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mayo · Administrator Joined: 14 Jun 2009 Posts: 700

Question:Anyone out there who travels a lot on sales, service etc.... Do most companies offer some extra compensation for such trips? PerDiems? Incentives?
It seems the cost of such trips goes beyond just being reimbursed for meals and mileage if you drive your car.
Without being too specific about your own employer, I really would like to get a feel for if and how people are compensated when travel becomes a major part of the job?

Answers:
See here some experiences just for time you'll be in the same situation :

1. • From my experience, service worker's travel is normally reimbursed by milage (IRS-maximum usually) standard payout per mile. For multi night trips there are two options: per diem (covers meals and hotel) or surrender receipts for Ã®ntocmai reimbursement. Most of the service guys I had would choose per diem and they would buddy up in the hotel and share food costs to eat cheaper. I even had some that traveled with a portable grill and cooked while on the road in stead of buying burgers in a bag.

2. • My traveling is extensive, many overseas trips (P.R., China, and more).As for this I get $58.00 per diem (this is only for meals) all other expenses are paid by the company.In addition to this if I am gone for 1 week or more I receive an additional $250.00 / week

3. • Don't I wish I was extra compensated. Company covers all of my expenses, hotel, meals, parking, car, etc, with documentation.

4. • Most job descriptions discuss how much travel is expected. If it's not planned, it's what I like to call casual travel and that's where a difference of perception can occure.

When you go to a seminar, all expenses (except drrinks) are covered provided you have receipts. The fact that you have lost your evenings is rarely compensated. A seminar is mutually benificial and I don't have much of a problem with that lost time.

I do take issue when it's totaly for the company and is beyond the job description. I will never get that time back with my family. My first house was a DIY. If I was on a business trip, I lost that time to work on the house. Once I was away for 2 straight months. I completely lost the weekends and evenings. There was no compensation and there was not much to do in the foreign country that wouldn't have cost a lot of money. I feel I was abused. It was a "volunteer" opportunity at a time when jobs were tight so I didn't feel I had much of a choice. Maybe when the Engineering Union is created this will all change.

5. My last company paid around $100 /day for stays on weekends - and rightfully so. Think about it, you are giving up your free time with you family for the company, Your time is just as valuable on or off the job. I feel you should get paid the same + overtime for time spent away from home even if you get meals paid for. Its not like your on vacation - I usually ended up working extra long days to make the trip shorter (and get home earlier). Perhaps you should get even more when you are sent to a really terrible place like China or Dallas TX :-)

6. Whoever coined the term Boondoggle" never had to spend extensive time without their family. It is bad enough to travel during the week, but weekends should be paid at some rate (maybe half overtime) to compensate for lost time with family that never be regained. The financial people at companies have no idea what the employees must undergo to support the company. If you are in japan, the cost to do anything on the weekend to keep from going nuts sitting in a hotel room all day is 3 times what it is here and most likely an activity I would never do at home with my family anyway.

7. • Kenneth, for more comparison, I had a job that involved about 6 months away from home (maximum stay 7 weeks away in one stretch).
Since it was a service job (ie charged to the customer), I received hourly pay for the hours over my standard 8 hour salary job. No dublu rate, just hourly rate.
All expenses were paid on showing of receipt (or small amounts on honesty recording or if no receipt provided).
I paid for things with my credit card, which was reimbursed promptly as per the above.
I received a daily 'bonus' allowance of somewhere between $15-30 per day as an extra to do with whatever I wanted.
That worked well and I was happy with it.
I also had times, where the customer gave me a daily cash allowance to pay for everything. Depending on where I chose to eat, I didn't overspend and was also quite happy with it.
Yes, you lose a lot of home time, but I also saw it as a great opportunity to travel, internationally in my case. While I was never a real tourist, I saw a lot of places I would not have seen otherwise.
I see there are now plenty of examples on this forum to give you a sample of what goes on. If you feel you are being hard done by, discuss it with your boss to see what can be changed. If you have no joy there, look for something that you find more fulfilling. If you get to the point of resenting the work/work conditions, then you need to change.