FLSA2019-10 — Compensability of time spent in a truck’s sleeper berth while otherwise relieved from duty * WHD is withdrawing opinion letter FLSA2019-10. This letter was inconsistent with longstanding WHD interpretations regarding the compensability of time spent in a truck's sleeper berth. Several courts have declined to follow this letter, determining, among other things, that it is inconsistent with the Department's regulations; unpersuasive; and not entitled to deference, in part because the letter did not adequately explain WHD's change in position. These courts have instead continued to follow the Department's longstanding prior position. To the extent that FLSA2019-10 withdrew prior opinion letters on this issue, see, e.g., WHD Opinion Letter SCA-118 (June 22, 1979); WHD Opinion Letter SCA-117 (Apr. 26, 1978); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-235 (Nov. 18, 1966); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-214 (Feb. 17, 1964); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-213 (Jan. 6, 1964), those letters are reinstated. This withdrawal is an official ruling of the Wage and Hour Division for purposes of the Portal-to-Portal Act, 29 U.S.C. § 259, and this letter (FLSA2019-10) may not be relied upon as a statement of agency policy as of the date of withdrawal, February 19, 2021

U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
Washington, DC 20210
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FL
SA2019-10
July 22, 2019
Dear Name*:
This letter responds to your request for an opinion on whether the time spent in a truck’s sleeper
berth is compensable hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This opinion is
based exclusively on the facts you have presented. You represent that you do not seek this
opinion for any party that the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is currently investigating or for
use in any litigation that commenced prior to your request.
BACKGROUND
You write on behalf of a small, family-owned motor carrier (Carrier) that operates a fleet of ten
trucks, licensed by the Department of Transportation to move property in interstate commerce,
and which primarily provides over-the-road, long-haul services. You represent that Carrier
regularly employs drivers to undertake multi-day trips in interstate commerce. You further
represent that during such trips, Carrier’s drivers typically spend much of their time not working
in the truck’s sleeper berth. You provide an example of one such trip—a workweek wherein a
particular driver spent 55.84 hours driving, inspecting, cleaning, fueling, and completing
paperwork, and 49.96 hours in the sleeper berth, during which time he was permitted to sleep,
did not perform any work, and was not on call to perform work. In this example, the driver’s
sleeper berth time for that week broke down as follows:
Day 1: 2.82 hours
Day 2: 0 hours
Day 3: 4.75 hours
Day 4: 12.08 hours
Day 5: 11.67 hours
Day 6: 11.17 hours
Day 7: 7.47 hours
You ask whether Carrier satisfies its federal minimum wage obligation under the FLSA to this
driver by paying the driver at least $404.84 (55.84 hours worked × the federal minimum wage of
$7.25) for the workweek described above.0F
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GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES
An employee is working, and must therefore be compensated, when suffered or permitted to
work. See 29 U.S.C. § 203(e)(1), (g); 29 C.F.R. § 785.11 (“Work ... [that is] suffered or
permitted is work time”). WHD regulations address when certain kinds of activities―such as
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Based on your assertion in your letter, we assume that the drivers are exempt from the FLSA’s overtime
requirements under 29 U.S.C. § 213(b)(1).
Disclaimer: This
opinion letter was withdrawn on February 19, 2021. This withdrawal is
an official ruling of the Wage and Hour Division for purposes of the Portal-to-Portal Act,
29 U.S.C. § 259, and Opinion Letter FLSA2019-10 may not be relied upon as a
statement of agency policy as of the date of withdrawal.

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waiting, sleeping, and traveling―are considered hours worked and thus compensable. See 29
C.F.R. §§ 785.14-.23; 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.33-.41. First, waiting time is on-duty (compensable) if
the employee is “engaged to wait,” but off-duty (non-compensable) if the employee is “waiting
to be engaged” to work. 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.14–.16; see Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134,
136–37 (1944).
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An employee is “engaged to wait,” or on-duty, when “waiting is an integral
part of the job,” which may often be during “unpredictable” periods or periods “usually of short
duration” in which the employee’s time “belongs to and is controlled by the employer.” 29
C.F.R. § 785.15. For example, a truck driver is “engaged to wait” if required to wait at a job site
for goods to be loaded into the truck. 29 C.F.R. § 785.16(b). Conversely, an employee is
“waiting to be engaged” during periods when the facts show he is “completely relieved from
duty” and the periods are “long enough to enable him to use the time effectively for his own
purposes.” See 29 C.F.R. § 785.16(a). For example, 29 C.F.R. § 785.16(b) provides that “if the
truck driver is sent from Washington, DC to New York City, leaving at 6 a.m. and arriving at 12
noon, and is completely and specifically relieved from all duty until 6 p.m. when he again goes
on duty for the return trip the idle time is not working time. He is waiting to be engaged.”
29 C.F.R. § 785.16(b).
Second, under certain conditions, sleeping time may be considered compensable time if the
employer permits the employee to sleep during an on-duty period when the employee is not
busy. See 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.20–.21. However, if an employer requires an employee to be on
duty for a continuous period of 24 hours or more, the parties may agree—under certain
conditions—to set aside 5 to 8 on-duty hours as a non-compensable sleeping period. See 29
C.F.R. § 785.22.
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Factors that may suggest an employee is continuously on duty for 24 hours or
more, thus invoking 29 C.F.R. § 785.22, include: (1) the employee lacks a regular schedule and
is “required to perform work on a helter-skelter basis at any time during the day or night”; or (2)
even with a regular schedule, unscheduled periods “are so cut through with frequent work calls
that this time is not his or her own.” See WHD Field Operations Handbook (FOH) 31b02.
Third, travel time is compensable working time when the employer requires the employee to
“perform [work] while traveling[.] ” 29 C.F.R. § 785.41. “An employee who drives a truck ... or
an employee who is required to ride therein as an assistant or helper, is working while riding,”
and therefore this time constitutes compensable hours worked. Id. However, 29 C.F.R. § 785.41
provides that employees who drive vehicles or are required to ride therein as an assistant or
helper are not “working while riding” when they are “permitted to sleep in adequate facilities

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While off-duty employees typically have the ability to leave the physical workplace, there are certain
circumstances—for example, working on hard-to-reach construction locations, isolated dredging barges,
and offshore drilling sites—where practical considerations make it necessary for employees to remain
temporarily on the employer’s premises and to eat and sleep there during their stay. See Field Operations
Handbook 31b02(a). Such employees are not continually on duty while they are on the employer’s
premises if they have a regular schedule of hours and thereafter are relieved of duties—except for extra
work required by the exigencies of the job. Id. Instead, “[o]nly the actual working time need be counted
as hours worked.” Id. WHD considers long-haul truck drivers to be similarly situated. Despite inherent
restrictions on their ability to leave the truck due to the nature of the job, drivers generally experience
periods of time when they are completely relieved of their duties.
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The employer and employee may also agree to treat an on-duty meal period as non-compensable if it is a
“bona fide” meal period. 29 C.F.R. § 785.22.

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furnished by the employer[,] ” such as a sleeper berth. 29 C.F.R. § 785.41; WHD FOH 31b09(a).
This type of travel—traveling while sleeping in a sleeper berth—is not “[work] while riding,” if
drivers and assistants are “completely relieved” from their duties. 29 C.F.R. § 785.16(a); see 29
C.F.R. § 785.41; Petrone v. Werner Enters., Inc., No. 8:11-cv-401, 2017 WL 510884, at *7 (D.
Neb. 2017) (“[U]nder the plain language of § 785.41, drivers and assistants are off duty when
permitted to sleep in adequate facilities, such as a sleeper berth.”). Therefore, it is not the “kind
of travel” that constitutes working time. 29 C.F.R. § 785.33; 29 C.F.R. § 785.41.
WHD’s earliest guidance on time spent sleeping in a sleeper berth generally considered this time
noncompensable. See WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-289 (Jul. 18, 1951) (“[H]ours of work are not
considered to include ... sleeping in a sleeping berth ... where such periods are of sufficient
length to be used effectively by the employee for the intended purpose, and the employee is
actually relieved of all duties and responsibilities ....”); WHD Release R-1933 (Feb. 15, 1943)
(“Truck drivers riding in the trucks’ sleeping berths ... need not be compensated ... for time so
spent ....”).
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In subsequent guidance, WHD interpreted 29 C.F.R. § 785.41 in conjunction with §§ 785.15-.16
and §§ 785.21-.22 to mean that while sleeping time may be excluded from hours worked where
“adequate facilities” were furnished, only up to 8 hours of sleeping time may be excluded in a
trip 24 hours or longer, and no sleeping time may be excluded for trips under 24 hours. See, e.g.,
WHD Opinion Letter SCA-118 (June 22, 1979); WHD Opinion Letter SCA-117 (Apr. 26, 1978);
WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-213 (Jan. 6, 1964).
WHD has concluded that this interpretation is unnecessarily burdensome for employers and
instead adopts a straightforward reading of the plain language of § 785.41, under which the time
drivers are relieved of all duties and permitted to sleep in a sleeper berth is presumptively non-
working time that is not compensable. WHD regulations draw a clear distinction between on-
duty sleeping time, see 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.20–.22, and non-working time when the employer
permits the employee to sleep in adequate facilities. See 29 C.F.R. § 785.41. The first (on-duty
sleeping time) is compensable because it is on-duty—except under certain circumstances during
on-duty periods of 24 hours or more—while the second is non-compensable because it is
presumptively off-duty. See Petrone, 2017 WL 510884, at *7. This presumption―that non-
working time in which the employee is relieved of all duties is not compensable―holds true
regardless of whether the truck is moving or stationary. See Nance v. May Trucking Co., 685 F.

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That said, there may be some cases where a driver or assistant who retires to a sleeper berth is unable to
“use the time effectively for his own purposes.” 29 C.F.R. § 785.16(a); see WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-
289. For example, a driver or assistant who is required to remain on call, study job-related materials, or
do paperwork in the sleeper berth may be unable to effectively sleep, nap, or engage in other personal
activities, like reading or gaming. See 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.16–.17; WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-289.
However, as a general matter, a driver or assistant who retires to a sleeper berth has typically ceased his
or her duties. “Accordingly, sleeping berth time is compensable, if ever, only where a plaintiff can
demonstrate that he or she was on duty while in the sleeper berth.” Petrone, 2017 WL 510884, at *7; see
Nance v. May Trucking Co., No. 3:12-cv-01655-HZ, 2014 WL 199136, at *8 (D. Or. Jan. 15, 2014)
(finding that an employee in a sleeper berth who is not on call is off-duty “as a matter of law”), aff’d in
relevant part, 685 F. App’x 602, 605 (9th Cir. 2017) (unpublished).

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App’x 602, 605 (9th Cir. 2017) (unpublished) (“[D]rivers are not entitled to compensation for
time they are permitted to sleep in the berths of moving trucks.”). Because WHD regulations
classify sleeper berth time as non-working travel time, rather than on-duty sleeping time, such
time is presumptively off-duty and not compensable.
4F
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Further, this position is consistent with the decisions of several courts, which WHD understands
to reflect the prevailing practice in the trucking industry. See Nance, 2014 WL 199136; Petrone,
2017 WL 510884, at *7.
5F
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Thus, WHD is withdrawing the opinion letters referenced above and
others to the extent that they conflict with this letter.
6F
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OPINION
Based on the facts you provided—a representative example of a truck driver who spent 55.84
hours in a workweek driving, inspecting, cleaning, fueling, and completing paperwork, and 49.96
hours off-duty in the sleeper berth—Carrier would indeed satisfy its FLSA minimum wage
obligation to this driver by paying the driver at least $404.84 (55.84 hours worked × the federal
minimum wage of $7.25). The driver’s time spent in the berth was time when the driver was
relieved of all duties and was “permitted to sleep in adequate facilities furnished by the
employer,” and presumptively non-working, off-duty time.
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You have represented that, when
the driver was in the berth, he did not perform any work and was not on call to perform work.
Accordingly, the driver’s time in the berth was not compensable.
We trust that this letter is responsive to your inquiry.
Sincerely,

Cheryl M. Stanton
Administrator
*Note: The actual name(s) was removed to protect privacy in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
§ 552(b)(6).

5
To the extent specific factual circumstances support that a driver is on-duty or on-call this presumption
may be rebutted. See, e.g., supra n.4.
6
WHD disagrees with recent judicial decisions that have regarded sleeper berth time as on-duty sleeping
time, rather than off-duty travel time. See, e.g., Julian v. Swift Transp. Co. Inc., 360 F. Supp. 3d 932 (D.
Ariz. 2018); Browne v. P.A.M. Transp., Inc., No. 5:16-cv-5366, 2018 WL 5118449 (W.D. Ark. 2018).
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See, e.g., WHD Opinion Letter SCA-118 (June 22, 1979); WHD Opinion Letter SCA-117 (Apr. 26,
1978); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-235 (Nov. 18, 1966); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-214 (Feb. 17,
1964); WHD Opinion Letter FLSA-213 (Jan. 6, 1964).
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We assume from the facts provided that the drivers in question are neither “required to perform work on
a helter-skelter basis,” nor are the periods in the sleeper berth “so cut through with frequent work calls”
that the time in the sleeper berth is not the driver’s own. See WHD FOH 31b02.