Commute vs Working Time: Employer Obligations Explained (2026 UK & US Guide)

Commute vs Working Time: What Employers Actually Owe (2026 UK & US Guide)

A practical, plain-English walkthrough of when travel counts as work, who pays for the journey, and what happens when something goes wrong on the way in.

Few HR questions generate as much confusion as travel time. An employee spends 90 minutes crawling through traffic to reach the office, another drives between three client sites in a day, and a third is sent 200 miles away for a two-day conference. Are any of those hours paid? Who covers the fuel? And if there is a crash on the motorway at 7am, is it a workplace injury?

The answers hinge on a single legal distinction — commuting time versus working time — and that line sits in a slightly different place in the UK than it does in the US. This guide clarifies both, with concrete scenarios, comparison tables, and the employer obligations that follow. It also explains where structured carpooling helps (reducing cost and commute burden) and where it changes nothing legally.

This is general information, not legal advice. Employment and workers’ compensation rules vary by jurisdiction, by state, and by the specific facts of each case. Always confirm your position with qualified employment counsel before setting policy.

The core principle: an ordinary commute is not working time

Both systems start from the same instinct. The daily journey from your front door to your usual desk is your own time, not your employer’s.

• United Kingdom. Ordinary commuting — travel between home and a normal place of work — is generally not “working time” under the Working Time Regulations 1998 . It also does not count for the National Minimum Wage. HMRC’s guidance is explicit that travel between a worker’s residence and their place of work is not travelling “for the purposes of work” (NMW Manual NMWM08300 ).
• United States. The Portal-to-Portal Act , which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), provides that ordinary travel to and from work at the start and end of the workday is not compensable work time. The Department of Labor’s hours-worked rules sit in 29 CFR Part 785 .

So the default is clear on both sides of the Atlantic: you do not pay for the commute, and it does not eat into working-time limits. The interesting — and litigated — questions are all about the exceptions.

UK: when the commute line moves

The mobile / peripatetic worker exception

The biggest UK carve-out came from the Court of Justice of the European Union in Federación de Servicios Privados del sindicato Comisiones Obreras v Tyco Integrated Security SL (C-266/14), decided in September 2015. The court held that for workers with no fixed or habitual place of work — think field engineers, mobile care workers, or roving technicians — the time spent travelling from home to the first assignment and from the last assignment back home is working time under the Working Time Directive, implemented in the UK through the Working Time Regulations 1998. Commentary from K&L Gates and Slaughter and May unpack the reasoning.

Two important cautions:

1. This affects working-time limits and rest breaks (the 48-hour week, daily and weekly rest), not automatically pay. The Working Time Regulations do not require that all working time be paid.
2. For the National Minimum Wage, home-to-work travel is still excluded even for these workers, so the Tyco time does not have to be counted when checking NMW compliance (NMWM08300 ).

National Minimum Wage travel-time rules

For NMW purposes, HMRC draws the line as follows:

• Home to workplace: not working travel — excluded.
• Between assignments during the day (site to site): is working travel — must be counted and paid at least NMW (NMWM08300 ).
• Waiting and travelling connected to the job during the working day: generally counted.

Employer duty of care

Separate from working-time law, UK employers owe a duty of care to employees under health-and-safety law and common law. For an ordinary commute in an employee’s own car, that duty is limited — the employer does not control the journey. But it sharpens where the employer requires or arranges travel (for example a company vehicle, a mandated shuttle, or driving between sites), where fatigue from excessive travel becomes foreseeable, or under grey-fleet obligations when employees drive their own cars on business. ACAS guidance is a useful starting point on travel and working time.

Business mileage: AMAP

The UK has no general statutory duty to fund commuting, but business mileage (travel required by the job, not the commute) is normally reimbursed under HMRC’s Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAP). In 2026 the government raised the car-and-van rate for the first time since 2011. From the 2026/27 tax year, the widely reported approved rates are 55p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles and 25p per mile thereafter, per coverage from the House of Commons Library and the ATT . Always check the current figure on GOV.UK before updating policy. Reimbursement within the AMAP limit is free of income tax and NICs.

Instead of funding commutes directly, UK employers typically offer:

• Season-ticket loans (interest-free up to the tax threshold).
• Cycle-to-work schemes.
• Salary sacrifice arrangements for transport where permitted.
• Car-sharing / carpooling support to cut employee cost.

US: the FLSA travel-time framework

US rules are more prescriptive because they tie directly to pay for non-exempt (hourly) employees. The categories in 29 CFR Part 785 are the map every HR team should know.

Two nuances employers repeatedly get wrong:

• Overnight travel-away-from-home is work time only for the hours that fall within the employee’s normal working hours — but crucially, those same clock hours count even on Saturdays and Sundays. Time as a mere passenger outside normal hours is generally not paid.
• The special one-day out-of-town rule lets you subtract the time the employee would have spent on their ordinary commute.

State law can be more generous (California, for example, has its own travel-time and reporting-time rules), so treat federal FLSA as the floor, not the ceiling.

Accidents on the commute: who is covered?

US: the “coming and going” rule

US workers’ compensation generally does not cover injuries during an ordinary commute — the coming and going rule. But the well-established exceptions matter, and several intersect directly with carpooling and employer transport:

These doctrines vary meaningfully by state, and courts continue to refine them (see recent commentary from Bradford & Barthel ). The headline for employers: the more you control or fund the journey, the more likely an injury becomes compensable.

UK: employer liability for commuting

UK employer’s liability generally does not extend to ordinary commuting accidents, because the employer does not control the journey. Exposure rises where the travel is part of the job (driving between sites, mobile roles) or where the employer arranges or mandates the transport. Employer’s liability insurance and grey-fleet policies should be reviewed with these edge cases in mind.

Where carpooling fits — and where it doesn’t

Carpooling is a powerful lever for cost and commute burden, and a modest one for culture and sustainability. What it is not is a legal reclassification tool. Set expectations correctly:

What carpooling genuinely does:

• Cuts each participant’s fuel, parking, and wear-and-tear costs by sharing the trip.
• Reduces the number of solo journeys, supporting Scope 3 and ESG commute targets.
• Eases the commute burden that drives fatigue, lateness, and attrition.
• In the US, employer-supported vanpooling can qualify under Section 132(f) pre-tax commuter benefits.

What carpooling does not automatically do:

• It does not turn an ordinary commute into paid working time.
• It does not, by itself, create workers’ compensation liability — provided the ride stays a voluntary, employee-led arrangement.

The legal risk line is control. If you mandate a specific carpool, provide the vehicle, or pay for the journey, you drift toward the employer-provided-transport and paid-travel exceptions above. If instead you offer a platform that helps colleagues find and organise their own shared rides, the journey remains an ordinary commute for legal purposes while employees still capture the savings. That is precisely how TeamWheels is designed to work — matching colleagues by home location and schedule inside Microsoft Teams, without the employer taking the wheel.

Commuter benefits and cost coverage: a quick comparison

On the US side, Section 132(f) qualified transportation fringe benefits let employees set aside pre-tax dollars for transit passes, vanpooling, and qualified parking. Several cities (for example, versions of ordinances in places like New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) require larger employers to offer pre-tax commuter benefits — verify the specific local threshold and rules where you operate.

A practical checklist for HR and people-ops

Use this as a starting framework, then validate with counsel:

• Classify travel correctly. Separate ordinary commute, between-site business travel, and out-of-town assignments in your policy.
• Non-exempt (US) pay rules. Map each travel scenario to the 29 CFR Part 785 categories and pay accordingly.
• Working-time limits (UK). For mobile/peripatetic staff, count first-and-last-journey time toward the 48-hour week and rest entitlements.
• NMW check (UK). Ensure between-assignment travel is paid; home-to-work is excluded.
• Duty of care. Review grey-fleet, fatigue, and any employer-arranged transport for health-and-safety exposure.
• Accident cover. Understand how the coming-and-going rule (US) and employer’s liability (UK) apply to your travel patterns.
• Cost support. Offer voluntary commuter benefits — pre-tax (US), season-ticket loans / salary sacrifice (UK), and carpooling for everyone.
• Keep carpooling voluntary. Facilitate, don’t mandate or provide the vehicle, to avoid drifting into new liability.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does an employee’s daily commute count as working time?

Generally no. In the UK, ordinary commuting between home and a normal workplace is not working time under the Working Time Regulations 1998. In the US, the Portal-to-Portal Act makes an ordinary home-to-work commute non-compensable under the FLSA. The main exceptions involve workers with no fixed base, travel between job sites during the day, and work performed while travelling. Rules vary, so confirm your specific facts with counsel.

When does travel time become paid working time in the US?

Under 29 CFR Part 785, travel during the workday between job sites is compensable. Special one-day out-of-town assignments are largely compensable, minus the equivalent of the normal commute. Overnight travel away from home counts as work time when it falls within the employee’s normal working hours, even on weekends. Any actual work performed while travelling is always paid. State law can be more generous than federal minimums.

Are employers legally required to pay for employees’ commuting costs?

There is generally no statutory duty in either the UK or the US to fund an ordinary commute. In the UK, employers commonly offer season-ticket loans, cycle-to-work schemes, or salary sacrifice arrangements voluntarily. In the US, Section 132(f) lets employers offer pre-tax commuter benefits, and some cities mandate that larger employers make such benefits available. Business mileage between sites is treated separately and is normally reimbursed.

Is an employee covered if injured during their commute?

Usually not. US workers’ compensation applies the coming and going rule, which excludes ordinary commutes, though exceptions exist for special missions, employer-provided transport, and dual-purpose trips. In the UK, standard commuting accidents fall outside employer liability unless the employer created the risk or the travel was part of the job. Coverage is highly fact-specific and varies by state, so seek legal advice on individual cases.

Does carpooling change an employer’s legal obligations?

Organising or encouraging a carpool does not, by itself, convert a commute into working time or automatically trigger workers’ compensation liability. However, if an employer mandates, controls, or directly provides the transport, legal exposure can increase under both US workers’ comp exceptions and general duty-of-care principles. Voluntary, employee-led carpooling arranged through a platform like TeamWheels typically keeps the journey an ordinary commute.

What is the difference between commuting time and business travel?

Commuting is the ordinary journey between home and a regular workplace and is normally unpaid and outside working time. Business travel is travel required by the job during the working day, such as visiting clients, moving between sites, or out-of-town assignments. Business travel is more likely to be paid working time and reimbursable at mileage rates such as the UK AMAP rates or the US IRS standard mileage rate.

Turn commute law from a headache into an advantage

You cannot legislate the commute away — but you can cut its cost and its burden while staying firmly on the right side of working-time and liability rules. Structured, voluntary carpooling is one of the few commute levers that saves employees money, supports your ESG targets, and keeps the journey an ordinary commute.

Ready to reduce commute cost without adding legal risk? Explore our corporate carpooling software built natively into Microsoft Teams, or talk to our team about rolling it out across your sites.

Go deeper: For the full picture on costs, ROI, and choosing the right platform, read our Corporate Carpooling Guide (2026) .

Sources and further reading: Working Time Regulations 1998 · HMRC NMW Manual — travelling time · GOV.UK mileage rates · ACAS · US DOL — travel time · 29 CFR Part 785 · IRS . This article is general information and not legal advice; consult qualified counsel for your jurisdiction.