My job involves doing payroll and tracking hours for a group of pipeline construction personnel. These guys live on the road, in motels, and drive to the pipeline right of way from their motel rooms.
Every job we have, the same argument comes up: they feel that they should be paid for the time spent driving from the motel to the job site (anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes.) My response is that if you lived in LA or NY or Vancouver or any other big city, you’d face a commute like that everyday, and no one would even consider paying you drive time.
My question to you is - how far do you commute to and from work/school everyday?
I tend to work in small towns, so for me it’s generally not more than 10 minutes most of the time.
Los Hideous (west side, near the 405 and the 10) to Orange, CA (near the “Orange Crush” interchange). Forty-three miles, one-way. About 45 minutes on the motorcycle, or 60-75 minutes in the Jeep. Longer if it’s raining or if someone is changing a tyre by the side of the road.
Let’s see – from the bedroom, through the dining room and living room, to the office. About 75 feet. Takes me about 10 seconds.
Oh, you mean when I had a “real job.” OK. Then I drove about 35 miles one-way, all on rural roads at night – I worked 3rd shift, 11pm to 7 am.
My husband drives 52 miles one-way – about 40 miles of that on a state highway and the rest on a divided freeway.
I’m with you – the only exception would be if they were independent contractors submitting invoices for payment, and it had been agreed that they would bill for mileage. But it sounds like they’re employees to me.
Just out of curiosity, who pays for the motel? Do these guys always live on the road, or is it a periodic thing, like truck drivers?
I drive 45 miles each way. This sucks, but note that I drive from Plainfield to Wrigleyville in Chicago rush hour traffic on the Stevensen. Any locals can happily explain how wonderful Chicago traffic is with morning and evening SUN delays (yes, I said sun delays, delays because of the sun) and other completely infuriating hassles. But this summer has been quite the experience with 18 miles of the Stevensen under complete reconstruction. Ergo, 4-5 lanes of the most heavily traveled road in the Midwest reduced to 2 lanes with no shoulders for 18 consecutive miles stretching from Lake Shore Drive to the Tri-State expressway. I always spend over 90 minutes each way, but frequently spend over 2 hrs each way extending my work days from a happy 11 hours to 15+.
Yes, I am going to move, and yes the job is worth it. Hopefully I’ll get the raise I need before the first snowfall because that could really make things unpleasent.
These guys are basically always on the road, although set up in towns for a matter of days or weeks at a time. They are paid a flat-rate daily living allowance of $100/day (tax-free). What they do with the per diem is their own decision - IOW, they can triple-up in a hotel room and pocket the rest, or they can splash out for a deluxe room and spend more than the $100. Their call.
I’m in L.A. too and it’s just gross. Especially with the MTA strike; I can really tell the difference. I drive about 35 miles and it can take a good hour no matter what time of day it is. And as Johnny L.A. said, when it rains everyone forgets how to drive. Next car is gonna be an automatic.
I’m like Scarlett67–I work at home now, so my morning commute is about 10 seconds.
But when I did commute to a job, it was about 25 miles along Highway 401 through Toronto. Took about 45 minutes on a good day and between one and two hours on a bad day, which was pretty often. Then we moved, and the distance increased to about 50 miles, or an hour of drive time. Naturally, since we were all employees, the company would not help out with commuting expenses–not even for the alternate-to-the-401 toll road that cut a lot of time and aggravation off the commute.
My wife commutes about 50 miles daily too. It takes her about an hour.
I travel precisely 5 stops on San Francisco’s underground Muni system. This trip ideally takes 10 minutes - so my usual commute is somewhere around three quarters of an hour.
it’s about 45 miles one way though DC traffic, but I ride a motorcycle so I can use the HOV!
my question is why do they stay so far away from the site? do they pick the hotels or does the company. because if the company does then they may have some justifacation for asking for it. if they do then that’s their problem.
Edward, they are building and working on pipelines, I’m assuming the locations are frequently in the middle of nowhere and they stay in the closest town.
My commute was about 8 miles in about 15-20 minutes. But while I’m waiting for my house to be built, I’m staying with family across town - 50 miles taking anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours right through the heart of downtown Dallas. However, I move into the new house next week and I’ll be back to about 10 miles in about 20 minutes!
Yes, exactly. There just aren’t that many towns in northern Ontario or Saskatchewan. Plus, a mainline construction spread has 400 or more guys working on it, so they often have to spread themselves around throughout the countryside, in whatever town has rooms.
In the morning (which is about 2am), 20 to 25 minutes to go 13 miles. Most of that commute is by surface streets though, with a lot of gratuitous lights. They should be on sensors, not on freakin’ timers!
My commute is only about 20 miles, which in the morning, takes about a 1/2 hr. But on the way home, through Bostons “BigDig” and the Mass. Pike extension, it cant take anywhere from 45 min. to 1 1/2 hrs… Arrrrgghhhhh!!!
I can now totally understand Michael Douglas’ Character in the movie “Fallen Down”.
I ride the NYC subway for about 20 minutes, and then have a lovely 4-5 minute walk.
Poor me.
Of course, I am paying an exorbitant amount of money for rent, lack most amenities that you country folk with houses are used to, live in a lousy building.
