Re: Time to Pay Again, Dinks!

[robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx]

> Because otherwise a technician would have to drive to the office first to
> pick up their service vehicle.  We went around about this when I worked for
> the phone company.  It is generally accepted that the time an employee
> spends getting to work is the employee's time, not the employer's time.
> (Its also federal regulation.)
>
> The benefit of a company vehicle to the employee is reduced wear and tear on
> their own vehicle and often zero fuel costs.  The benefit to the company is
> quicker response (potentially) to customers.  The benefit to the customer is
> more time available to perform service and therefor faster service in boh
> the short term as well as in the big picture.

There are other benefits to the company.  If the employee were to
first drive his own vehicle to work the company would then have to pay
for his time drivng to the job site, provide parking for his vehicle
on company property, etc.

> The IRS has tried to say that the use of a company vehicle for personal use
> is a taxable benefit the last time I checked.  Driving to work from home is
> personal use.  I'll leave it to the tax accounts to say how that works out
> in the real world.

If the job sites were all within a short commute from the employees'
homes it might be fair to consider time driving to the sites as
personal time.  Unfortunately for the employees, this is not always
the case.  Some jobs may be a long drive away.  Shouldn't the employer
cover that time?  What about when there are several sites to visit in
a given day?  Brinks is infamous for offering the absolute minimum
protection so employees can do more than one job in a day.  Do they
pay for time driving company vehicles from job A to B?

> The rule of thumb we had to live by when I worked for the phone company was
> if we had a co vehicle at home we were on our own time until we reached our
> first job site.  From that second on we were on company time until we left
> the last job site of the day.  The exception was if our first or last
> service call was outside of our home coverage area.  For us our coverage
> area was 50 miles across approximately, and yes sometimes it was the case
> that we had to drive a couple hundred miles to get to or from a trouble
> spot.  We were paid for that time.  We were also paid for all travel time
> throughout the day.

Phone company employees have had these types of plans due to strong
unions.  Brinks might not play by the same rules.

During the years I ran an alarm company we had both subs and
employees.  We were a small company so we didn't offer company
vehicles.  We did provide tools and training to employees.  Subs
provided their own tools.  Our policy was to pay for driving time plus
mileage outside a 20-mile radius from the office or the employees'
home if they were driving directly to a site.  Within our regular
service area payment began upon arrival at our office or the job site,
whichever was first.

Regards,
Robert L Bass
www.bassburglaralarms.com