What is a business trip?
Hardly any company gets by without business trips. Whether customer appointments, visits to other company sites or trade shows. But not every working hour outside the office can be called a business trip.
A business trip is defined as an activity that employees carry out temporarily away from their place of work. Visiting a customer two doors down, however, is not a business trip but a business errand.
For employees with a fixed place of work, a business trip means they are working for the company at another location. This location must not be in the immediate vicinity of the company premises. A business trip can be classed as such as soon as the town boundary is crossed, so there simply has to be a certain distance involved.
There are no fixed, generally applicable statutory rules for business trips. Before setting off on a business trip, employees should therefore ideally be informed in writing about the rules that apply in the business.
For correct billing, accurate recording of working hours and of rest and break times is essential. Since the Federal Labour Court ruling on working time tracking it is even mandatory. You can find more on the duty to record working time here.
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What are the basics?
Travel time
Travel time counts as working time when employees work during that time. That means when work can be done during the travel time and the boss has instructed it. In concrete terms: when travelling by train or plane it may be possible to answer emails or carry out other work-related tasks. If there are no instructions for this time and the employee spends it on private activities, the time counts as rest time.
If the employee is at the wheel themselves in order to reach their destination, the travel time counts as working time. In this case the road traffic demands active participation and can therefore be counted as working time. However: if the employee voluntarily chooses the car as the means of transport instead of travelling by train, for example, the travel time does not count as working time.
For colleagues travelling along in the car, the time only counts as working time if it is used to prepare for the appointment, answer emails or make phone calls.
Update: European Court of Justice ruling on shared journeys (C-110/24, 9 October 2025)
The European Court of Justice has clarified that travel time also counts as working time when an employee is only a passenger – provided three conditions are met: the journey is part of the job, the employer specifies the meeting point, the vehicle and the departure time, and the employee cannot freely use their time during it. That applies equally to the outward and return journey and regardless of whether any work is done on the side. This mainly affects organised shared journeys to changing places of work, for example from the depot to the job site.
Exactly how this affects pay has not yet been finally settled – for now the ruling only concerns the classification as working time under occupational safety law. You can read more in our article Travel time is working time: what the European Court of Justice ruling means.
Journeys between home and a customer appointment are classed as travel time, because employees cannot use this time freely; it is subject to the employer's right to issue instructions. During this period the employer can steer what the employee does by cancelling or rescheduling appointments.
On site
In principle, the time during a business trip counts as working time. But it is similar to being at home: meetings and appointments count as working time, an evening in front of the television or a trip to the gym does not. That is why all hours worked should be recorded thoroughly, so that they can be balanced out afterwards.
If a trip can be classed as “unreasonable” for various reasons, an employee can also refuse it.
When does a business trip have to be paid?
Travel as part of certain occupations
Occupational groups for whom travel is an essential part of the work must of course be paid for it too. That can be professional drivers, but also tour guides.
Travel also has to be paid in occupational groups where travelling is an absolute requirement of the job. That can be service technicians, for example, or construction workers deployed on changing job sites.
Business trip during working hours
If the travel time falls within regular working hours, it has to be paid as working time in the normal way. Even if the business trip takes less time than the regular working hours and the employee is home an hour earlier, for example, the missing hour also has to be paid.
Business trip outside working hours
Business trips outside working hours usually fall into the category of overtime and have to be agreed in the contract beforehand. Depending on what was negotiated, these are paid out or the employee is entitled to time off. The one thing that matters: rest and break times have to be observed for overtime as well.
Exactly what counts as working time should also be discussed with the employer beforehand.
Business trip for further training
Further training is another matter. Here the trigger is important: if the training is ordered by the employer, all hours during the training count as working time. If the training is voluntary or self-organised, employees are usually given time off and receive no pay.
If working hours during the business trip fall on weekend days, the statutory requirements have to be observed here too. That means at least 15 Sundays a year must remain free of work and a substitute day of rest must be granted. It has to be set within two weeks.
Which activities are actually paid?
On business trips, pay draws a clear line between active and passive working time.
Active working time that is paid:
- Travel time when employees are at the wheel themselves. But only if the employer specified the vehicle as the means of transport.
- Filling travel or waiting times with work-related tasks
- Business meals, meetings etc.
Passive working time that is not paid:
- Travel time as a passenger if the meeting point and vehicle are not specified by the employer – with organised shared journeys with a specified meeting point/vehicle: possibly working time, but not necessarily paid on top (see the update above)
- Travel or waiting times spent on private activities
- Travel time between home and the place of work
- private activities and breaks between appointments
Why is time tracking so important?
The requirements of the German Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG) also have to be taken into account during a business trip. That means rest and break times have to be observed and overtime documented properly.
When it comes to recording hours, the right system matters too, of course. In many cases people fall back on pen and paper, but we advise against it because it is so prone to errors. Instead there is the option of mobile time tracking by app for business trips. Employees can clock in at the start of their working time and clock out again at the end. The app can record travel time separately where necessary and so actively fight the paperwork chaos in the office.
Time tracking on business trips abroad
For business trips that go abroad, nothing changes for the employee in employment law terms. Since the employer is based in Germany, German employment law continues to apply. Stricter requirements in the destination country are possible, though, known as "overriding mandatory provisions". They can then take precedence over German working time law. So you should find out about this before setting off on a business trip.
The important thing to remember is: business trips are largely about trust. Even if working hours are recorded by app, there is still no way to check whether the recorded hours were really worked. That is why a good working relationship and good internal communication should be in place beforehand.
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