I am a mobile service engineer & also have this bugbear going on with my employer. i have to exclude my first & last half hour of the day from my total working hours(assuming the first & last jobs are more than half an hour away from home). Apparantley this is a european directive to make it fair to all employees within the company, As the average time a person spends travelling to & from work is half an hour each way. My argument is that if i worked on my employers site it would take me less than five minutes to travel to work & so i am being penalised for the fact that other employees CHOOSE to work half an hour or more away from home. Plus when i get home i still have to do admin work therefore am still working until i switch off my p.c.
Also with the new taxation for company vans coming into the same as cars i have opted out of personal use for the van, Therefore i will not be insured for personal use so if i am not working for the first & last half hour of any day am i insured in the van!!!
Unfortunatley i have not been able to find this european directive for exclusion time.
FAIR i think not.