It’s 5:42 a.m. in Zurich. A construction foreman unlocks the depot gates while the crew loads equipment into company vehicles. By 6:00 a.m., they’re on the road - one driver, two passengers, and a 90-minute journey to a project site near Lausanne.
Under the old norms, what happens next - who gets paid for that journey, how much, and for how long - might vary from one company to the next. Some relied on handwritten logs. Others used informal estimates. A few had nothing at all.
That ambiguity ends with the LMV 2026–2031.
Switzerland’s updated Landesmantelvertrag (National Convention Agreement for the construction sector) introduces precise, enforceable rules around travel time compensation, driver and passenger treatment, overtime thresholds, and documentation requirements.
For companies managing mobile workforces across multiple sites, the stakes are concrete: payroll accuracy, audit readiness, and operational clarity all depend on knowing exactly when a trip started, how long it lasted, and who was in the vehicle.
Switzerland’s LMV 2026–2031 introduces clearer rules around travel time, overtime, and workforce documentation in the construction sector.
Key changes include:
For drivers, travel time is compensated from the first minute and is considered as working time. For passengers, Art. 49 para. 3: up to 20 minutes of round-trip travel time (30 min until 31.12.2028, then 25 min in 2029, 20 min from 2030), measured with Google Maps, are covered by the site allowance (art. 55: CHF 4.– in 2026 → 6.50 in 2027 → 9.– in 2028), while additional travel time must be compensated separately as working time.
As travel time becomes more closely linked to payroll and compliance processes, many construction companies are looking for more reliable ways to document vehicle movement, trip duration, and workforce travel across multiple sites.
Fleet management platforms like Logifleet 360° help businesses improve travel-time visibility, automate trip history, and support more consistent reporting for HR, payroll, and operational teams.
The core shift in the new agreement is a clear, role-based distinction between drivers and passengers. The rules apply specifically to travel between gathering points or depots and construction sites - not to ordinary home-to-work commuting.
Any employee who drives a company vehicle to the site is compensated from the first minute of qualifying travel time. There is no threshold to cross, no allowance to offset. The clock starts when the vehicle leaves the depot.
For employees travelling as passengers, the first 30 minutes of daily travel time are covered by the Baustellenzulage (construction site allowance). Any travel beyond 30 minutes must be compensated separately at the base salary rate.
Under flexible/annualized working-time calendar models, travel time exceeding 60 minutes per day is credited to the employee's overtime account rather than paid out the following month (this threshold rises to 90 minutes under constant-schedule models) (CN 2026-2031, Baumeister). Once combined productive work and travel time in a single week exceeds 50 hours, the excess is no longer credited to that account at all — it must instead be paid immediately at base salary plus a 25% premium (CN/CCT-VS Seminar, AVE-WBV).
These thresholds compound quickly. Take a long-haul site day for a crew member: 165 minutes of round-trip travel plus 8 hours on-site. The 105 minutes above the 60-minute threshold get credited to overtime that same day. Repeat that pattern across a 5-day week and combined work-plus-travel time reaches roughly 54 hours — already past the 50-hour ceiling, triggering the 25% premium on the excess. Note that drivers fall under a separate regime, compensated as working time from the first minute of travel, so their overtime exposure runs almost entirely through the 50-hour/25% mechanism rather than the daily 60-minute threshold (CN/CCT-VS Seminar, AVE-WBV).
Across a fleet of 20 vehicles and dozens of crew members, untracked overtime and premium exposure of this kind quickly becomes a significant financial and compliance risk.
The Baustellenzulage applies to workdays on which an employee spends at least 4.5 hours on-site. The daily amounts increase progressively:
|
Year |
Daily Allowance |
Eligibility |
|
2026 |
CHF 4 / day |
Workdays with 4.5+ hours on-site |
|
2027 |
CHF 6.50 / day |
Workdays with 4.5+ hours on-site |
|
From 2028 |
CHF 9 / day |
Workdays with 4.5+ hours on-site |
Abstract rules become concrete when applied to real working days. The following five scenarios - drawn from typical construction operations - show how travel time, paid hours, and overtime accumulate depending on the employee’s role and journey structure.
The table below summarises all five cases:
|
Case |
Role / Situation |
Total Travel |
Paid Travel |
Site Work |
Total Paid |
Overtime |
Key Takeaway |
|
1 |
Driver — split trips with lunch break |
95 min |
95 min |
7h 25m |
9h 00m |
1h 00m |
Full travel paid; 35 min above 60 min/day threshold → overtime |
|
2 |
Driver — long morning & evening journey |
165 min |
165 min |
8h 00m |
10h 45m |
2h 45m |
Paid from minute 1; 105 min above daily threshold |
|
3 |
Passenger — split trips with lunch break |
95 min |
65 min |
7h 25m |
8h 30m |
0h 30m |
First 30 min covered by site allowance; remainder paid at base rate |
|
4 |
Passenger — long morning & evening journey |
165 min |
135 min |
8h 00m |
10h 15m |
2h 15m |
30-min deduction applied; rest paid at base salary |
|
5 |
Passenger — picked up en route |
105 min |
75 min |
8h 00m |
9h 15m |
1h 15m |
Only actual travel time for this employee counts — not the vehicle's full trip |
The LMV rules are clear. The challenge is applying them consistently at scale.
Consider what a payroll or HR team needs to verify at the end of every working week:
Now multiply that across 15 vehicles, 40 crew members, and three active construction sites. Manual systems - handwritten timesheets, supervisor declarations, fragmented spreadsheets - are not inherently illegal, but they are difficult to standardize, verify under audit, and reconcile when discrepancies arise.
In practice, this usually shows up as two competing conventions living side by side: some sites apply a flat daily allowance (commonly 30 minutes, accepted as roughly fair since it evens out across the workforce), while others calculate a theoretical drive time per site using Google Maps. Neither is illegal, and each has a rationale - but neither produces a timestamped record of what actually happened, and the more complex the workforce, the more fragile these processes become.
Four operational challenges tend to surface most frequently:
Understanding the rules is one thing. Applying them consistently across 15 vehicles, three active sites, and 40 employees every week is another. The five scenarios above show just how quickly travel time calculations become complex - different roles, different journey structures, different overtime exposures. Fleet management platforms like Logifleet are built for exactly this operational reality.
The most fundamental requirement under LMV 2026–2031 is documenting effective travel time between gathering points and construction sites.
Logifleet’s reporting module captures total trip duration, departure location, and arrival location automatically for every journey. HR teams can verify at a glance that trips started from an authorised departure location (depot, pick-up spot) - not from a driver’s home address - and that journey times match what was declared.
For Cases 1 and 2 in particular, where drivers accumulate significant paid travel from minute one, having a precise and auditable trip record removes any ambiguity from the payroll calculation.
Not every long journey is a compliance issue. Traffic, a detour, an intermediate stop, a delivery en route - all of these can extend a trip beyond normal expectations.
Logifleet's map-based history and timeline view let operations teams reconstruct any journey visually: every segment, every stop, the full route in sequence.
Each trip is also tied to the people who were actually on it.
Drivers are set up on the platform and typically linked to a fixed vehicle; when a driver isn't permanently assigned to one, they identify themselves via a badge reader mounted in the vehicle or through the Logifleet mobile app. Passengers are set up the same way on the platform, each carrying a personal BLE beacon - as soon as they're inside a company vehicle that's moving, their travel time is captured automatically, with no manual check-in required. The result: every trip report shows not just the route and duration, but the driver and every associated passenger for that specific journey.
This matters most in Cases 2 and 4, where long travel times push totals above the 60-minute daily threshold.
When a supervisor can pull up the exact route, see who was driving and who was riding along, and explain the deviation, a potential dispute becomes a straightforward conversation - for every person on that trip, not just the vehicle.
Vehicles used for personal errands after hours should never appear in LMV calculations. Logifleet’s filtering tools allow teams to isolate trips by date range, driver, vehicle, time window, and day of the week. Professional travel during working hours is separated cleanly from any activity outside that window - making payroll-relevant analysis faster and more defensible.
Logifleet allows companies to schedule recurring reports and distribute them automatically by email, exported as PDF or XLS. HR, payroll, project managers, or leadership can receive a structured weekly travel summary without anyone having to compile it. As the documentation requirements of LMV 2026–2031 become part of routine operations, removing the manual step is not a convenience - it’s a risk control.
Case 5 illustrates why vehicle-level data is not enough. A passenger picked up en route has a different travel time than the driver and a different payroll outcome. Logifleet’s detailed trip reports capture departure time, location, duration, driver identity, and transported passengers - giving HR the granular data needed to calculate compensation correctly for each individual, not just for the vehicle as a whole.
This level of detail also makes overtime analysis tractable. Instead of estimating who might have crossed the 50-hour weekly threshold, payroll teams can see exactly who did, by how much, and on which days.
Take a more typical case: a 6:00 a.m. departure within the same region, arriving on-site 45 minutes later with a driver and two passengers. Under LMV 2026–2031, their travel time is treated differently, their compensation is calculated differently, and their contribution to overtime thresholds differs.
Today, most companies handle this with a flat daily allowance (20-30 minutes, depending on the CN's phase-in schedule) or a theoretical Google Maps estimate per site.
The flat rate is simple but blind to actual distance and doesn't distinguish driver from passenger time - here it would understate a 45-minute trip. The Google Maps method is distance-sensitive but still a projection, not a record - it misses real detours, multi-stop pickups, and actual timestamps. Neither produces the traceable, auditable log that CN 26-31 now requires.
Getting those calculations right - consistently, traceably, and at scale - is what separates companies that are ready for the new framework from those that are not. Fleet data doesn't replace the rules; it makes them manageable.
Companies that establish reliable travel-time documentation early will be better positioned not just for compliance, but for the operational clarity that comes with knowing exactly how their workforce moves.
Does all travel time count as paid working time?
No. For drivers, qualifying travel time between the depot or gathering point and the construction site is compensated from minute one. For passengers, the first 30 minutes per day are covered by the Baustellenzulage; additional travel time is compensated at the base salary rate. Home-to-work commuting rules may differ depending on the operational setup.
What records should companies maintain?
Companies should maintain consistent and verifiable records of travel durations, departure and arrival points, driver/passenger status, and any travel-related payroll calculations. Reliable reporting is especially important when reviewing overtime exposure or responding to payroll disputes.
Does LMV 2026–2031 require GPS tracking?
No. The agreement does not mandate GPS systems. However, automated fleet data significantly reduces the administrative complexity of meeting the documentation expectations the rules create - particularly for companies managing multiple vehicles and sites simultaneously.
Why does the driver/passenger distinction matter so much?
Because the compensation logic is different from minute one. A driver on a 90-minute journey is paid for 90 minutes. A passenger on the same journey is paid for 60 minutes (90 minus the 30-minute deduction). Over a full working week, across a large crew, that distinction has a material impact on payroll and overtime calculations.
How does fleet software support the process?
Fleet platforms can document travel durations and route history automatically, verify departure and arrival locations, help differentiate drivers from passengers, flag potential overtime exposure, and generate structured reports for HR or payroll review - without requiring manual data entry after each working day.