The unanswered questions of travel time: The <i>VAERSA</i> ruling on the notion of working time (C-110/24)

The classification of travel time under EU working time rules is one of the contested aspects of the Working Time Directive. The Court of Justice of the European Union's judgment in VAERSA (C-110/24) revisits this issue in the context of Spanish biodiversity workers who were required to travel daily in a company vehicle from an employer-designated base to changing work sites and back. Although the factual background closely resembles that in the earlier Tyco ruling, the case demonstrates that significant uncertainty still remains in national practice regarding work-related travel. The article argues that the decisive element in assessing travel time should not be the characterisation of the workplace as fixed or non-fixed, but rather the degree to which the worker remains under the employer's authority during the journey. Building on VAERSA , Tyco and related case law on stand-by time, the article identifies a set of relevant factors for evaluating travel time. This approach allows for a more nuanced assessment of diverse factual scenarios that cannot be adequately captured by a rigid focus on the existence of a habitual workplace. Finally, the article considers the practical and normative limits of the Court's approach, including employers’ organisational choices, Member States’ use of the opt-out from maximum working time, and the separation between working time and remuneration.