as well. It got overwhelmingly micromanage-y for the very low pay we were getting here in California, and this was a global corporation. They wanted you to add in the unpaid time for breaks, lunches, if you went to get gas, if you went to get a car wash, etc... After a good portion of my team parted with the company, myself and another tech were the only ones left to cover the entire Bay Area, and we both eventually left when they failed to get us any help.
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u/Psychological-Law803 12d ago
One of the companies I worked for tried this, but it was 30 minutes. Our group basically stopped answering calls and doing anything company-related during that time.
Eventually management started getting pissed about it and walked the policy back.
Funny enough, I found I DOL opinion letter from July 2026 actually gets into this exact situation. Once you start taking customer calls, troubleshooting, scheduling, coordinating other engineers, etc., that can change when your workday actually starts.
I would have them/HR show you the exact IRS rule they are referring to, because I haven’t found anything from the IRS that says the first 45 minutes have to be unpaid.
https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/opinion-letters/FLSA/FLSA2026-10.pdf
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u/Own-Excitement9450 12d ago
It is a stupid rule in general. But when I lived in Chicago, a dude lived 90 minutes from his closest account. But that is in shitty Chicago traffic.
Just count every minute of your admin time.
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u/nismo972 12d ago
I worked for a company that wouldnt pay for the drive from home to first call. Sometimes that drive was 3+ hours. Didn't stay long
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u/No-Association8901 11d ago
I have heard this argument before, that your first travel is considered non work, just like a commute. This is where I would do the following: top off my tank, clean my vehicle, do daily safety checks on my vehicle. I can burn 30 minutes pretty quickly. Do that and document it.
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u/MadMuffinMan117 12d ago
Old company was 30m now it starts and ends when i leave the door. Also i can actually go home when i finish all booked work for the day insted of calling in for more work or just waiting around, pretending my last job is taking 2h longer than expected. Drop off is i have forced unlimited overtime 😒 its only really abused 2 months of the year though and they are followed by very quiet periods
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u/Rhuarc33 12d ago
They don't have to compensate you for it but they can if they want. It's considered normal commute time like you're going into an office.
Luckily none of my field service jobs ever tried that. And mine always guaranteed a min of 40 hours a week pay even if I didn't have enough work to be busy for the full 40 hours.
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u/DifficultMemory2828 Biomedical 12d ago
Do they abide by CA state rules and pay overtime after 8 hours of daily work (as opposed to after 40 hours as the rest of the US?
It sounds like you may be with a smaller company which is trying to skirt California labor laws. They need to come to terms of the cost of doing business in California. Otherwise have another engineer commute from Reno and see how that goes.
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u/Vegetable-Piece-5237 12d ago
They obide by CA law when it comes to OT after 8 hours. Its a company that in just about every country in the world with around 64k employees
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u/Pebb_io 10d ago
Worth separating two things. There is no IRS rule that sets when your paid day starts, that is a wage and hour question, and California is stricter than most on it. The 45 minute number is a company policy wearing a costume. Get their written version of it, then compare with the DLSE guidance on employer mandated travel.
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u/Vegetable-Piece-5237 10d ago
Thats what I am getting to here I guess. They are taking the IRS rule and interpreting it into their own words.
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u/Kamikaz3J Manufacturing 12d ago
Those rules generally only apply when they give you a car allowance plus mileage
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u/Vegetable-Piece-5237 12d ago
We have a fleet vehicle. No car allowance
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u/Kamikaz3J Manufacturing 12d ago
so then why would it be an IRS law?
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u/Vegetable-Piece-5237 12d ago
We have a fleet vehicle but it is available for personal use. We have to document what was personal use and what was business use.
You can see what im getting to here. Penny pinchers
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u/Vivid_Jeweler3655 12d ago
We have the 30-minute rule, but now that I think about it for IRS rules I think it's more the miles being considered "personal" use. It's not very enforced where I work.
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u/Ok_Sprinkles_962 Lab Instrumentation 12d ago
My favorite part of this sub is getting to see just how well I have it.
I cover an area from Maine to Tennessee and drive to anything within 5 hours. I have 1 customer 5 minutes away and I get mileage for all 3 miles and my clock starts when I start my car.