Hello guys,

I have been following this discussion for awhile and I don't get it.....Technically, Service Engineers or technicians are the highest paid employees at a dealership. It is the nature of the beast. Road techs are provided with service trucks to use in the course of their work. Many drive them to and from home to job sites or the shop. The service van is primarily designed to, are you ready, service the customer, not the van driver.... I understand some of the discussions but you know if you think you are getting abused with time and pay, speak to your company about it and see if there is a way to clear it up...If not you have two choices, follow the guidelines or change employment, but for heavens sake don't complain...As the person who mentioned the 1099 form. Almost al companies that provide a company car to employees receive a 1099 and it is considered part of the package...If all else fails, tell your employer, that you would rather store the truck at the shop and you wil commute in your own vehicle, pay your own fuel, Insurance, license, taxes, wear and use. Replace your tires, do your own oil changes you know,,,on and on..Guys in this global economy, I think we need to try to see the overall picture and if you are one of the few thathave a job, make a decent wage...BE thankful, because there are many out there who have lost their jobs and would gladly, gladly work for a small amount just to feed their families...

I was discussing this issue with a friend of mine who's been in the industry since the 60's. He told me that this issue has been around as long as he's been in the business. He said that here in the states, if you take your work van home, you could get a 1099 (subcontactors income statement) that makes you pay taxes on the extra income of having the use of a vehicle (fuel, insurance, etc) which you're not paying for. I've never heard of such a thing personally, but it happened to him. His company considered it a priveledge to take his van home (not using his gas, not getting his car dirty, etc). This may be true, but docking me pay or taxing me for the use is ridiculous.

yeah i agree with bbforks on this one,we store their vehicles at our homes,we have to put up with noise from inboot deliveries through the night,what would happen if every engineer left his van at their local depot? grid lock i think,and as for having to clock on and off at work has a certain person forgot that we all have trackers anyway?

If the company is billing for your travel time, then the tech should be paid. If someone takes their work van home & is expected at the customers location at starting time, then the tech should get paid from the time he leaves his home- as the customer is paying travel time for that tech to be there. It doesn't matter where he came from ( his home or the shop). The same is true at the end of the day. It doesn't matter where you're going, if the company is billing for your time, then the tech should be paid.

If the company didn't want to pay me to travel to & from customers at the beginning & end of the day, I'd leave their work van at the shop & drive to & from work on my own time, using my own gas, in the comfort of my own car. It's a convience to the company & their customers if I take the work van home- it's not a convience to me. Who really wants to be responsible for the work van at their home- I don't. If the company wants that convience they should pay.

Agree, but it isn't even. Some people will work in populated areas and maybe only have to travel 15/20 mins in own time each day. Which I would be happy to do. But there will be days when it could be 1hr 30mins in less populated areas. I can see them expecting you to go on a LTH job furthest away,first job and then travel back to customer jobs.

Travel time has always been a contentious issue in the larger companies, which is why i left to work for a smaller independent company that treats the engineers fairly and works in such a way that its a pleasure to do the job.
However during my last employment the company wanted the engineer to travel to the first job and back from the last in their own time and have parts delivered during the evening to the van, the courier having keys. Its my feeling that if a company centralises and shuts its depots, employs engineers on a favourable geographical basis, delivers parts to your home address then your home is essentially a satellite depot and you should be paid from the moment you engage into work activities. Its in the companies interest to have engineers scattered about and if someone had to travel 2 hours each way to a depot the company would find it hard to recruit and work effectively. Also companies dont recognise the fact that many people dont really want a sign written commercial vehicle parked up taking space on the driveway in a residential area, full of engineers own equipment and very likely under insured. That has to be compensated surely? Is it really too much to pay people for working, field service is field service whether FLTs or other products that rely on mobile service, it shouldnt be compared to factory employment or shop work, you dont often see an office worker dragging a tool box and spare parts on a bus. (other public transport is available)
Larger companies that keep shaving off the terms and conditions of their employees are making less desirable to work for them and more appealing for the engineer to go it alone.

There is something not right here?

If someone works in a shop or an office or a factory, they may have to wear a uniform on their bus to the place of work but do they get paid whilst they get there? Of course they don't. Are they given a company vehicle to get to their place of work? Of course they are not.

Would engineers prefer to drive their own car in their own time paying their own fuel to a depot or point where they can collect their van and start their working day? Would they wish to clock-on and clock-out? Of course they wouldn't.

I would suggest in the overall scheme of things, relative to other trades, mobile engineers get a very good deal. Contreversial perhaps but true!

i think if you are driving their vehicle ,wearing their uniform ,carrying their goods and thus representing their company then yes you should be payed door to door,because mark my words they dont want to pay you when it suits them but if you have an incident in their vehicle traveling in your own time then they will be the first ones to try and discipline you

Door to door works good and I'm good with that. The question would then be, do you drive the truck(van) to lunch, do you bill someone for the drive there and or/back? If not, that should be taxed, and if you do, who gets cheated on that one.

Door to door is the only way it should be. After all we store there vehicle free of charge for them & most of us accept deliverys to our homes at unsociable hours not to mention all the other crap we put in our garages till we need it. Trouble is they dont realise what most of us do day to day in our own time. Not for much longer though if this is the way they go

I feel that an engineer should be payed from the moment he steps into his van to the moment he steps out of it onto his drive way. If you drive to the first job in your own time should you be paying tax for your use of the company vehicle after all its in your time. and are you covered by insurance the (companies) to use the vehicle to go to work in this way? I know companies do give extra incentives to work in this way but at the end of the day the company is just trying to maximize on the 8 hrs it pays you. expecting you to be on site at 8 oclock but not leaving till 4.30
I think thats fine as a site engineer but as a road engineer it may be two hours till you get to your firt call I think there should be some compensation due in that sort of senario.

Titus

I am a resident technician(work from home) as i am almost two hours from the shop i bring the van home every night and rarely get to the shop,i charge my time from the time i leave the driveway to the time i pull back in the driveway,as long as i am sitting in their vehicle i feel i am on their time.

I remember there was an "argument" about this a year or two ago on this forum. I think the consensus was that if you don't have to use your vehicle to get to work, then you should at least drive one way on your time, without pay.