Travel time between job sites can be working time even when a Nevada employer records only the hours spent inside each location. A cleaner may leave a Las Vegas office building for another assignment. A repair technician may drive from one customer to the next. A construction worker may report to a yard before traveling with tools to the day’s site. The pay question depends on the trip’s place in the workday and the duties required.
Do not combine every drive into one category. An ordinary trip from home to work, travel between assigned locations, a required stop at a meeting point, and an overnight trip can involve different rules. Keep the day’s sequence and the employer’s instructions. Those facts help identify where paid work ends and a personal commute begins without assuming that vehicle ownership decides the issue.
Job-to-job travel is different from ordinary commuting
The official federal job-site travel regulation, 29 CFR 785.38, says travel that forms part of an employee’s principal activity, including job-site travel during the workday, counts as hours worked. It also addresses a required meeting point for instructions, work, or picking up and carrying tools. The actual reporting instructions matter to that distinction.
This rule does not turn every drive connected loosely to employment into paid work. Identify whether you had already begun assigned duties, were traveling to another assignment, or were simply going from home to the day’s first workplace. Nevada’s hours-worked provisions also deserve review. The analysis should address the applicable state and federal rules rather than rely only on a company label such as commute.
An employment lawyer can compare the route with the job instructions and pay records. Bring the sequence for representative days. A map showing distance may be useful, but it does not explain why the trip occurred or what duties you performed before leaving. Those facts belong beside the route.
Write the workday as a sequence of assignments
List each reporting location, the work performed there, the departure, the next assignment, and the final release. Mark personal stops separately. A worker might start at a Henderson warehouse, complete a delivery in Las Vegas, and continue to another customer. Record the employer’s directions rather than assuming every trip from the warehouse has the same purpose.
Keep dispatch messages, work orders, schedules, and job-completion entries you lawfully possess. These records can establish the order of assignments. They may not show the entire travel period, so add a factual account of what happened between locations. Explain when you were waiting for instructions rather than driving, instead of treating an unexplained gap as travel.
Use actual dates and mark uncertain times as approximate. A typical-day description can help explain the routine, but it should not replace records of particular disputed days. Different assignments, routes, and reporting instructions may change the boundary between travel and other activity. Identify those variations before calculating an alleged unpaid period.
A required yard or meeting-point stop matters
Record why you were required to report to a yard, office, or pickup point. You may receive instructions, perform work, or collect and carry tools before traveling onward. A place where workers merely choose to meet can present different facts. Save the requirement and describe the task performed there rather than relying solely on the location’s name.
If the employer says the workday starts only at the customer site, compare that statement with duties at the meeting point. Loading supplies or attending required instructions should be described individually. Do not claim personal preparation or voluntary conversation as an assigned task. The legal review needs to know what the employer actually required before the trip.
Identify whether the meeting-point rule changed. A technician may be told to go directly from home on some days and report to the office on others. Save both instructions and associate them with the correct dates. A single payroll practice may not accurately reflect every version of the routine.
Driving a personal vehicle does not describe the whole trip
A worker may use a personal car for assigned travel while another uses a company van. Vehicle ownership is a relevant fact, but it does not explain whether the travel formed part of the workday. Record who chose the route, what was transported, and whether the employer directed travel between assignments. Keep any vehicle-use agreement or policy.
Mileage reimbursement and pay for time address different things. A mileage entry can document a trip without proving that the travel hours were paid. Conversely, a paycheck may include travel time without resolving a separate expense issue. Keep the reimbursement record beside the time entry, while clearly identifying what each payment covered.
If the employer gave an allowance or a separate travel payment, ask how it was calculated and shown in payroll. Do not assume a payment labeled travel includes every compensable minute. A written explanation helps a reviewer compare the actual hours with the payment and identify any separate issue about rates or expenses.
Passengers should describe their role too
An employee may ride with a coworker between sites instead of driving. Describe the assignment and the reason for the trip. Record whether you carried tools, assisted the driver, received work instructions, or were simply being transported between required locations. Do not assume that being a passenger makes all travel personal time.
The same vehicle can carry people with different duties or schedules. A crew member may already have begun assigned work while another voluntarily accepts a ride to the first site. Those facts should remain distinct. Keep the reporting instructions for your own role rather than adopting the driver’s time record as proof of everyone’s hours.
If the trip goes beyond ordinary local site travel, raise that issue separately. Overnight travel and travel away from the home community can require different analysis. This article focuses on movement within the workday. Do not apply the job-to-job rule to every passenger trip without identifying which category the actual travel falls into.
The return requirement can affect the end of the day
Record whether you must return to the employer’s premises after the last assignment. You may need to return tools, unload supplies, submit materials, or leave a company vehicle. The federal job-site travel regulation addresses required return travel as part of the workday. A direction allowing you to go directly home presents different facts.
Keep the release instruction and any task completed after returning. A work order closed at the customer location may not show the end of all duties. A time clock at the yard may record the return but omit unloading. The sequence should identify both travel and tasks without counting the same period twice.
If the employer occasionally permits direct travel home, record when and under what instruction. Do not apply a required-return calculation to days when no return occurred. Also avoid treating the drive home after release as though it were automatically another assigned trip. The boundary should be supported by the actual duties and directions.
Personal errands and meal periods need separate entries
A worker may stop for a personal errand between sites or take a meal break during the route. Record those periods separately from assigned travel. An accurate account does not treat every minute between leaving one location and arriving at another as work. Explain any employer-required stop and distinguish it from a personal choice.
If a supervisor changes the next assignment during a break, keep the message and note what you did afterward. A route alteration may affect the travel history without necessarily changing the entire break’s classification. Counsel needs the facts about duties, timing, and restrictions rather than a blanket label applied to the whole interval.
Do not reconstruct a route from a navigation estimate alone. An estimated arrival time may differ from actual traffic, a detour, or a stop. Use contemporaneous records where available and explain their limits. A map can support the account, but it should not be presented as a verified record of every minute traveled.
Check whether payroll removes the gaps between jobs
Compare recorded start and end times at each assignment with the day’s instructions. Some systems record a job ending and the next job beginning while excluding the interval. Others use a continuous workday entry or a separate travel code. Find out which method the employer used before assuming that a blank space necessarily means unpaid work.
Save original entries and corrections when you can lawfully obtain them. Note who changed the record and what reason was given. If you requested a correction, retain the request and response. A payroll assurance that the system handles travel should be compared with the actual statement and time record, rather than treated as proof that the disputed period was included.
Our discussion of documents in an overtime dispute covers broader payroll evidence. For site travel, add dispatch instructions, meeting-point duties, return requirements, and route records. Those details explain omitted work even when the employer does not dispute your job classification.
Keep travel hours distinct from a wage-rate question
A worker may dispute whether travel was recorded at all, what rate applied, or how the hours affected other pay. List each issue separately. A correct rate does not resolve missing hours. Recorded hours do not necessarily settle every rate or overtime question. The compensation arrangement and applicable law need review together.
Our article on legal review of unpaid wages in Las Vegas discusses preparing the pay issue. For travel, bring a calculation tied to actual days and identify assumptions. Do not estimate recovery by multiplying an unsupported average across every shift you ever worked.
Keep payment categories clear. Regular work, recorded travel, mileage, allowances, and disputed omitted time should not be merged into a single total without explanation. Attach the statements supporting each category. A transparent calculation helps a reviewer identify which parts are documented and which require further records.
A crash during the route creates a separate inquiry
If an assigned trip includes a collision or another injury, preserve the travel instructions alongside the incident and medical records. They may help explain why you were on the route. A wage conclusion and an injury-benefits conclusion are different questions. Neither should be assumed to resolve the other merely because the same trip appears in both files.
Our catastrophic injury practice addresses substantial harm and lasting losses after serious incidents. This bridge applies when an actual serious injury occurred. Unpaid travel does not itself establish an injury claim, and payroll’s treatment of a trip does not alone determine which parties or benefits may be involved after a crash.
Keep the factual account consistent across the files. Identify the assignment, route, stop, and employer instruction accurately. If a report misstates the destination or purpose, seek a correction rather than repeating the error elsewhere. Record any medical restrictions that later changed the work schedule or travel duties.
Present the route and pay record together
Prepare a representative-day chronology with assignments, required reporting stops, travel periods, personal interruptions, return duties, and recorded pay. Attach instructions and payroll evidence. Mark missing records and uncertain times. Include the employer’s explanation so counsel can evaluate the dispute with both the routine and the stated pay practice in view.
If travel time between job sites is missing from your Nevada paycheck, arrange a free consultation with The Bourassa Law Group. Bring the dispatch sequence and time records so the discussion can address which trips were part of the workday and what further evidence the pay review requires.
This article is general information about Nevada law, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
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