Travel time on business trips

On off-site work and business trips not every hour is the same: work at the customer’s is working time, the drive there perhaps only in part. Klokk therefore keeps the time on site apart from the time on the way, remembers how someone travelled, and counts both by your company’s rules.

Two sets of rules apply side by side, and Klokk keeps them apart:

	Question	Who sets it
Time account	How much travel time is credited (and paid)?	The company’s admins, within the employment or collective agreement
Working Time Act	Does the trip count for maximum hours, breaks and rest periods?	The law and the courts; one switch for passengers

By default every minute of travel counts in full on the time account and as working time — you need to set nothing as long as that suits your company.

Recording travel time

At the clock

1. The person starts Off-site Work on the dashboard.

2. Under Right now they choose what is going on:

   • On site, working
   • Travelling, and how: Driving myself, Riding as directed (company vehicle, shuttle), As a passenger (train, plane, bus) or As a passenger, working on the way.

3. Each change ends the running entry and starts a new one — a day at a customer’s becomes, for example: outward trip, work on site, return trip.

4. End Off-site Work ends the last part.

Tip

Picked the wrong one? Choosing again within two minutes of a change only changes the kind of the part just begun — no tiny extra entry is created.

Afterwards

When adding or correcting an entry, the Travel time field offers the same choice (“No travel time” or one of the four ways of travelling). Correction requests, the edit window and month-end closing apply as for any other entry.

In project time tracking

A project segment with the activity Travel counts as travel time too (without a way of travelling). The drive to the customer can so be booked on the project and still follow the travel rules.

Setting the rules

The rules apply per company, under Admin → Travel time. They are HR settings and therefore lie with the company’s admins. Every change is in the audit log with its old and new value.

From when the rules apply

When saving, you choose from which day the rules apply (by default today). Earlier days keep the rules they had — a change never rewrites settled times. So:

• If a closed month lies on or after the chosen day, Klokk refuses the change.
• A day in the future plans a change. Rule history lists every change with its day; planned ones can still be deleted until then.

Time account and pay

• Travel time within the day’s target always counts in full. Someone who works 6 hours on site on an 8-hour day always gets the first 2 hours of travel credited in full.
• Travel time beyond the day’s target counts at a share from 0 to 100 %.
• At most a number of hours a day (empty: no cap).

An example on the page recalculates as you change the settings: a day with an 8-hour target, 6 hours on site, 5 hours of travel.

Legal frame (Germany)

According to the Federal Labour Court, travel time in the employer’s interest is generally to be paid like working time (BAG, 5 AZR 553/17). Less than 100 % or a cap is allowed only where the employment or collective agreement provides for it — and no hour may fall below the minimum wage. Klokk applies what you set; whether it is allowed is a question for your legal advice.

Field service

Tick Field service for departments whose work is driving to customers. There travel time always counts in full — including the drive from home to the first customer (BAG, 5 AZR 36/19). Share and cap do not apply to these departments.

Working Time Act

Whether travel time counts for maximum hours, breaks and rest periods does not depend on the pay but on the way of travelling:

Way of travelling	Working time under the ArbZG
Driving myself	yes
Riding as directed (company vehicle, shuttle)	yes — for passengers too, when meeting point, time and vehicle are set (CJEU, C-110/24)
As a passenger, working on the way	yes
As a passenger (train, plane, bus)	usually not, while no work is done — your choice

Out of caution Klokk counts passenger time as working time by default. Do not count travelling as a passenger without working as working time leaves it out of the Working Time Act checks. On the time account it still counts by the rules above.

How Klokk counts

Per day Klokk sums work and travel separately and credits:

work + travel up to the day’s target + travel beyond it × share (at most the cap)

Examples for a day with an 8-hour target, 6 hours of work on site and 5 hours of travel:

Setting	Travel within target	Travel beyond	Credited
100 %, no cap (default)	2 h	3 h	11 h
50 %, no cap	2 h	1.5 h	9.5 h
50 %, at most 1 h a day	2 h	1 h	9 h
0 %	2 h	–	8 h
Department in field service	2 h	3 h	11 h

On a day without a target (weekend, public holiday) no travel lies “within the target” — the share applies to all of it.

Where travel time shows

• Time overview: the way of travelling at the entry, the day’s travel time and — when not all of it counts — the part counted (“Travel: 5 h, 4 h counted”).
• Monthly record (PDF) and the CSV export (column “Travel time”).
• Time account: counts with the credited part.
• REST API: is_travel and travel_mode on every time entry.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to set anything? No. By default all travel time counts in full and as working time. Only set something when the employment or collective agreement says otherwise.

Do the rules apply retroactively? Only from the day you choose when saving. Klokk keeps counting earlier days with the rules they had; a change never reaches into closed months.

Who sees the way of travelling? The person and whoever may see their times (managers, admins) — as with any other entry.