Is Travel Time Paid in the UK? What Employers of Mobile Staff Need to Know

Commuting isn't paid; travel for work is. In the UK, the journey between home and someone's normal workplace isn't working time. Travel during the working day, from one client, site or job to the next, is working time, and it counts when you check pay against the minimum wage.

For an office, that rarely matters. For home care, cleaning, maintenance, security or anyone who spends the day on the road, it's one of the most common ways employers underpay without realising. This guide sets out which journeys count, the minimum wage sums, and how to record travel so you can prove you got it right.

Which Journeys Count as Work?

The split in the last row comes from two different laws. The minimum wage rules leave out travel between home and work, wherever the first job is. The Working Time Regulations, after a 2015 European court ruling known as Tyco, count the first and last journeys as working time for workers with no fixed workplace. That matters for the 48-hour average week and the 11 hours' rest between days, not for pay. Our Working Time Regulations guide covers those limits.

The Minimum Wage Trap: Paying Only for Time on the Job

The problem usually isn't a deliberate decision not to pay travel. It's a pay model that only counts time with the client: paid per visit, per clean or per job. Minimum wage is checked by dividing all the pay for the pay period by all the hours that count, including travel between jobs.

Take a home care worker paid £13.50 an hour for time with clients. In a week they spend 25 hours on visits and 8 hours driving between them.

The hourly rate looks generous, and the worker is still paid well under the National Living Wage. HMRC has found this pattern in home care many times. It makes employers pay the arrears at today's rate, can add a penalty of up to 200%, and names employers who underpay.

Gaps between jobs are trickier. A long gap where someone can go home or do what they like isn't work. A short wait outside the next client's house, where they can't really do anything else, is much harder to leave out. If gaps are a regular part of the rota, take advice or pay them.

“The app is simple to use, reliable, and makes managing staff records straightforward. The system has saved us a significant amount of administration time.”

Jordan Ingoe, CLI Manchester

Three Ways to Pay Travel Time

1. Pay the whole shift. From the start of the first job to the end of the last, at the normal hourly rate. The simplest to run and to explain, and the safest for the minimum wage.
2. Pay travel at a separate rate. Lawful if the contract says so, but check every pay period that total pay ÷ total hours stays at or above the minimum wage.
3. Pay per job with a travel top-up. Common in care and cleaning. It only works if you add up the real travel time each period and top up to the minimum wage when needed.

Whichever you choose, pay mileage separately. A mileage allowance covers the cost of using their own car: HMRC's tax-free rate is 45p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles in a tax year and 25p after. It's an expense, so it doesn't count towards the minimum wage.

Recording Travel Time

You can't show you've paid travel correctly without a record of it. At minimum, for each shift, keep:

• When the first job started and the last one finished
• The start and finish of each job, so travel between them can be worked out
• Unpaid breaks, recorded separately from travel
• Mileage, if you pay it

Keep minimum wage records for six years. A rota that says "visits 9:00 to 4:00" isn't a record: the real day often starts earlier and finishes later. Our guide to tracking employee hours legally covers what counts as a good record, and our healthcare timesheet guide has the care-specific detail.

How TimeTally Helps

• Clock in at each job. Staff clock in on their phone and pick the client or site; when they move on, they switch to the next job without clocking out.
• Travel inside the shift. Because they stay clocked in from the first job to the last, travel between jobs is part of the hours you approve. Add a "Travel" project if you want it shown on its own line.
• Location checks. With the GPS add-on, TimeTally checks they're at the client's location when they clock in or switch jobs.
• Hours straight to payroll. Approved hours go to Xero, QuickBooks or a CSV, so you can check pay against every hour worked.

One honest limit: TimeTally doesn't track mileage or expenses, so pay those through your payroll or expenses tool. It costs £3 per employee per month; see the clock-in app and care pages for more.

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Staff clock in at the first job and switch at each one after, so travel between jobs is in the hours you pay.

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Key Takeaways

• Commuting to a normal workplace isn't working time and doesn't have to be paid
• Travel between jobs during the day is working time and counts for the minimum wage
• For staff with no fixed workplace, the first and last journeys count for working time limits, not the minimum wage
• Paying only for time with clients is the most common way travel causes an underpayment
• Mileage is an expense and doesn't count towards the minimum wage
• Record the start and finish of each job, and keep the records for six years

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Calculating the minimum wage — GOV.UK
• National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, regulation 34 — legislation.gov.uk
• Maximum weekly working hours — GOV.UK
• Business travel and mileage — GOV.UK