I need your help with Federal Contractor Travel. I'm in the Government. We're working on a schedule to get installations done across the country. So of course, travel will be all over the country. The work will be performed overnight. At least one Federal Contractor will be in each region across the country, to lower travel costs. Though travel may still require a Federal Contractor to fly versus drive.

Can Federal Contractors travel to a site and work in the same 24-hour period? For instance, if the work is in El Paso, Texas, can the Contractor fly to El Paso during the day and work from 8pm to 4am? Any idea where in the Federal Travel Regulation I can find policy for this question? Any other ideas to lower travel costs?

So my quick thoughts with no research.

5 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Can Federal Contractors travel to a site and work in the same 24-hour period?

Why couldn't they. You seem to be trying to relate the question as what would happen to a Federal employee in travel status. Could not a Federal employees on temporary duty (TDY) fly someplace and then work in the same 24 hour period?

5 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

For instance, if the work is in El Paso, Texas, can the Contractor fly to El Paso during the day and work from 8pm to 4am?

Same response as above.

5 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

I can find policy for this question?

I would suggest none exists with regard to travel regulations. But I wonder why you are looking at travel limitations? What may matter is the Fair Labor Standards Act with regard to limitations applied to a contractor.

5 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Any other ideas to lower travel costs?

Let your potential contractors figure it out. By example why couldn't the contractor just have someone (like a subcontractor) in El Paso do the work?

@C Culham My question should have been made clearer. I need to avoid any type of budget overruns, driven by something like overtime. My question should have stated, can Federal Contractors travel/fly to a site and work a full 8-hours in the same 24-hour period? The LCATs will be exempt from FLSA, no mechanics or laborers.

The most common way of handling this is negotiate it upfront. How will the company be compensated when employees travel to a site where they still work an 8 hour day? If it’s a competitive solicitation, you can require offerers to propose costs for that. You may also need to include some estimate of time so you can evaluate travel costs.

To answer your question, yes. You can do that. If you don’t want want travel time priced separately, you can require offerors to include travel time in their 8 hour billable rate structure. But you likely will receive some pushback from industry. You might also be setting yourself up for claims if the travel exceeds your estimate.

7 minutes ago, formerfed said:

The most common way of handling this is negotiate it upfront. How will the company be compensated when employees travel to a site where they still work an 8 hour day? If it’s a competitive solicitation, you can require offerers to propose costs for that. You may also need to include some estimate of time so you can evaluate travel costs.

Leadership states the workday starts when arriving to the site.

2 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Leadership states the workday starts when arriving to the site.

Then you tell offerors they must price accordingly. In other words if companies compensate employees for travel time and want to factor that in to their pricing, they can.

Is this a cost reimbursable contract?

11 minutes ago, formerfed said:

Then you tell offerors they must price accordingly. In other words if companies compensate employees for travel time and want to factor that in to their pricing, they can.

Is this a cost reimbursable contract?

So far we were planning to do a labor hour contract with travel being reimbursable

So you just make it clear in the solicitation only onsite work is billable. You should put travel estimates in the solicitation so offerors can price labor hours accordingly. Since travel is reimbursable, I assume to include estimates on the number and duration of trips anyway.

@multiagencyktr Are you asking if a contractor can bill for overtime if an employee travels (say, for 3 hours) and then works for 8 hours within a 24 hour period?

3 minutes ago, Vern Edwards said:

@multiagencyktr Are you asking if a contractor can bill for overtime if an employee travels (say, for 3 hours) and then works for 8 hours within a 24 hour period?

Yes, I need to know now, because I'm actually trying to avoid the contractor being able to bill for overtime.

2 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Yes, I need to know now, because I'm actually trying to avoid the contractor being able to bill for overtime.

There’s a difference between billing for overtime and just billing regular rates for travel

6 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Leadership states the workday starts when arriving to the site

Or by “overtime” do you mean working more than 8 hours per day at the same rate?

2 hours ago, formerfed said:

There’s a difference between billing for overtime and just billing regular rates for travel

Or by “overtime” do you mean working more than 8 hours per day at the same rate?

By "overtime" I mean being paid for more than 8 hours.

@multiagencyktr

6 hours ago, Vern Edwards said:

Are you asking if a contractor can bill for overtime if an employee travels (say, for 3 hours) and then works for 8 hours within a 24 hour period?

6 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Yes, I need to know now, because I'm actually trying to avoid the contractor being able to bill for overtime.

I do not know of any general rule about this matter.

The answer to your question about what the government will have to pay will depend entirely on the terms of the contract. You must negotiate those terms.

It seems to me that you would be paying for travel labor either directly or indirectly, anyway.if contractor will have to estimate such time and factor it into the labor hour rates.

Is there a likelihood of local commuting for some of the work, you can specify that the government won’t pay for travel hours for local commuting to such work or commuting between hotel and worksite, etc.

22 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

I need to avoid any type of budget overruns, driven by something like overtime.

22 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

The LCATs will be exempt from FLSA, no mechanics or laborers.

18 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

Leadership states the workday starts when arriving to the site.

15 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

So far we were planning to do a labor hour contract with travel being reimbursable

9 hours ago, multiagencyktr said:

By "overtime" I mean being paid for more than 8 hours.

Bluntly this all does not make sense when coupled together. FLSA exempt employess do not have to be paid overtime. Leadership does not dictate when a workday starts the contractor does. A Labor Hour Contract for exempt FLSA employees? Bottomline you are thinking too much like the Labor Hour Contract is like the Federal government is hiring employees.

I would suggest your need does not fit your hopes for a Labor Hour Contract and you should be looking at a different type. Remember a labor hour contract may be used only when it is not possible at the time of placing the contract to estimate accurately the extent or duration of the work or to anticipate costs with any reasonable degree of confidence. I say this because it sounds like you are anticipating the work and how long it will take to complete because of a stupid budget or leaderships false sense of "budget overruns".

All this said I am on board with the predominant theme of other posts - Negotiate with your potential contractors. What I think that you have not done is market research - maybe a RFI - to get the contractors to tell you how you can pound you square peg into a round hole! Armed with that information and a refined solicitation you would then negotiate a contract that fits the needs so that "budget" is not exceeded, which in my simple view is a Firm Fixed Price contract if everyone is so confident that the work can be accomplished at a certain cost/price. Bottomline for me.....a Labor Hour Contract is not accomplishing what sounds like the primary goal of your need....stay within "budget".

Along the lines of Carl’s post, can the actual tasks at each installation be quantified and estimated? You indicated that it is “performed overnight”.

Labor laws, including overtime rules, vary by state. The contractor will be expected to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Regardless of what the government negotiates, the contractor will (or should) incur labor costs in compliance with the rules in the locality in which it is working. Trying to establish rules such as "reimbursable work starts when the contractor sets foot on the site" may be contrary to the legal reality. To be clear, that position may work when the contractor is commuting to the site, but not when the contractor is traveling to the site.