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Travel Time

Time spent traveling during normal work hours is considered compensable work time. Time spent in home-to-work travel by an employee in an employer-provided vehicle, or in activities performed by an employee that are incidental to the use of the vehicle for commuting, generally is not "hours worked" and, therefore, does not have to be paid. This provision applies only if the travel is within the normal commuting area for the employer's business and the use of the vehicle is subject to an agreement between the employer and the employee or the employee's representative.

Webpages on this Topic

Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act - Answers many questions about the FLSA and gives information about certain occupations that are exempt from the Act.

Coverage Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Fact Sheet - General information about who is covered by the FLSA.

Wage and Hour Division: District Office Locations - Addresses and phone numbers for Department of Labor district Wage and Hour Division offices.

State Labor Offices/State Laws - Links to state departments of labor contacts. Individual states' laws and regulations may vary greatly. Please consult your state department of labor for this information.

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Percentage change in duration of one-way commutes from 2019 to 2022

9.8% shorter

San Francisco

Kansas City, Mo.

Minneapolis

New York City

Los Angeles

Philadelphia

Source: Replica | Note: Change is from autumn of 2019 to autumn of 2022.

Most Americans still have to commute every day. Here’s how that experience has changed.

By Lydia DePillis ,  Emma Goldberg and Ella Koeze Nov. 6, 2023

The average American commute is about 27 minutes. While people in many industries were able to start working from home during the pandemic, recouping their travel time, nearly half of U.S. workers kept devoting a good chunk of their day — sometimes an hour or more — to being in transit.

Pandemic-era commuting has widened several divides: between those who can work remotely and those who can’t, and between those who drive and those who use public transportation. The decrease in travel by those able to work remotely has changed the nature of commutes for everyone else — streamlining rush-hour traffic, for example, but making trains run less often.

For some, it has been a mixed blessing. Take Torie Hargreaves, whose commute used to be brutal, often double the 27-minute average. As a nurse at a hospital in Minneapolis, she would leave home shortly after noon, and it could take up to an hour to wind her way up Hiawatha Avenue to the sprawling campus, past construction sites and other bottlenecks.

Before the pandemic, it could sometimes take Torie Hargreaves, a nurse in Minneapolis, nearly an hour to get to work. Now it’s about 35 minutes.

Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

Like a majority of Americans, Ms. Hargreaves was unable to do her work at home. She kept driving to the hospital five days a week — in the eerie stillness of the pandemic lockdowns, then the slow resurgence of traffic as life returned to something like normal.

Her journey now takes only about 35 minutes, slightly less than in 2019. That doesn’t mean it’s easier: Emptier roads have meant faster speeds — according to GPS signals collected and analyzed by the data firm Replica — and less-considerate drivers.

“I notice it a lot when merging or taking turns at lights,” Ms. Hargreaves said. “People have gotten to be so much more isolated about their mindset that they aren’t aware of their neighbors.”

In many cities, postpandemic commutes are faster

Difference in the average driving speeds at each hour of the day in 20 metro areas in autumn 2022 from autumn 2019

Select a metro area:

2 m.p.h. slower

2 m.p.h. faster

4 m.p.h. faster

Morning rush hour traffic sped up the most.

Source: Replica

But Ms. Hargreaves has at least been able to reclaim some of her home time. That’s not the case for Andrea Villanueva, 45, who lives in South Minneapolis and takes the bus to North Minneapolis for her job as a contractor cleaning a grocery store.

For Ms. Villanueva, who leaves for work at 8 p.m. and usually comes home around 7:30 a.m, the 45-minute trips each way became far more challenging during the pandemic, particularly because of rising crime, Covid-19 risks and emptier public transit vehicles that have made her uneasy.

Andrea Villanueva takes the bus to North Minneapolis for her job as a contractor cleaning a grocery store.

“I felt unsafe to travel any more on the bus, but I have to because I don’t know how to drive,” Ms. Villanueva said in Spanish, describing moments when other passengers have grabbed her inappropriately or coughed on her, making her sick.

Ms. Villanueva has sometimes had to change her commuting routines to feel safe, by traveling at different times or asking her brother to accompany her on the bus. “Before, I came home at 5 in the morning,” she added. “But now I don’t come home at 5. I come home when someone can come to take me home.”

Christopher Wiese, an assistant professor of industrial organizational psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology who studies commuting, says the “quality” of commutes depends less on the time they require, and more on how peaceful and predictable they are. The experiences of white-collar friends and family members whose working lives had suddenly become much more fluid can also make in-person workers feel relatively worse off.

“I think it’s become worse from a psychological sense, and that’s likely because they're not provided an option to not commute,” Dr. Wiese said. “These essential workers may be viewing the same experience through a more negative lens.”

Ms. Hargreaves thinks about that disparity sometimes. A friend works for Target’s corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, and usually gets to work at home, a lifestyle that allows for things like joining book clubs and hiking on the weekends. It was enough to make Ms. Hargreaves think about switching careers.

“There’s always that temptation and pull,” she said. “But ultimately the cause of working at the bedside in a hospital is worth my time.”

The American commute got longer, again

Average one-way commute duration

2022 +0.8 min.

Source: American Community Survey

Note: Average commute length for 2020 is not included. Does not include those who work from home.

In 2006, according to the Census Bureau , the average one-way commute took 25 minutes. By 2019, it was up to 27.6 minutes.

That gradual elongation happened because workers were moving farther from their workplaces, often forced to the margins by the rising cost of housing in job centers. “ Super-commuters ,” who travel hours to get to work, became more common.

Of course, commuting is riven with inequality: Although the gap has been narrowing , Black workers generally still have longer commutes than white people, resulting in part from housing segregation. Workers of color are also disproportionately likely to hold jobs that can’t be done from home.

The march of longer commutes shifted into reverse during the pandemic. Although the Census Bureau wasn’t able to collect solid results for 2020, by 2021 the average one-way commute had dropped by more than two minutes from 2019.

Why did that happen? In part, those who had longer distances to travel were more likely to stop making the journey, while people who lived closer to their workplaces kept going, bringing down the average.

A more important reason: With fewer employers demanding rigid 9-to-5 schedules, the morning and evening rush hours thinned out. People still drove a lot — running errands in the middle of the day between Zoom meetings — but those who had to commute at traditional times had less traffic to contend with. The resulting higher speeds also resulted in a spike in the per-capita rate of fatalities involving motor vehicle accidents.

With fewer employers demanding rigid 9-to-5 schedules, the morning and evening rush hours thinned out.

In 2022, as employers started requiring that workers return to the office and highways filled up — especially with freight, as logistics companies rushed to meet the new demands of online shopping — the average one-way commute increased to 26.4 minutes , from 25.6 minutes in 2021. The difference doesn’t seem like a lot, but it adds up to millions of hours across the approximately 136 million people who commuted last year.

More granular data from Replica shows where commutes in late 2022 were still the shortest relative to the same quarter in fall of 2019. Commute times in the metropolitan areas surrounding Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco and Washington were 7.5 percent to 10 percent lower.

The average commute distance changed much less, an indication that commuters are driving faster — but also, more people are driving. Some of those who could afford to abandon their bus and train commutes did so, first out of fear of infection. Then, having invested in cars and not needing a monthly transit pass because they might need to travel only a couple of days a week instead of five, they stuck to it. The share of people using transit in 2022 was 3.1 percent, according to the Census Bureau, down from 5 percent in 2019.

Many commuters have abandoned public transit since the pandemic

Percent change in 2022 from 2019 in the number of commutes taken on a typical autumn Thursday by either car or on public transit.

Kansas City

Note: Car commutes only include rides in privately owned cars, excludes taxis or rideshares.

“Once you taste the freedom and flexibility of a personal automobile, how are you going to put them back on the farm, so to speak?” said Patricia Mokhtarian, a professor of engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology who also studies commuting. “It’s almost an imperative to justify that decision by using it.”

As the years went on, service disruptions — caused at first by the difficulty of maintaining a full complement of drivers, conductors and maintenance workers as Covid waves swept through the work force — have started to morph into more permanent changes forced by declining ridership on traditional morning and evening rush routes.

Ridership on San Francisco’s BART system, for example, is down 40 percent from pre-Covid expectations on weekdays. The transit agency, which had already curtailed capacity by retiring older train cars, recently revamped its schedule to redistribute trips across the week — which makes life more difficult for those who still have to get to work every day.

“There are actually fewer trains in what you would think of as peak commute hours, so they can provide more service at other times of the day and on weekends, because weekend ridership has rebounded to a greater degree,” said John Goodwin, assistant director of communications for the area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “So for a lot of riders, that changes the frequency from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes.”

According to a Labor Department source, the American Time Use Survey, those who commute by public transit spend roughly twice as much time traveling to and from work as people who drive. That relationship remained fairly stable through the pandemic years.

Highly educated workers are spending less time per week commuting

Average hours spent commuting per week by education level for all workers

High school or less

Some college

Bachelor’s degree

Graduate degree

Source: American Time Use Survey

Note: Data for 2020 is not included. Weekly average is imputed from daily averages.

Those who depend on transit tend to have less education and lower incomes than those who drive. The reduction in commutes for those with college degrees has meant that they now spend less total time per week commuting than workers with only high school educations. Before the pandemic, that relationship was reversed.

Rosalind Tucker, managing director of mobility services at the Atlanta Regional Commission, calls the white-collar transit commuters “choice riders,” in that they typically have the freedom to commute via private automobile or not at all. Blue-collar workers are “lifeline riders,” because transit is all that connects them to their source of income.

Lifeline riders depend on choice riders to keep the system robust, but in the postpandemic era, that relationship has broken down. “A lot of our choice riders, we’re still working to influence them to re-choose transit,” Ms. Tucker said. For example, regional transit operators are working with employers to offer more flexible passes beyond the typical monthly unlimited version, which had been an important revenue source. “We need transit to remain a reliable option for lifeline riders.”

That mission has become more complicated for a couple of reasons. The geography of in-person jobs has shifted slightly, with e-commerce warehouses now employing thousands of people outside city centers, off highway exits without much else around them. And federal Covid-era funding for transit systems is running out, raising the specter of an urban death spiral of fewer riders, higher fares, less revenue and worse service.

Aimee Lee is the deputy executive director of transportation at the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, which coordinates the area’s many transportation services, including roads. The agency projects an annual shortfall of $730 million for the Regional Transportation Authority, starting in 2026, unless it finds a way to plug the hole. Ms. Lee said that would be terrible for people who depend on transit — and also for the employers who depend on them.

“What I fear is if our government agencies bail on transit, and we choose to disinvest from operations there, riders don’t view transit as being a reliable option anymore,” Ms. Lee said. “People can’t afford to work in the region anymore. Businesses don’t have access to their work force.”

Replica models commute patterns and overall travel behavior using a variety of sources, including de-identified mobile location data from cell phones, personal vehicles and commercial freight vehicles, as well as anonymized count data from roadway sensors and transit agencies. Throughout this article, Replica’s data is used to compare changes in the autumn of 2022 from the autumn of 2019. The autumn season includes the months of September, October and November in each year.

American Time Use Survey calculations define commutes as trips between work and home; commutes can include brief stops of 30 minutes or less. Methodology is based on “Measuring Commuting in the American Time Use Survey” by Gray Kimbrough (2019). Averages are for all survey respondents who reported doing any work, regardless of whether they had a commute. Weekends and holidays are excluded; weekly totals are extrapolated from daily averages based on a five-day workweek.

What is TravelTime?

Create a Travel Time Map

Travel time map generator & isochrones, i know i can get from a to b by public transport within my selected time, but it's not showing up.

• Walking to the station platform
• Waiting for the next available departure
• Time spent boarding the train
• Giving enough time to take the A to B journey
• Depart on the station on the other side.

You can't drive that far / you can drive much further than that"

• Open another mapping app of your choice and enter an A to B route
• Select a departure time for tomorrow.

Still not convinced?

About this tool, what is a travel time map, how to create a drive time radius map or other modes.

• Select a start location
• Select a maximum travel time limit
• Select a mode of transport, for example driving
• Voila! There's your driving radius map

Use cases for consumers

• Create a commute time map so you can see where to live based on commute time.
• How far can i travel in a given time: compare transport coverage for different areas.
• Create a drive time radius map: explore how far you can travel on a road trip.

Use cases for businesses

• Travel time mapping up to 4 hours & cross reference other data sets in GIS such as population data
• Site selection analysis: analyse the best location to locate a business by adding thousands of analysis points
• Create a distance matrix or travel time matrix & calculate travel times from thousands of origins to thousands of destinations
• Network analysis / travelling salesman problem: use spatial analytics to solve routing problems
• Commute time map - plot thousands of employee commute times for an office relocation
• Create up to 3 time polygons visualising where's reachable within 2 hours or less. Our API can create large travel time areas, talk to sales.
• Calculate travel times from an origin to various points of interest - in this demo we use points from Foursquare Give A to B routing details

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TravelTime Features

• See 'How far can I get' in X minutes
• Create a drive time map or any other transport mode
• Overlap many shapes & highlight overlap area
• Search points of interest within the area
• Get A to B routing details

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Find ways to get to relevant places.

• On your computer, open Google Maps . Make sure you’re signed in.
• Get directions to relevant places : Click a place in the list. You’ll get places based on your Gmail, Calendar, and recent travel history.
• Get directions to saved places: If you saved your work or home address in your Google Account, click Home or Work . You can edit your home or work addresses in your Google Account.  Learn how to set your work and home addresses .

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• Find places of interest: Click an option, such as Restaurants, Hotels, or More.

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Under the FLSA, when must nonexempt employees be paid for travel time?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations require employers to pay for travel time in some circumstances. Generally, time spent traveling is compensable, unless it is normal home-to-work commute time, or when travel requires an overnight stay and the time spent traveling as a passenger falls outside of the employee's normal work hours.

When pay is required, the time spent traveling is considered hours worked and must be included when determining overtime pay obligations. 

Home-to-work travel. Normal commuting time to an employee's regular worksite is not treated as hours worked under the FLSA.

Home to work on a special one-day assignment in another city . When an employee must travel out of town for work but returns home the same day, all the time spent traveling during the day is compensable, regardless of the employee's regular work hours. However, an employer may deduct the time the employee would have spent commuting to his or her regular work location.

Travel that is all in a day's work. Time spent traveling to and from different worksites during the day is work time and must be paid.

Travel away from home. When travel requires an overnight stay, any time traveling as a passenger that falls within the employee's normal work hours is compensable, regardless of what day of the week the travel takes place. Time spent traveling to an airport terminal or train station is considered commute time and is not treated as hours worked, but the time spent waiting at the terminal until arrival at the destination is compensable when it falls during normal work hours.

For example, if Meg normally works Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and she is required to travel by plane on a Sunday for business in another state, her travel time on Sunday between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. is compensable.

So, if Meg arrives at the airport on Sunday at 3 p.m. and at her destination at 8 p.m., the employer is required to pay her only from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., the hours that correspond with her normally scheduled work hours.

Alternatively, if Meg drives herself or others at the direction of the employer rather than traveling as a passenger, all the time spent driving is compensable work time, regardless of Meg's normal work hours.

Driving at the direction of the employer . When employees are required to drive themselves or others, all driving time is compensable. However, when an employee is traveling to an overnight stay and has the option to use public transportation (i.e., airplane, train, bus, etc.) but chooses to drive his or her own vehicle instead, the employer can either choose to pay for all time spent traveling or pay only the travel time that occurs during normal work hours, regardless of what day of the week the employee travels (CFR 785.40). If an employee volunteers to drive others in his or her own vehicle to the overnight stay, an employee's time could be unpaid for those travel hours outside the normal work hours.

Worked performed while traveling. An employee must be paid for any time he or she is performing work. This includes time spent working during travel as a passenger that would otherwise be non-compensable.

For example, Meg normally works Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. She arrives at the airport on Sunday at 3 p.m. and at her destination at 8 p.m. Generally, the employer is required to pay her only from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.; however, if Meg works on a presentation during her flight until 6:30 p.m., her employer would need to pay her from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Some states have travel-time laws that are more generous than the federal FLSA.  

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Home >> #realtalk Blog >> Manage a team >> Travel Time Pay for …

Travel Time Pay for Hourly Employees (2024 Update)

By Homebase Team

When it comes to travel time pay for hourly employees, things can get confusing for both employers and employees. If you run a business where your workers are paid by the hour but also have to travel for work, it’s important to understand what your obligations are and what your employees are legally entitled to.

Exempt employees don’t have to worry about this issue as much because they get a fixed amount of money in every paycheck, regardless of their travel time. However, for non-exempt employees, there are rules set by the government that say employers must pay them for the time they spend traveling.

In this post, we’ll go over everything you need to know about paying your hourly employees for travel time so your business can stay compliant.

What is Travel Time Pay?

Travel time pay refers to the money that employers are required to give their employees for the time they spend traveling to and from customer locations. It doesn’t include the regular travel from home to work.

In some emergency situations or when the employer asks the employee to do work-related tasks outside of their normal hours, the time spent commuting from home may be considered as paid time.

Travel Time Pay vs Break or Meal Time Pay

It’s important to note that travel time is different from break or meal time. According to the US Department of Labor, any break less than 20 minutes or longer breaks where the employee still has work duties must be paid.

If an employee is asked by their employer to travel during a full break or lunch period, that travel time is considered work-related and should be paid.

To avoid any confusion, it’s a good idea to have a separate policy in place that explains how lunch breaks and rest periods are handled in terms of pay.

Who is Entitled to Receive Travel Time Pay?

It’s important to understand that only certain employees, known as non-exempt employees, have the right to be paid for the time they spend traveling for work. This includes both hourly and salaried employees who fall into the non-exempt category.

On the other hand, there are employees called exempt employees who are not entitled to payment for work-related travel. In the United States, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) identifies different types of exempt employees, like executives, administrative staff, professionals, computer workers, and outside salespeople.

These exempt employees don’t get paid specifically for their travel time since they receive a fixed salary regardless of their travel obligations.

When Do You Have to Pay Hourly Employees for Travel Time?

Here are three common situations regarding paid work travel, but please note that these examples may not cover all possible scenarios.

Local Travel

If an employee’s job requires them to travel within their regular work hours, they must be paid for that time. This includes situations where they are engaged in work or waiting while traveling, even if it’s outside their normal work hours. However, employees who are on breaks or have enough time to do personal things are not eligible for payment during those periods.

Local Travel Example

Let’s say Rebecca is a personal assistant who drives her client, Steve, around town to run errands. If this travel is part of her job duties and occurs during her work hours, Sandra must be paid for that time.

Special One-day Assignment to Another City

If employees have to make a one-day trip to another city for work-related activities like conferences, classes, meetings, or similar events, you must pay them for the travel time to and from that city. However, you can deduct the time they would normally spend on their regular commute.

Some businesses choose to pay for the entire commuting time, but it’s not mandatory.

Special One-day Assignment to Another City Example

Let’s say Sheila works in your office and you send her to a conference. She travels from her home to the conference location and returns on the same day. The roundtrip takes her two and a half hours, while her regular daily commute is only 30 minutes.

In this case, you can deduct the 30-minute commute and pay her for two hours of travel time.

Overnight Travel

If a non-exempt employee travels away from home and stays overnight, you must count the hours they work on regular working days as well as work hours on non-working days (like weekends or holidays). However, you are not required to pay them for travel time that falls outside their regular work hours, unless they are working during that travel time (e.g., answering work emails or doing research on a work trip).

It’s important to note that these are general guidelines, and specific rules may vary depending on the location and applicable laws. You should familiarize themselves with the regulations in their jurisdiction to ensure compliance with travel time payment requirements.

How to Calculate Work Travel Time

One of the big challenges for business owners is figuring out how to calculate travel time pay accurately. It’s important to make sure that employees’ paychecks are fair and calculated correctly.

While you usually don’t have to pay for the time employees spend commuting between their homes and the workplace, other instances of work-related travel need to be accounted for. This includes adding the travel time to employees timesheets and paying them according to the law and company policies.

How Homebase Can Help Calculate Work Travel Time

Homebase is a time tracking tool that can make tracking travel time and managing employee hours much easier. It automatically tracks employees’ hours and locations while they’re on the move.

This means you can keep track of how much time your employees spend traveling for work. Homebase’s GPS time tracking feature lets you record drive time to different job locations.

GPS Time Tracking with Homebase

To make things even simpler, you can set up GPS Geofencing with Homebase. This allows for automatic tracking of when employees start and stop working based on their physical job location. With this feature, you’ll not only know how long it took employees to get to work sites but also precisely when they arrived and left.

Homebase also has features to streamline time tracking and invoicing. You can set different pay rates for travel hours and regular work hours, helping you streamline payroll . It also helps you handle overtime pay and helps you to plan employee routes and schedules to optimize travel time.

Travel Time Pay Rate Law by State

In some states, travel time pay rates must be the same as the rates for regular working hours, or they need to meet the minimum wage requirements at least. However, in other cases, travel rates might be calculated as a percentage of the employee’s normal pay rate.

In California, any travel time that exceeds an employee’s regular daily commute is considered compensable and must be paid at the agreed regular or overtime rates. Employers can set different rates for travel time, but they cannot be lower than the minimum wage.

In New York, the minimum wage regulations cover work-related travel. Employees must be paid for travel time if it is part of their job duties.

Oregon has different classifications for work travel time: portal-to-portal travel, travel between worksites, travel on special one-day assignments, and overnight travel. Generally, travel time pay is required for all types except for portal-to-portal travel (home-to-work and work-to-home).

In New Jersey, the Wage and Hour Laws ensure fair payment for travel time. When employees are required to travel between job locations as part of their work, they must be paid at the same rate as regular working hours.

In Maryland, paid travel time is defined similarly to federal regulations. It includes travel during regular working hours, travel between job locations, and home-to-work and back travel in emergency cases.

Nevada law states that any travel time considered as work should be paid at least at minimum wage rates. Additionally, any training requested by the employer must also be paid as it is considered work time.

Remember, these are general explanations, and specific regulations may vary. It’s essential for employers and employees to familiarize themselves with the specific laws in their state to ensure compliance with travel time pay requirements.

To make sure your business is following the rules, it’s important for them to understand the specific regulations about travel time pay in their area. Likewise, employees should be aware of their rights regarding travel time pay to ensure they receive fair compensation for the time they spend traveling for work.

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Travel Time Pay FAQs

How do you pay travel time for employees.

The method of paying travel time for employees depends on various factors, including the applicable laws and company policies. Here are a few common approaches:

Paying at Regular or Overtime Rates

In many cases, travel time is paid at the same rate as regular working hours. However, if employees exceed their normal work hours or if the travel time falls under overtime criteria, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Different Rates for Travel Time

Some employers choose to set specific rates for travel time, separate from regular working hours. These rates may be negotiated or agreed upon before the start of job execution, but they should not be lower than the minimum wage rates

Lump Sum or Flat Rate

In certain situations, employers may opt to provide a fixed amount as a lump sum or flat rate to cover travel time. This can simplify calculations and ensure consistent payments.

Travel time pay refers to the compensation that employees receive for the time spent traveling for work-related purposes. It encompasses the hours spent traveling to and from job sites, client locations, meetings, or other work-related destinations.

While travel time pay regulations can vary by jurisdiction, it typically applies to situations where employees are required to travel beyond their regular commute. The purpose of travel time pay is to ensure that employees are fairly compensated for the time and effort spent on work-related travel.

It’s important for employers to understand the specific laws and regulations in their jurisdiction to ensure compliance with travel time pay requirements.

How Do You Pay Travel Time for Hourly Employees?

Paying travel time for hourly employees involves considering various factors, such as the specific laws in your jurisdiction and your company’s policies. Here are some common practices:

Calculate Actual Hours

One approach is to track and pay hourly employees for the actual time spent traveling. This includes the time spent commuting between job sites or client locations. Employees should be compensated at their regular hourly rate for these travel hours.

Paying at Overtime Rates

If the travel time causes hourly employees to exceed their regular working hours or if it falls under overtime criteria based on applicable laws, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Set Flat Rates

Some employers choose to establish fixed flat rates for travel time. This means paying a predetermined amount for each trip or assignment, regardless of the actual hours traveled.

How Do You Pay Non-Exempt Employees for Travel Time?

Paying non-exempt employees for travel time requires careful consideration of legal requirements and company policies. Here are some common practices:

Compensate Actual Travel Hours

One approach is to track and pay non-exempt employees for the actual time they spend traveling. This includes the time spent commuting between job sites, client locations, or other work-related destinations. Employees should be compensated at their regular hourly rate for these travel hours.

Apply Overtime Rates

If the travel time causes non-exempt employees to exceed their regular working hours or qualifies for overtime based on applicable laws, it should be compensated at the appropriate overtime rate.

Establish Flat Rates or Lump Sum Payments

Employers may choose to establish fixed flat rates or provide lump sum payments for travel time. This involves paying a predetermined amount for each trip or assignment, regardless of the actual hours traveled. However, it’s important to ensure that these rates comply with legal requirements, such as meeting or exceeding minimum wage rates.

Do Employers Have To Pay Hourly Employees for Travel Time?

The requirement to pay hourly employees for travel time depends on various factors, including the specific laws in your jurisdiction and the nature of the travel. Here are some general guidelines:

Regular Commute

In most cases, employers are not obligated to pay hourly employees for their regular commute from home to the workplace and vice versa. This is considered ordinary home-to-work travel and is typically not considered compensable travel time.

Work-related Travel

However, when hourly employees are required to travel for work-related purposes, such as going to client locations or job sites, the travel time may need to be compensated. If the travel time exceeds the employee’s regular commute or falls under specific criteria outlined in labor laws, employers may be required to pay hourly employees for that travel time.

It’s important to note that travel time pay regulations can vary by jurisdiction, so it is advisable to consult the labor laws in your specific location and seek legal advice to ensure compliance.

Additionally, establishing clear travel time policies and communicating them effectively to employees can help avoid confusion and promote fair compensation practices.

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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Travel, commuting time: When must employers pay?

Employers need to know what is considered working time when employees are traveling; how to deal with weekend time that may combine business and personal travel; and how to handle requests for travel reimbursements when company vehicles are used for “commuting.”

1. If an employee travels on company business outside of his/her regular work hours, is that time considered “working” time?

Depending on the circumstances, employees may, indeed, be entitled to compensation for that time. Whether employees’ travel time must be counted as hours worked hinges on the kind of travel involved:

• Commuting: Employees who travel to and from their homes to work are commuting, which isn’t working time. The same rule applies even if the worksite changes every day.
• Travel that’s all in day’s work: The time employees spend traveling from job site to job site during the day is working time.
• Special one-day assignments: If employees travel to another city and return home the same day, the time spent traveling to, and returning from, the other city is considered working time.
• Travel away from home overnight : This travel time is working time when it cuts across employees’ workdays. It’s also working time if employees travel corresponding hours on non-workdays. Exception: The time employees spend traveling outside their regular work hours as passengers on a plane, train, bus, in a car, etc., isn’t working time.

2. If an hourly employee must fly to another division of the company, does the employer have to pay for his travel time? He will be leaving on Sunday and returning the following Saturday.

It depends. The rules for paying for an employee’s travel time are covered in the FLSA. There are basically three scenarios.

• If the employee is traveling during his/her normal working hours, then you must pay him/her for the time, even if the travel occurs on a day when the employee wouldn’t otherwise be working (i.e., a Saturday or Sunday).
• If the employee starts his/her trip during normal working hours (again, even if the travel occurs on a Saturday or Sunday), and the trip ends after his/her working hours, you don’t have to pay for the time in excess of normal working hours. Example: If an employee regularly works Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., flies on Tuesday at 12 p.m., and arrives at 7 p.m., you don’t have to count travel hours after 5 p.m. as hours worked.
• If all travel is strictly limited to an employee’s non-working hours, you don’t have to pay for the time. Example: If the employee’s flight took off at 7 p.m., the employer would not have to pay for the time.

Note: Keep in mind that if a nonexempt employee’s travel time, together with his/her working time, adds up to more than 40 hours during the week, the employee is owed overtime at one-and-one-half times his/her regular rate of pay.

3. Must an employer pay employees for their commuting time if they drive a company vehicle from their homes to the first job of the day?

According to the FLSA, commute time isn’t considered working time if an employee drives from his/her home to the first worksite of the day. This is true even if the worksite changes every day. On the other hand, it would be considered working time if employees had to report to the office first, before they went out to the job site. If that were the case, the drive into the office would be considered non-compensable commuting time, but the drive from the office to the first job site would be considered traveling that’s all in a day’s work.

4. A service tech covers a three-state area for the company. He doesn’t come into the office to get his assignments. Instead, he receives his daily schedule via email before his last job of the day. It can take him three hours to get from his home to the first job of the day. We pay him for traveling among work sites during the day, but he’s suggested that we have to pay him for his extraordinary commuting time. Do we?

No. Under the Portal-to-Portal Act, which is an amendment to FLSA, employers need not pay employees for their ordinary commuting time, even if they go from their home to the first job of the day, and even if that commute is extraordinary. The Portal Act applies regardless of the length and distance of an employee’s commute.

5. Prior to going out on their first call of the day, employees log onto their laptop computers to download assignments and maps, and respond to email. They never come into the office. Must we pay them for the time they travel to the first job of the day?

Maybe. Under the Portal Act, you don’t have to pay employees for their ordinary commuting time. This includes situations where employees go from their home to the first worksite of the day. But these employees may not be commuting. If their workdays begin when they fire up their laptops, their first trip of the day isn’t commuting, and you must pay them for their travel time.

6. As a condition of continued employment, an employee must seek counseling. The company chose the therapist and pays for the counseling sessions. The employee goes on her days off, but she’s now insisting that we also pay her for her travel time to/from the therapist’s office. This seems personal to us, so we don’t want to pay. Must we pay her for this time?

Probably. Attendance at the counseling sessions is mandatory. This creates a strong inference that it’s the employer that benefits from the sessions. Under the Portal Act, employees must be paid for activities that are integral to their jobs. By mandating that the employee receive counseling from an employer-selected therapist, the employee’s activity (i.e., traveling) is integral to her job.

7. An employee who normally works in New York City traveled to Washington, D.C., for a special one-day seminar. Must she be paid for this traveling time?

Yes. Under the FLSA, if employees who regularly work at one location have special assignments in another city and return home the same day, all of the time they spend traveling to and from those assignments is compensable working time. Exception: You don’t have to count the time she would normally spend commuting to her regular workplace.

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Commute Compensation: When Your Employer Must Pay for Your Commute (and When They Don’t)

The rule is straightforward: commuting to and from work is usually not compensable, but traveling during the work day must be paid. But this can be complicated by many factors, from technology to multiple worksites to pre-shift work. The basic question that courts ask is, “When does the workday begin?”

Many states, including New York, generally follow the federal guidelines for commute time compensation. However, if you work in California, be sure to check out the rules specific to California. California has some of the strongest worker protections in the country, so you may be entitled to even more commute compensation.

Ordinary Commutes

If you are driving or taking public transit from your home to a workplace, your employer probably does not need to pay for this time. This is considered a normal condition of employment that does not require compensation. However, travel time that is outside of the normal commute—which depends upon the job and the industry—may require payment. If you run personal errands or take personal time during travel time, this may not be compensable.

If you are driving a company vehicle, you are most likely not entitled to pay for your commute, even if your employer is able to track you, requires you to have your phone on, or prohibits you from using the car for personal errands.

Loading and carrying tools and equipment from home is probably not compensable. Likewise, receiving a job assignment during a commute does not necessarily make that time compensable.

When Your Workday Begins

In contrast, if your workday begins before your commute or with your commute, you may be entitled to pay.

If you are required to report to a separate site to pick up equipment or vehicles, drop off your vehicle or receive instructions, your workday starts with reporting at that initial site. Any travel time between that initial site, such as a yard or central office, and your main job site(s) must be paid.

If you are required to transport specialized equipment or if transporting equipment is an important part of your job, this transportation time may be compensable. While there is no set list of what such equipment may be, it generally does not include items such as laptops, gloves and hats, or paperwork.

The law is complicated for work performed at home or during your commute. If you perform substantial work at home before you commute, such as taking a half hour to plan routes and prepare for site visits, or during your commute, such as working while taking public transit, you may be entitled to pay for that time. However, at-home activities such as making brief daily reports, particularly if it only takes a few minutes and the report may be sent anytime during a broad window of time, may not require compensation.

Special Trips and Assignments

If you are traveling to a special site that is outside your usual commute, at least some of the time you spend traveling may be compensable. Specifically, you may be entitled to pay for any time beyond the time you would usually spend commuting. In other words, if you usually spend 30 minutes driving to work but are placed on an assignment 2 hours away, you may be entitled to recover for 1.5 hours.

If you are traveling for an overnight trip, the rules become more complicated. As a general matter, you must be paid during normal work hours plus for all time you are actually working beyond those hours. However, you are probably not required to be paid for time that is both outside your regular work hours and that you do not spend performing actual work, such as dinner and sleep hours.

California Compensation

California’s rules for compensation commute time provide heightened protections for workers who are traveling at the behest of their employer.

In addition to the situations above, California also requires payment for travel (and waiting, if applicable) time for travel requirement by an employer. This does not pertain to driving your personal vehicle to a work site but rather to situations such as being required to take a company shuttle or bus to a job site.

California also provides for commute pay if (1) employees are required to carry tools or employer equipment or drive a company from home to a job site and (2) as a result, they cannot use the commute for their own purposes ( ie cannot run errands or carpool with friends).

Both of these rules apply to situations that are required by an employer, not simply where an employer provides an option for an employee to a take a company shuttle, drive a company vehicle, or carry tools.

For more reading, visit the discussion of commute compensation in this California Department of Industrial Relations wage and hour fact sheet, this United States Department of Labor fact sheet on calculating work time and these Department of Labor travel time materials .

These are just some general guidelines, but each situation is different. If you have any questions about whether you should be paid for your commute, please contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your individual situation.

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About the author: joanne m. albertsen.

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Compensatory Time Off for Travel - Questions & Answers to Fact Sheet

• Q1. What is compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is a separate form of compensatory time off that may be earned by an employee for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q2. Are all employees covered by this provision? View more A. The compensatory time off provision applies to an "employee" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 5541(2) who is employed in an "Executive agency" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105, without regard to whether the employee is exempt from or covered by the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended. For example, this includes employees in senior-level (SL) and scientific or professional (ST) positions, but not members of the Senior Executive Service or Senior Foreign Service or Foreign Service officers. Effective April 27, 2008, prevailing rate (wage) employees are covered under the compensatory time off for travel provision. (See CPM 2008-04 .)
• Q3. Are intermittent employees eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be used by an employee when the employee is granted time off from his or her scheduled tour of duty established for leave purposes. (See 5 CFR 550.1406(b).) Also see the definition of "scheduled tour of duty for leave purposes" in 5 CFR 550.1403. Employees who are on intermittent work schedules are not eligible to earn and use compensatory time off for travel because they do not have a scheduled tour of duty for leave purposes.
• Q4. What qualifies as travel for the purpose of this provision? View more A. To qualify for this purpose, travel must be officially authorized. In other words, travel must be for work purposes and must be approved by an authorized agency official or otherwise authorized under established agency policies. (Also see Q5.)
• Q5. May an employee earn compensatory time off when he or she travels in conjunction with the performance of union representational duties? View more A. No. The term "travel" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to mean officially authorized travel—i.e., travel for work purposes approved by an authorized agency official or otherwise authorized under established agency policies. The definition specifically excludes time spent traveling in connection with union activities. The term "travel for work purposes" is intended to mean travel for agency-related work purposes. Thus, employees who travel in connection with union activities are not entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel because they are traveling for the benefit of the union, and not for agency-related work purposes.
• Q6. An employee receives compensatory time off for travel only for those hours spent in a travel status. What qualifies as time in a travel status? View more A. Travel status includes only the time actually spent traveling between the official duty station and a temporary duty station, or between two temporary duty stations, and the usual waiting time that precedes or interrupts such travel.
• Q7. Is travel in connection with a permanent change of station (PCS) creditable for compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Although PCS travel is officially authorized travel, it is not travel between an official duty station and a temporary duty station or between two temporary duty stations. Therefore, it is not considered time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel.
• Q8. What is meant by "usual waiting time"? View more A. Airline travelers generally are required to arrive at the airport at a designated pre-departure time (e.g., 1 or 2 hours before the scheduled departure, depending on whether the flight is domestic or international). Such waiting time at the airport is considered usual waiting time and is creditable time in a travel status. In addition, time spent at an intervening airport waiting for a connecting flight (e.g., 1 or 2 hours) also is creditable time in a travel status. In all cases, determinations regarding what is creditable as "usual waiting time" are within the sole and exclusive discretion of the employing agency.
• Q9. What if an employee experiences an "extended" waiting period? View more A. If an employee experiences an unusually long wait prior to his or her initial departure or between actual periods of travel during which the employee is free to rest, sleep, or otherwise use the time for his or her own purposes, the extended waiting time outside the employee's regular working hours is not creditable time in a travel status. An extended waiting period that occurs during an employee's regular working hours is compensable as part of the employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek.
• Q10. Do meal periods count as time in a travel status? View more A. Meal periods during actual travel time or waiting time are not specifically excluded from creditable time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. However, determinations regarding what is creditable as "usual waiting time" are within the sole and exclusive discretion of the employing agency.
• Q11. What happens once an employee reaches a temporary duty station? View more A. Time spent at a temporary duty station between arrival and departure is not creditable travel time for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. Time in a travel status ends when the employee arrives at the temporary duty worksite or his or her lodging in the temporary duty station, wherever the employee arrives first. Time in a travel status resumes when an employee departs from the temporary duty worksite or his or her lodging in the temporary duty station, wherever the employee departs last.
• Q12. When is it appropriate for an agency to offset creditable time in a travel status by the amount of time the employee spends in normal commuting between home and work? View more A. If an employee travels directly between his or her home and a temporary duty station outside the limits of the employee's official duty station (e.g., driving to and from a 3-day conference), the agency must deduct the employee's normal home-to-work/work-to-home commuting time from the creditable travel time. The agency must also deduct an employee's normal commuting time from the creditable travel time if the employee is required—outside of regular working hours—to travel between home and a transportation terminal (e.g., an airport or train station) outside the limits of the employee's official duty station.
• Q13. What if an employee travels to a transportation terminal within the limits of his or her official duty station? View more A. An employee's time spent traveling outside of regular working hours to or from a transportation terminal within the limits of his or her official duty station is considered equivalent to commuting time and is not creditable time in a travel status for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel.
• Q14. What if an employee travels from a worksite to a transportation terminal? View more A. If an employee travels between a worksite and a transportation terminal, the travel time outside regular working hours is creditable as time in a travel status, and no commuting time offset applies. For example, after completing his or her workday, an employee may travel directly from the regular worksite to an airport to attend an out-of-town meeting the following morning. The travel time between the regular worksite and the airport is creditable as time in a travel status.
• Q15. What if an employee elects to travel at a time other than the time selected by the agency? View more A. When an employee travels at a time other than the time selected by the agency, the agency must determine the estimated amount of time in a travel status the employee would have had if the employee had traveled at the time selected by the agency. The agency must credit the employee with the lesser of (1) the estimated time in a travel status the employee would have had if the employee had traveled at the time selected by the agency, or (2) the employee's actual time in a travel status at a time other than that selected by the agency.
• Q16. How is an employee's travel time calculated for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel when the travel involves two or more time zones? View more A. When an employee's travel involves two or more time zones, the time zone from point of first departure must be used to determine how many hours the employee actually spent in a travel status for the purpose of accruing compensatory time off for travel. For example, if an employee travels from his official duty station in Washington, DC, to a temporary duty station in San Francisco, CA, the Washington, DC, time zone must be used to determine how many hours the employee spent in a travel status. However, on the return trip to Washington, DC, the time zone from San Francisco, CA, must be used to calculate how many hours the employee spent in a travel status.
• Q17. How is compensatory time off for travel earned and credited? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is earned for qualifying time in a travel status. Agencies may authorize credit in increments of one-tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or one-quarter of an hour (15 minutes). Agencies must track and manage compensatory time off for travel separately from other forms of compensatory time off.
• Q18. Is there a limitation on the amount of compensatory time off for travel an employee may earn? View more A. No.
• Q19. How does an employee request credit for compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Agencies may establish procedures for requesting credit for compensatory time off for travel. An employee must comply with his or her agency's procedures for requesting credit of compensatory time off, and the employee must file a request for such credit within the time period established by the agency. An employee's request for credit of compensatory time off for travel may be denied if the request is not filed within the time period required by the agency.
• Q20. Is there a form employees must fill out for requests to earn or use compensatory time off for travel? View more A. There is not a Governmentwide form used for requests to earn or use compensatory time off for travel. However, an agency may choose to develop a form as part of its internal policies and procedures.
• Q21. How does an employee use accrued compensatory time off for travel? View more A. An employee must request permission from his or her supervisor to schedule the use of his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel in accordance with agency policies and procedures. Compensatory time off for travel may be used when the employee is granted time off from his or her scheduled tour of duty established for leave purposes. Employees must use accrued compensatory time off for travel in increments of one-tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or one-quarter of an hour (15 minutes).
• Q22. In what order should agencies charge compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Agencies must charge compensatory time off for travel in the chronological order in which it was earned, with compensatory time off for travel earned first being charged first.
• Q23. How long does an employee have to use accrued compensatory time off for travel? View more A. An employee must use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned or the employee must forfeit such compensatory time off, except in certain circumstances. (See Q24 and Q25 for exceptions.)
• Q24. What if an employee is unable to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel because of uniformed service or an on-the-job injury with entitlement to injury compensation? View more A. Unused compensatory time off for travel will be held in abeyance for an employee who separates, or is placed in a leave without pay status, and later returns following (1) separation or leave without pay to perform service in the uniformed services (as defined in 38 U.S.C. 4303 and 5 CFR 353.102) and a return to service through the exercise of a reemployment right or (2) separation or leave without pay due to an on-the-job injury with entitlement to injury compensation under 5 U.S.C. chapter 81. The employee must use all of the compensatory time off for travel held in abeyance by the end of the 26th pay period following the pay period in which the employee returns to duty, or such compensatory time off for travel will be forfeited.
• Q25. What if an employee is unable to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel because of an exigency of the service beyond the employee's control? View more A. If an employee fails to use his or her accrued compensatory time off for travel before the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned due to an exigency of the service beyond the employee's control, the head of an agency, at his or her sole and exclusive discretion, may extend the time limit for up to an additional 26 pay periods.
• Q26. May unused compensatory time off for travel be restored if an employee does not use it by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned? View more A. Except in certain circumstances (see Q24 and Q25), any compensatory time off for travel not used by the end of the 26th pay period after the pay period during which it was earned must be forfeited.
• Q27. What happens to an employee's unused compensatory time off for travel upon separation from Federal service? View more A. Except in certain circumstances (see Q24), an employee must forfeit all unused compensatory time off for travel upon separation from Federal service.
• Q28. May an employee receive a lump-sum payment for accrued compensatory time off for travel upon separation from an agency? View more A. No. The law prohibits payment for unused compensatory time off for travel under any circumstances.
• Q29. What happens to an employee's accrued compensatory time off for travel upon transfer to another agency? View more A. When an employee voluntarily transfers to another agency (including a promotion or change to lower grade action), the employee must forfeit all of his or her unused compensatory time off for travel.
• Q30. What happens to an employee's accrued compensatory time off for travel when the employee moves to a position that is not covered by the regulations in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N? View more A. When an employee moves to a position in an agency not covered by the compensatory time off for travel provisions (e.g., the United States Postal Service), the employee must forfeit all of his or her unused compensatory time off for travel. However, the gaining agency may use its own legal authority to give the employee credit for such compensatory time off.
• Q31. Is compensatory time off for travel considered in applying the premium pay and aggregate pay caps? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may not be considered in applying the biweekly or annual premium pay limitations established under 5 U.S.C. 5547 or the aggregate limitation on pay established under 5 U.S.C. 5307.
• Q32. When are criminal investigators who receive availability pay precluded from earning compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Compensatory time off for travel is earned only for hours not otherwise compensable. The term "compensable" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to include any hours of a type creditable under other compensation provisions, even if there are compensation caps limiting the payment of premium pay for those hours (e.g., the 25 percent cap on availability pay and the biweekly premium pay cap). For availability pay recipients, this means hours of travel are not creditable as time in a travel status for compensatory time off purposes if the hours are (1) compensated by basic pay, (2) regularly scheduled overtime hours creditable under 5 U.S.C. 5542, or (3) "unscheduled duty hours" as described in 5 CFR 550.182(a), (c), and (d).
• Q33. What constitutes "unscheduled duty hours" as described in 5 CFR 550.182(a), (c), and (d)? View more A. Under the availability pay regulations, unscheduled duty hours include (1) all irregular overtime hours—i.e., overtime work not scheduled in advance of the employee's administrative workweek, (2) the first 2 overtime hours on any day containing part of the employee's basic 40-hour workweek, without regard to whether the hours are unscheduled or regularly scheduled, and (3) any approved nonwork availability hours. However, special agents in the Diplomatic Security Service of the Department of State may count only hours actually worked as unscheduled duty hours.
• Q34. Why are criminal investigators who receive availability pay precluded from earning compensatory time off when they travel during unscheduled duty hours? View more A. The purpose of availability pay is to ensure the availability of criminal investigators (and certain similar law enforcement employees) for unscheduled duty in excess of a 40-hour workweek based on the needs of the employing agency. Availability pay compensates an employee for all unscheduled duty hours. Compensatory time off for travel is earned only for hours not otherwise compensable. Thus, availability pay recipients may not earn compensatory time off for travel during unscheduled duty hours because the employees are entitled to availability pay for those hours.

A. When an employee who receives availability pay is required to travel on a non-workday or on a regular workday (during hours that exceed the employee's basic 8-hour workday), and the travel does not meet one of the four criteria in 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2), the travel time is not compensable as overtime hours of work under regular overtime or availability pay. Thus, the employee may earn compensatory time off for such travel, subject to the exclusion specified in 5 CFR 550.1404(b)(2) and the requirements in 5 CFR 550.1404(c),(d), and (e).

Under the provisions in 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2), travel time is compensable as overtime hours of work if the travel is away from the employee's official duty station and—

(i) involves the performance of work while traveling, (ii) is incident to travel that involves the performance of work while traveling, (iii) is carried out under arduous conditions, or (iv) results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively.

The phrase "an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively" refers to the ability of an agency in the Executive Branch of the United States Government to control the scheduling of an event which necessitates an employee's travel. If the employing agency or another Executive Branch agency has any control over the scheduling of the event, including by means of approval of a contract for it, then the event is administratively controllable, and the travel to and from the event cannot be credited as overtime hours of work.

For example, an interagency conference sponsored by the Department of Justice would be considered a joint endeavor of the participating Executive Branch agencies and within their administrative control. Under these circumstances, the travel time outside an employee's regular working hours is not compensable as overtime hours of work under regular overtime or availability pay. Therefore, the employee may earn compensatory time off for such travel, subject to the exclusion specified in 5 CFR 550.1404(b)(2) and the requirements in 5 CFR 550.1404(c), (d), and (e).

• Q36. If an employee is required to travel on a Federal holiday (or an "in lieu of" holiday), is the employee entitled to receive compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Although most employees do not receive holiday premium pay for time spent traveling on a holiday (or an "in lieu of" holiday), an employee continues to be entitled to pay for the holiday in the same manner as if the travel were not required. Thus, an employee may not earn compensatory time off for travel during basic (non-overtime) holiday hours because the employee is entitled to his or her rate of basic pay for those hours. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q37. If an employee's regularly scheduled tour of duty is Sunday through Thursday and the employee is required to travel on a Sunday during regular working hours, is the employee entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. Thus, an employee may not earn compensatory time off for travel for traveling on a workday during regular working hours because the employee is receiving his or her rate of basic pay for those hours.
• Q38. May an agency change an employee's work schedule for travel purposes? View more A. An agency may not adjust the regularly scheduled administrative workweek that normally applies to an employee (part-time or full-time) solely for the purpose of including planned travel time not otherwise considered compensable hours of work. However, an employee is entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel for time spent in a travel status when such time is not otherwise compensable.
• Q39. Is time spent traveling creditable as credit hours for an employee who is authorized to earn credit hours under an alternative work schedule? View more A. Credit hours are hours an employee elects to work, with supervisory approval, in excess of the employee's basic work requirement under a flexible work schedule. Under certain conditions, an agency may permit an employee to earn credit hours by performing productive and essential work while in a travel status. See OPM's fact sheet on credit hours  for the conditions that must be met. If those conditions are met and the employee does earn credit hours for travel, the time spent traveling would be compensable and the employee would not be eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel. If the conditions are not met, the employee would be eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel.
• Q40. May an agency restore an employee's forfeited "use-or-lose" annual leave because the employee elected to use earned compensatory time off for travel instead of using his or her excess annual leave? View more A. Section 6304(d) of title 5, United States Code, prescribes the conditions under which an employee's forfeited annual leave may be restored to an employee. (See fact sheet on restoration of annual leave .) There is no legal authority to restore an employee's forfeited annual leave because the employee elected to use earned compensatory time off for travel instead of using his or her excess annual leave.

A. No. Compensatory time off for travel may be earned by an employee only for time spent in a travel status away from the employee's official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. The term "compensable" is defined at 5 CFR 550.1403 to make clear what periods of time are "not otherwise compensable" and thus potentially creditable for the purpose of earning compensatory time off for travel. Time is considered compensable if the time is creditable as hours of work for the purpose of determining a specific pay entitlement (e.g., overtime pay for travel meeting one of the four criteria in 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2)) even when the time may not actually generate additional compensation because of applicable pay limitations (e.g., biweekly premium pay cap). The capped premium pay is considered complete compensation for all hours of work creditable under the premium pay provisions.

In other words, even though an employee may not receive overtime pay for all of his or her travel hours because of the biweekly premium pay cap, all of the travel time is still considered to be compensable under 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2). Under these circumstances, the employee has been compensated fully under the law for all of the travel hours and the employee may not earn compensatory time off for any portion of such travel not generating additional compensation because of the biweekly cap on premium pay.

• Q42. May an employee who receives administratively uncontrollable overtime (AUO) pay under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(2) earn compensatory time off for travel? View more A. If such employee's travel time is not compensable under 5 CFR 550.112(g) or 5 CFR 551.422, as applicable, and meets the requirements in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N, the employee is eligible to earn compensatory time off for travel for time spent in a travel status.
• Q43. If a part-time employee's regularly scheduled tour of duty is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the employee is required to travel on a Friday from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., is the employee entitled to earn compensatory time off for travel for those 2 hours? View more A. It depends. If the travel qualifies as compensable hours of work under 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(B) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(2)—i.e., the travel involves or is incident to the performance of actual work, is carried out under arduous and unusual conditions, or results from an event which could not be scheduled or controlled administratively—the employee may not be credited with compensatory time off for travel hours. (Such travel time outside a part-time employee's scheduled tour of duty, but not in excess of 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week, would be non-overtime hours of work compensated at the employee's rate of basic pay.) If the travel time does not qualify as compensable hours of work and meets the other requirements in 5 CFR part 550, subpart N, the part-time employee would be entitled to earn compensatory time off for those 2 hours. We note travel time is always compensable hours of work if it falls within an employee's regularly scheduled administrative workweek. (See 5 U.S.C. 5542(b)(2)(A) and 5 CFR 550.112(g)(1).) For a part-time employee, the regularly scheduled administrative workweek is defined in 5 CFR 550.103 as the officially prescribed days and hours within an administrative workweek during which the employee was scheduled to work in advance of the workweek. An agency may not adjust the regularly scheduled administrative workweek normally applied to an employee (part-time or full-time) solely for the purpose of including planned travel time otherwise not considered compensable hours of work.
• Q44. Does an upgrade in travel accommodations impact an employee's entitlement to compensatory time off for travel? View more A. Allowing an employee to upgrade his or her travel accommodations (e.g., to business class) does not eliminate his or her eligibility to earn compensatory time off for travel.

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When Must I Pay Employees for Travel Time?

Travel Time vs. Commuting Time

Image by Jo Zixuan Zhou © The Balance 2020 

In general, your business should pay employees for the time they spend traveling for work-related activities. You don't have to pay employees for travel that is incidental to the employee's duties and time spent  commuting  (traveling between home and work). Travel time can include both local trips and travel away from home. 

Travel vs. Commuting Time 

Commuting is going back and forth to work. Everyone (at least everyone who doesn't work at home) commutes to a job. Commuting time is personal time, not business time. The IRS does not allow businesses to deduct commuting time as a business expense, and employees should not be paid for the commuting time.     

The Department of Labor (DOL) discusses employees who drive employer-provided vehicles. The DOL considers the time spent in home-to-work travel by an employee in an employer-provided vehicle, or in activities performed by an employee that are incidental to the use of the vehicle for commuting, generally is not "hours worked" and, therefore, does not have to be paid.  

Here's a possible rule of thumb: If your business authorizes a trip by an employee, no matter how the employee travels (car, train, bus, etc.) you should pay for the employee's travel time. 

Travel time for hourly and salaried employees may be counted differently. Pay to employees for local travel time is only applicable to non-exempt (hourly) employees, not to exempt (professional or managerial) employees.     Exempt employees are paid for their expertise by the job, not by the hour.  

Different Types of Travel Time:

Home to Work Travel , as explained above, is commuting time, not work time, and it's not paid.

Travel on Special One Day Assignment in Another City. The DOL says "the time spent in traveling to and return from the other city is work time," but they note that you may deduct the time the employee would spend commuting.

Sara works in an office in your company, but you send her to another city on a special assignment. She leaves from her home, goes to the city, and comes back home the same day. She spends 3 hours traveling (1 1/2 hours each way) from home to the other city. She would normally spend 30 minutes total driving from her home to work and back, so you could deduct the 30 minutes and pay her for 2 1/2 hours of travel time.

Travel That's Part of the Employee's Normal Work. Time an employee spends traveling is part of the job. You must count this time as work time. The time the employee spends going to the first job site, and home from the last job site, is commuting time and isn't paid.  

An LPN (licensed professional nurse) works for a nursing facility and travels between the two locations of this facility, providing care for patients at both locations. Her daily travel time between these locations must be included in her pay because she is not commuting. But she can't count the time driving from home to the first location or the time back home from the last location.

Travel Away from Home. If travel includes an overnight stay it is travel time. The DOL doesn't include travel away from home outside regular hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or car as work time. But you must count hours worked on regular working days and work hours on nonworking days (weekends and holidays).  

If an employee travels from Cleveland to Pittsburgh for a two-day seminar at the direction of your company, you must pay for the hours the employee would have worked in a normal workday for each of those days, even if they were on Saturday or Sunday.

Incidental vs. Work Travel: Paid or Not Paid?

• An employee drives to work from his home every day. You ask him to stop on his way and pick up bagels for the staff meeting. This driving time is not paid. Time commuting to work is never paid time; the time to stop for the bagels is "incidental" to the commuting and is not part of the employee's job. 
• You ask an employee to drive to a store on work time to get bagels for the office meeting. If the employee makes this trip during normal work hours, he or she should be paid. 

Also, you might want to contact an employment attorney to discuss these issues. 

Paying for Travel Expenses

In addition to paying employees for travel time, you should pay their expenses for travel. The Department of Labor doesn't require reimbursement for travel expenses, but it makes sense to pay employees if you require them to travel.   Your business can deduct employee travel expenses as a business expense.   If employees mix business and personal travel, you need to sort out the part that is business-related and pay only these expenses. 

State Regulations on Paying for Employee Travel

Check with your state labor department to see if there are any rules which might override the federal rules. Contact the nearest local office of the U.S. Department of Labor for information on specific instances of travel time that affect your business.

Internal Revenue Service. " Publication 535 (2019): Business Expenses ," Page 5. Accessed May 26, 2020.

Internal Revenue Service. " Travel & Entertainment Expenses ," Page 3. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Travel Time ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. " Travel Time ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Office of Personnel Management. " Fact Sheet: Hours of Work for Travel ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Fact Sheet #17D: Exemption for Professional Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ," Pages 1-3. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Fact Sheet #22: Hours Worked Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Opinion Letter FLSA 2018 ," Page 2. Accessed May 26, 2020.

U.S. Department of Labor. " Reimbursed Travel Expense Payments ," Page 1. Accessed May 26, 2020.

Internal Revenue Service. " Topic No. 511 Business Travel Expenses ." Accessed May 26, 2020.

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‘I made curtains on the train’: the commuters livening up their journeys

From a velomobile to inline skating and audiobooks, six people reveal how travelling to work is no chore

The pandemic opened the eyes of many to the benefits of running or cycling to work – or “ active commutes ” – and some have kept up the habit.

No longer content with long drives or boring train rides, commuters have been seeking ways to make their journeys more productive and enjoyable.

Six people share how they make the most of their journey to work.

‘I never take the same route two days in a row’

William Macdonald, 51, makes a point of varying his commute. The web developer from Scotland, who has lived in Sweden for 17 years, keeps his trip to his office in Stockholm fresh by “never taking the same method or route two days in a row”.

Whether it is cycling before hopping on a boat, running, or even fitting in a swim on the way, switching up his journey into work allows Macdonald to feel he is making the most of his day. “In the summer, sometimes I cycle there and swim in a heated pool that’s on the way to work. I cycle all year round, as long as there’s not huge snowdrifts,” he says.

“I just do it for a bit of variety – sometimes taking the same train every morning, seeing the same people can be a bit depressing. You can make some sort of adventure, some other focus of the day … It adds a feature to the day. Otherwise the commute is just a little step to spending the whole day in the office.”

Macdonald’s job allows him the option of working from home some days, on which he often mountain bikes in a nearby forest. “Sometimes, I do cross-country skiing on my lunch break!”

‘Inline skating is a full-body workout’

In New York, Miguel Ramirez, 35, a personal trainer and inline skate instructor, has been skating to work on the city’s streets for the past 12 years.

“Inline skating is a full-body workout. It also requires lots of balance, coordination and flexibility. It’s great for short-to-medium distances. And hybrid commuting is very easy. You can jump on the train or bus with ease,” he says.

Ramirez says skating is a more practical option than you might think. “Many places allow you to inline skate inside, so errands like grocery shopping or grabbing something from the deli are much faster.”

He would not recommend that everybody commutes on skates, though. “You have to be closer to the intermediate level, because we don’t have mechanical brakes like a bike. But it’s manageable.”

So far he has avoided any collisions. “I’m pretty defensive when I skate. I’m always looking out. I assume that everyone’s going to run me over, so I just keep my distance.”

‘We had a sewing, knitting and needlepoint commute’

Until she retired in 2020, Angela, 58, used to spend her commute to her engineering job working on crafts projects with a colleague.

It began one day when her co-worker got on the train with a crochet project. “That spurred a sewing, knitting and needlepoint commute,” said Angela, who lives in Belgium. They kept it up for eight years, until her colleague retrained and Angela retired soon after.

“The highlight of our days was making things on the train. We used to crack up laughing – people would come and join us and have a chat. It was a really nice commute – before that, I spent my commute looking at reports, which was not as much fun.

“Once I was making curtains, which I dragged on to the train piece by piece to hand sew; another time she changed in the train toilet to a half-finished dress so I could pin it to fit. The whole adventure made commuting something we both looked forward to.”

Since leaving their workplace, the pair have kept in touch. “We just met on the train but we really became friends. The culmination, the big crescendo of our creations together, was making her wedding dress together – not on the train though!”

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‘I get about an hour and a half of Italian practice in’

Kevin Donnelly, 40, a geneticist in Edinburgh, uses his daily walks to work on his Italian skills – and can be heard repeating key phrases from language learning audiobooks.

“It’s awesome,” he says. “People just assume I’m on the phone. I pretend to chat in Italian while pushing through the bustle. Of course, any Italians will realise I am repeatedly asking for directions to the station.

“Cycling in Edinburgh is a painful experience, sometimes literally. Walking clears my head and improves my mood.

“I get about an hour and a half of practice in, and there’s no way I’d get that otherwise. In a little over a month I can now speak more than I can in French – which I ostensibly studied at school for four years.”

‘So much more efficient than a road bike’

In 2015, Heinrich Neumann from Nordhorn, Germany, ditched his electric bicycle in favour of a velomobile (human-powered vehicle). The 63-year-old has been riding up to 38km (24 miles) to the hospitals where he works as a doctor ever since.

“With just your own power and this aerodynamic fairing, it is so much more efficient than a road bike. It’s unbelievable.” Once Neumann took the car to work because he was running late – but it took him even longer.

What do his co-workers make of the velomobile? “It’s mixed. They are a bit envious, because they don’t get the fitness training that I do. But I haven’t convinced my colleagues [to do it].

“It’s very good fun. It has optimum weather protection, as long as the roads are not completely covered in ice or snow. And even if you crash, you’ve got a structure around you which absorbs much of the impact.”

‘Audiobooks mellowed out my stress’

Roberta Jones, 70, has found that for years listening to books makes her commute more enjoyable. She has listened to almost 1,000 audiobooks after starting with cassette tapes, then CDs, before moving on to Audible in 2005.

“I have listened to nearly 1,000 books on audio that I would otherwise never have had time to read,” says Jones, a self-employed consultant in Sacramento, California. “I have soared to other planets, expanded my awareness, learned a great deal, and explored the classics – all while driving a car to and from work.”

While she now works from home, she has kept up her routine of listening to audiobooks. She remembers it helping her de-stress in the car: “It’s a great way to wind down after a high-stress day at work – by the time you’re home, you’re calm enough for it to not ruin your evening.”

Her commutes changed over the years but were always over an hour. “Originally, commuting was quite brutal with nothing to focus on but the traffic around you. [Audiobooks] mellowed out my stress quite remarkably, and were also very entertaining and informative. It was a win-win.”

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President Biden departs Seattle after attending fundraising events

SEATTLE — President Joseph Biden flew into Seattle on Friday after a two-day visit to San Francisco, where he participated in two campaign receptions in the Bay Area.

The White House confirmed that Biden participated in campaign receptions in the Seattle area on Friday and Saturday.

He left Seattle for Delaware on Saturday afternoon.

Update - 2 p.m. Saturday

President Joe Biden has taken off from SeaTac airport on Air Force One due for Delaware.

Update - 1 p.m. Saturday

SB I-405 from Bellevue to Tukwila & WB SR 518 to SEA Airport have reopened as President Biden arrives at SeaTac airport to head to Delaware.

WSDOT posted that Eastbound SR 520 from 92nd Ave NE to I-405 is closed.

SB I-405 from SR 520 to Tukwila and Westbound SR 518 to SEA Airport are also closed.

This includes all on and off-ramps along this route. There is no estimated time for reopening. Use alternate routes and expect heavy congestion.

Update - 11:20 a.m. Saturday

WSDOT posted that the NB I-5 from Downtown Seattle to SR 520 is fully closed including all on and off-ramps.

There is no estimated time for reopening. Consider using alternate routes and expect heavy congestion.

President Biden at a

Update - 6 p.m. Friday

The protesters outside the Lotte Hotel left the area.

Update - 5:45 p.m. Friday

Protesters have taken to the streets outside the Lotte Hotel, where Biden and his motorcade arrived about 20 minutes ago. The pro-Palestine group is chanting and banging drums at 5th Avenue and Columbia.

Protesters block area near Biden's motorcade

Update - 5:25 p.m. Friday

President Biden and his entourage arrived at the Lotte Hotel on 5th Avenue, flanked by Seattle police and Secret Service. All lanes and ramps previously closed along SR 518 and northbound I-5 have reopened, per WSDOT.

🚨CLEARED ON EB SR 518 AND NB I-5 IN SEATTLE AND SEATAC All lane and ramps on EB SR 518 and NB I-5 are now open. Expect delays as traffic clears through the area. https://t.co/LxXb5Vd89V — WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) May 11, 2024

Update - 5 p.m. Friday

Air Force One has touched down at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Biden exited the plane and met with and took pictures with several Washington State and Seattle leaders before getting into a limousine.

President Biden departs Seattle

Update - 4:49 p.m. Friday

Seattle and Washington State leaders have appeared on the tarmac, expected to meet with President Biden on his arrival, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Trudi Inslee, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Suzan DelBene, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, Joanne Harrell, King County Executive Dow Constantine and his daughter Sabrina, and Port of Seattle Commission Vice President Toshiko Grace Hasegawa.

Update - 4:36 p.m. Friday

🚨ROAD CLOSURES HAPPENING NOW IN #SEATAC #SEATTLE EB SR518 from the Airport Expressway to the I-5 interchange & NB I-5 to DT Seattle is now FULLY CLOSED including all on and off-ramps. There is no ETA for reopening. Consider using alternate routes and expect heavy congestion. — WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) May 10, 2024

Update - 4:25 p.m. Friday

President Biden and Air Force One have crossed the Columbia River and into Washington State.

Traffic is expected throughout the Seattle area as Biden makes his way from Sea-Tac into the city. The Washington State Patrol, Seattle Police Department and Washington State Department of Transportation have been spotted throughout town.

WSP and WSDOT preparing for @POTUS taking I-5. Tons of troopers and an IRT truck staging on S 188th on-ramp to NB 5. pic.twitter.com/IkJv2YKOp5 — Matthew Pfab (@The_Weatherman2) May 10, 2024

The Seattle Police Department has also blocked travel near the Lotte Hotel on 5th Avenue in Seattle.

It is currently unknown how Biden will make his way to Seattle, but northbound travelers on Interstate 5 heading to Friday nights Mariners game should plan for a slowdown.

Update - 3:20 p.m. Friday

President Biden left San Francisco on Air Force One at about 3:15 p.m., on his way to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Biden left San Francisco nearly an hour earlier than scheduled, making his approximate time to land in Seattle around 5 p.m.

Air Force One

The President is expected to stay in Downtown Seattle, and traffic is expected to be extremely congested during his visit.

There will likely be intermittent closures of freeways and streets, affecting the flow of buses and cars in both Downtown Seattle and around the region, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation.

“While the President’s exact travel route and timing are not published in advance, travelers can still plan ahead by anticipating delays and temporary road closures,” SDOT said in a blog post .

SDOT said its engineers can adjust the timing of traffic signals within Seattle based on expected closures and any needed re-routing.

To complicate matters, there’s a Mariners game at 6:40 p.m. on Friday and Saturday at T-Mobile Park as well as a 7 p.m. concert at Climate Pledge Arena on Friday. In addition, the State Route 520 Bridge will be closed this weekend, along with I-5 lane reductions. You can find that information here.

One way you can keep tabs on potential traffic concerns is to sign up for King County Metro Transit alerts and watch for X posts from King County Metro , SDOT Traffic , and WSDOT Traffic .

A representative for King County also confirmed Biden would be flying in to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and not Boeing Field, so drivers should expect delays from SeaTac to Downtown Seattle.

Those taking flights from Sea-Tac around the time of Biden’s arrival and departure will also be affected.

Alaska Airlines sent a statement to KIRO 7 News about Biden’s visit:

“Air Force One is scheduled to arrive at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Friday. Security protocol requires all air traffic at SEA to stop at least 30 minutes before the arrival of the presidential aircraft. All airlines could experience potential delays during this time including Alaska and Horizon flights. Additional flight impacts could also happen when Air Force One departs on Saturday. We appreciate the understanding and patience of our guests during these high-security events.”

A representative for the Seattle Police Department said:

“We have been working with our federal, state, county, and local partners to coordinate the public safety response to the visit. Though we can’t speak to specific allocation of resources, SPD will be providing additional staffing during the visit.”

President Biden was last in Seattle in April 2022, as part of a trip to Seattle and Portland, marking Earth Day.

©2024 Cox Media Group

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Ramp to Salt Lake City International Airport Closure

This weekend, UDOT advises drivers to plan ahead for a five-day closure of the ramp from northbound I-215 to the Salt Lake City International Airport for bridge maintenance. The westbound I-80 ramp from northbound I-215 will close Friday, May 10 at 8 p.m. through Tuesday, May 14 at 5 p.m. while crews will repair and replace the asphalt driving surface.

In addition to allowing extra drive time to get to the airport this weekend, travelers may also consider TRAX trains as an option. Check  rideuta.com  for schedules.

The eastbound I-80 ramp to northbound I-215 will also close Friday,  May 10 at 8 p.m. for similar bridge maintenance. This ramp is scheduled to reopen in time for the Monday morning commute on May 13.

UDOT upgrading 62 Salt Lake County bridges this summer May 8, 2024

Drivers should expect delays while crews work to extend the service of these bridges.

Drivers should plan for major closures throughout the summer as the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) performs maintenance on 62 Salt Lake County bridges to address the impacts of recent severe winters and help keep them in good shape.   

In addition to allowing extra drive time to get to the airport this weekend, travelers may also consider TRAX trains as an option. Check  rideuta.com  for schedules.

The eastbound I-80 ramp to northbound I-215 will also close Friday,  May 10 at 8 p.m. for similar bridge maintenance. This ramp is scheduled to reopen in time for the Monday morning commute on May 13.

“The last two winters have been really hard on our bridges,” UDOT Region Two Director Robert Stewart said. “These maintenance projects allow us to get the most out of these bridges, which not only saves us money, but gives drivers a better commute every day.”

Many of the bridges under construction in Salt Lake County this summer are nearly 40 years old. This summer’s bridge maintenance work will cause traffic delays:

• Airport bridges projects : Crews will extend the life of 19 bridges throughout Salt Lake County with several rehabilitation projects en route to Salt Lake International Airport. This includes bridges over I-80, Bangerter Highway, Redwood Road, SR-201, and SR-202. Drivers should expect ramp and bridge closures throughout the summer to accommodate this work. The work is expected to be completed in late summer 2024. 
• 3200 West bridge deck replacement : Later this summer, crews will demolish the two bridge decks on SR-201 at 3200 West and replace them with new, smoother driving surfaces. Drivers should expect delays of more than 30 minutes on SR-201 during peak travel times, as traffic will be detoured off and back on the highway via the 3200 West on- and off-ramps. 3200 West under the bridge is scheduled to be closed for approximately six months during construction. Construction is expected to start this summer and will require approximately six months to complete. Drivers are encouraged to take I-80, I-215, Redwood Road, 3500 South and other alternate routes to avoid delays.
• I-15 bridge work : UDOT will be repairing bridge decks and fixing potholes on 32 bridges on I-15 in Salt Lake County from 400 North to 11400 South. UDOT crews will also replace the joints on six bridges in that area as well. Drivers should expect overnight and weekend lane closures through fall for these repairs. 
• Bangerter bridge repairs :  Beginning May 13 for approximately two weeks, crews will be repairing bridges on Bangerter Highway between California Avenue and the airport. Bangerter will be reduced to one lane in each direction to accommodate this work.

Patching potholes and putting down new driving surfaces reduces the amount of water and chlorides from winter that can get into the bridge deck concrete, effectively slowing the rate of deterioration. 

Construction activities, dates and times are subject to change due to weather or equipment issues. For the latest information, download the free UDOT Traffic app on any iPhone or Android device or visit  udottraffic.utah.gov . 

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