The basic rule
The journey from home to the first workplace and back is a private matter. It counts neither as working time within the meaning of the Working Hours Act nor is it to be paid, even where it is long.
It is different for journeys arising during working time: from one building site to the next, from the business to a customer, journeys within an extensive works site. They are working time.
Where somebody drives from home directly to the first customer, under the case law of the European Court of Justice the whole journey counts as working time for employees without a fixed place of work (judgment of 10/09/2015, C-266/14, Tyco).
Business trips
For business trips it depends on whether the journey itself is part of the work owed. In its judgment of 17/10/2018 (5 AZR 553/17) the Federal Labour Court held for a posting abroad that the necessary travel time has to be paid, because it takes place in the employer's interest.
In working time law, pure travel time as a passenger or on a train is on the prevailing view not working time where no work is done during it. Anyone at the wheel or working en route, by contrast, is performing work. Collective agreements often govern this in their own terms.
Example: a day in field service
- 16:30 from the last customer back home, 35 minutes: as a rule not working time.
- All figures about the competitor come from the official provider pages.
- 11:00 driving to the second customer, 30 minutes: working time.
- no new entitlement, sickness benefit from the first day
Common mistake
The assumption that every journey in a company car is working time. What matters is not the vehicle but whether the journey lies between two places of work or is part of the work owed.
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026