Travel??

Hello I work for a Systems Integrator and I travel everyday but only within in a drives way. My boss has won a Servo application that is in Japan. Im an hourly employee, so how does one get paid for such a big travel.
Thanks

Sounds like something you and your boss will have to agree upon.

Obviously, the bare minimum is that you get paid for the actual hours you work. Furthermore, you get reimbursed for all reasonable travel and living expenses. Some companies will pay your hourly rate for portal-to-portal travel. Some companies will pay a higher hourly rate for road time. As always, the devil is in the details.

If your company doesn't already have a set of policies covering expenses incurred by employees on the road, now is the time to set them.

Some companies require the employee to document every expense and reimburse accordingly. Some pay a fixed daily amount. If you spend less than that, you get to keep the difference; if you spend more, the difference comes out of your pocket. Some companies will reimburse you for telephone calls home, but only within limits.

Be aware that the cost of lodging and meals in Japan can run significantly higher than in the USA.

These are just a few things that quickly come to the mind of an old road warrior. Others will probably add more. The important thing is that you work out the details before you leave, rather than when you get back.

The company should always pick up travel, lodging, and reasonable living expenses. I don't mind paying for a guy having a beer with dinner at a typical restaraunt. I'm not going to pay for cigarettes or a $75.00 entree at Chez Ripoffe! Some company's allow a per diem payment for living expenses, but in my experience that leads to trouble.

I pay hourly employees a regular day's pay if they are travelling. It usually evens out - the times they are 12 hours getting there offsets the times they get to spend 4 hours goofing off or sightseeing on my nickel because connections were good. Salaried employees don't get any extra compensation for travel.

Whatever yo do, keep it simple. Trying to cover all contingencies with a million guidelines is pointless, establishes an adversarial frame of mind, and in the long run can't cover the gamut of Murphy's Law induced situations anyway.

Make sure whatever or however you sort this out is down in writing and that both you and your boss sign it.

I spent more than 17 years travelling the world with various different companies and I can tell you now that unless it is down in black and white on a pieve of paper you both signed and have a copy of, they WILL always argue about who owes who what.

Some of the companies I have worked for have paid from the minute I left my house to the minute I arrived at the destination hotel/factory. Others have paid from the time I arrived at the airport to the time I arrived at the destination hotel/factory.

I personally have NEVER agreed to fund expenses out of my own pocket to be reimbursed later. I've known people that have done this and found that they have always had to fight for their money.

I find that the per deim system is becoming more popular recently (even more so with American based employers), but personally prefer a company credit card and a good set of guidelines as to what is/is not an acceptable expense.

Some companies are more generous than others (someday I'll tell the story about the Rio Carnival trip I was paid to go on) and some like to leave a little "grey" area that can be manipulated, trust me - the grey area will always be viewed in the companies favor by an accountant.

It doesn't hurt to remind your boss what you are sacrificing - eating at your favorite home restaurant, socialising with friends and family, trips to the movies, etc. Remind your boss that if you are not required to work weekends whilst travelling then a little more money may be required to stop boredom and depression setting in.

Just make sure that both you and your boss are clear on what is expected from both of you, and make sure the trip is enjoyable (there's nothing worse than worrying about money everyday you are away from home).

Oh, and by the way enjoy Japan, it's been a while since I've been but I love the place and the people, and if you've never travelled to an Asian country before be ready for some shocks as the culture is VERY different from life here in the states.

Looking forward to hearing some stories when you make it back


Just my opinion.

Mart B

Concerning expenses, go for a fixed rate excluding the hotel fee. Any receipts you receive (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc) will be written in Japanese, so this could lead to problems when you return back home!

We often have engineers coming over here from Europe, I'll check out the normal daily expenses people get and post the results tomorrow morning when I'm back in the office.

Do you know which part of Japan you will be working in?

???

Im not sure where Ill be going yet, the trip is in April. My only concern is it is a 12 or so hour flight, I would think there would be hazard pay or something, because our company has never sent anyone over seas before let alone are state. So there is no set travel expenses or anything. I was just putting this out there so when myself and my boss discuss this I have some type of idea of what other people are getting. Thanks for your time.

I used to work for a company that made Xray inspection equipment and I traveled across North & South America. All expenses were paid by the company (credit card) and when outside the US, I was paid overtime for hours worked. Also, I was reimbursed for money spent out of pocket, even if it was for souveniers!

I traveled for 4 years doing field service work. The company paid expenses, meaning hotel and rental. They gave us an AMEX to travel with to be used for gas, reservations, etc. They also, gave us $35/day to eat on. If your thrifty, you can eat on a lot less than $35 a day.
After the trip, when calculating expenses, if my food receipts were less than $35/day, I got refunded for that portion.

Hotel expenses were generally allowed to be about $60 to $80 a night. As for salary, whatever you make in a day, should be your pay. Things like travel pay don't count. They aren't going to pay you for that. That might charge a customer for it, but you won't see any of it.
Just make sure they pay all your travel expenses, and give you at least $30-$40 a day to eat on. Trust me, it gets really boring on the road, so having a good meal, will often be a highlight.

Our company frequently sends people abroad. I have not but have had many out of town trips. Our policy is good. Never ran into any problems. The company pays your travel time when they are using your time (ie flying time. they do not pay travel time to and from the airport but they do pay the going IRS mileage rate currently at $.485/mile). They used to pay up to $25/meal without a receipt. After many people turning in $18+ breakfast and lunches the now have limits on each meal. If you go over that limit it is acceptable if you are in a place where the expenses are expected to be higher, of course a receipt must be provided and one alcoholic drink with supper is also ok.
Company pays lodging and 1 phone call home each nite provided 5-10 min in length. They will also pay for inexpensive entertainment (ex: a movie, either in room our in a theater). They pay for the rental car too. The rental car and hotel reservations are taken care of by the company before the trip.
If you want to stay longer ie: for the weekend, you pick up the expense for the rebooking of the plane ticket and any other expenses for the extended stay - I have done this several times)
Only turn in photocopies of receipts and be sure to block out your credit card numbers from the receipts too.

Our co. pays portal to portal when traveling. That means from the time you leave home (or office if departing from office) until you check into the hotel, (or arrive back home if a 1 day trip.) Plus expenses, meals, rental cars, and groceries if its an extended trip.

your card? ... or the company's? ...

here’s something to watch out for ... this has never happened to me ... but I personally know someone who had a problem not too long ago ...



suppose that you are NOT using a company credit card ... suppose that you’re using your own “happy homeowner” personal credit card and that your boss has promised to reimburse you after you return ...



watch out ...



suppose that you rent a car ... do you realize that the rental company will automatically place a SUBSTANTIAL “hold” amount against your card? ... the idea is that they don’t know exactly how big your final bill is going to be - and so they place that “hold” to cover the “well-it-might-be-this-high” charges ... so now suppose that you drive over to the hotel and try to check in - using your credit card ... OOPS! ... now with that big “hold” against it, your card is suddenly “maxed out” ... this can be a big problem if that card is your only means of paying bills while you’re far away from home ... ok ... maybe you’re not quite maxed out when you get to the hotel ... but the hotel places their own “hold” against the account ... now what's left over? ... let’s hope there’s still enough left over to eat dinner tonight ...



note that a lot of people with “close-to-the-limit” debit card balances have been bouncing checks lately ... when you use the card to “prepay” at the gas pump, the gas company automatically places the same type of “just-in-case-hold” against the card ... so say that the “hold” is for $75 ... even more is not usual with today’s gas prices ... but you only pump out $20 worth of gas ... do you think that they automatically and instantly drop that $75 hold? ... nope ... usually not for several days ... so the balance in the checking account which is tied to the debit card is now suddenly a lot lower that you THINK it is ... and now checks can start bouncing ... and guess who gets stuck paying the penalties ...



one more note sort of along the same lines ... a secretary (at a place where I used to work) would stop by Office Depot at least once a twice a week and pick up supplies for the office - using her personal credit card ... the boss would then reimburse her with a company check ... naturally she just deposited each check in her personal checking account ... what’s wrong with this picture? ... the IRS pulled her in for a detailed audit to find out where all of that “unreported” income was coming from ... some IRS computer program undoubtedly spotted the big discrepancy between “reported” and “deposited” and waved a red flag ... sure, she finally was able to straighten everything out ... but it wasn’t just a walk in the park to come up with all of the documentation that she needed ...



anyway ... have a nice trip ... and let us know how things go ...

This is a bit OT for the discussion on this thread, but it's worth mentioning for all of you who hold company credit cards.

You may not have read the fine print on the agreement, but when you signed for that company credit card, you agreed to be jointly liable with the company for all charges incurred. Normally, that's not going to cause any problems. However...

At one point in my career, I carried a company American Express card. Wouldn't leave home without it. One fine day, the company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Within a couple of weeks, all of us who held company credit cards received bills from American Express for the balances on our cards. Fortunately for us, the management of our company had anticipated this and had managed to stash away some cash to cover our a$$es, but I've worked for companies that I believe would have left us holding the bag.

Further to the points that Ron Beaufort was making, the credit ceiling can bite you in a number of ways. Ever tried to check out of a hotel and been told that your company Master Card was declined? Or worse, you're standing at the ticket counter in a airport and you buy your ticket home because your company Visa card bumped its head on its credit limit. In some cases, company bean counters won't pay the credit card bill until you file your expense reports. If you're on the road for several weeks it's easy fall behind on your reporting.

DBLD99, I don't mean to scare you. Just pointing out some of the many ways Murphy's law applies to field service work. Forewarned is forearmed.

One final question for anybody who travels regularly. You're in the airport, standing in the checkin line for your flight home after a startup. You hear your name called asking you to pick up the nearest courtesy phone for a message. Do you respond to the page?