There are no established rules for travel time for professional consultants and this area is not regulated by the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Thus, consultants and their clients are free to negotiate the topic of travel time within the consulting agreement between the two parties. The nature of the consulting arrangement will be a driver in how this is accounted and paid. Consultant arrangements vary dramatically, some are based on a retained fee with additional remuneration provided by fees established for added assignments, others are tied to specific hourly or other specified periodic rate (i.e., daily, weekly, etc) and others are paid on a flat rated project basis. As a result, travel time may result in a blended rate, a reduced hourly rate, a normal hourly rate, or a percentage allocated to the project timelines. The important issue is that remuneration for travel time, when it is material to a specific client, is addressed in the formal agreement. If a consultant’s project will entail the use of nonexempt support staff, of course, travel time will need to be paid in accordance with the FLSA and the project’s billing hours should reflect this.
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