Im in the same thinking as DinQ. We have an agrreement allowing limited personal use of field service van. But being up front i said from the start. I keep the van under cover and wash the vehicle in my own time, and im happy to do that as long as i dont get questioned about doing my shopping , or running the kids to w/end sport or something. As for start times ill generally take off how long it takes to get to work from my travel time if starting on site. And adding return to workshop time when going home from site.

Just as well our guys have full personal use then. : )

Our labour laws may be different in Oz though, but what they say in the US sounds fair and reasonable to me. Of course, many companies would have workplace agreements that would probably get around any difficulties - providing they are being paid over base award.

i contacted the labor board about this problem and was told If you allowed to use the van for personal use then they dont have to pay you to and from work. Personal use is not considered to and from the first and last job. Personal use is going anywhere else. If you signed a document saying that you could not use the van for personal use then they owe you back pay and if its over 40 hours on your regular week its all over time which the labor board loves to go after for you. They even told me that if the van is kept at your home they may owe you storage fees also.

At the Cat dealer where I worked (now retired ),feild techs always took thier trucks home. We had radios in the trucks until 1995.We were then issued cell phones and the customers had the phone numbers.This was a big hit with the customers,they liked being able to talk to the tech that was going to come to them. I almost always went from home to my first job of the day. There was a lot of days I never went to the shop. The only real reason we had to go to the shop was for parts and do paper work. The field techs have work with each other so that nobody was over worked and everybody had work to do.I know this wouldn't work for every dealer,but it worked good for us.

Our techs are supposed to give up half an hour at each end of the day, or less if they arrive at their first job within that time... although some do their best to get around it.

The payoff is that they are allowed to use their vans for full personal use. I think that's a pretty fair trade with the cost of fuel these days.

Think about it this way guys if we didn't have vans to go to the customer all the forklifts wouild have to be shipped to the shop costing the customer more money in shipping and down time Rich

Gentleman,
I was a road tech for many years. the rule of thumb was always give a 1/2 hour each way every day. What surprises me is that many of you are not using a creative billing practice to over come that gap. I know I did! Work 6, get paid for 8, and bill 10 was always my moto. I know with the advent of GPS that has become a little more difficult, but I never new of a company that would give a 95% to 100% biller a hard time. Work hard to earn your place every day. That is what it takes to maintain a good working relationship with the company you work for. They owe you no more than your last pay-check, you owe them no more than your last day worked.

All of the billing is done based on a 7am-4pm billing time.......some major accounts do not pay for travel fees...and the shop eats the travel time as unbillable and charges it off each month per tech....
And for the record for me to eat 1/2 hour to and from is a positive......the shop is not billing my time to and from my house....i have to be at the jobsite at 7...so adjust accordingly...and we all have territories and the majorty of accounts are just miles from home so when your done at the end of the day it's not a 1 hour drive home at no pay......unpleasant.... so this is the way michigan has been since 1992 the same rules apply....i've worked for 4 lift truck companies in mich and there billing is the same......

If I have an accident or get injured while driving a company van for free will I be covered by workmans comp? Or am I on my own? Too many times I am asked to start up to 2 hours early so I can be on a job site at 8:00. If I want to call it a day 2 hours early I am refused. In order for this to work it has to be a 2-way street.

My question is: Do your companies bill travel time from your house or from the shop. If they bill from your house and the travel time is longer than it would be from their shop- then what happens?
Most jobs are a matter of give and take, that is unless you're just a taker.

So after reading along with all these posts, I need to get something straight that I don't quite understand. Some of you are saying that it's unfair to give up 1/2 hour in the morning and at night when the customer is still getting billed for it and you're not getting paid for it....or something along those lines.

So how does your company bill this time exactly? I know that my billing directly reflects my time clocked, with the exception that the end bill is rounded up to the nearest half hour incriment. If you're not on the clock, and not getting paid, then the customer shouldnt be getting billed either. If this is actually happening out there, I'd suggest holding on to your integrity and find another employer.

I give 1/2 in morning and evening.Dont have a problem with it.But as far as I know my company dont charge for that as its never on my time card.I do know for a fact of at least 1 company here that has same policy that will charge a travel charge on every work order processed.Thats double dipping customers.If I knew mine did that Id look for future employment.For my area I make a fair wage,even though there are people who dont put in half the effort or pride in their work who make near the same.Stuff goes on everywhere you work.If you cant stand it just move on.

Well...........I think it suits my company for me to take the van home, as the depot is 172 miles away! Also, as an extreme example, I have 2 customers that are a 2 and a half hour drive from home. I wouldn't be prepared to do that for nothing! It would also mean working a 13 hour day to get paid for 8, whilst the company still charges the customer for the travel. On balance I think losing half an hour a day is reasonable, IF you agreed to it when taking the job. Having it imposed on you is a bit different though.

and we copied America lol.
The reason they give you a van and MAKE!!!!! you take it home is to suit them. don't get me wrong i'm happy with my wage, work and conditions. but that doesn't avoid the fact you get a van because THEY need you to have a van!

So when my company charges its not right for me to charge?Thats the way America got in the trouble its in now.