Field Service Management & Working Hours Act – Reality vs. Theory in Mechanical and Plant Engineering
Between the Law and Day-to-Day Service Operations
You know the situation: long on-site jobs, unforeseeable breakdowns, international projects – and on top of that, a strict working time law. As a service manager, you constantly juggle employee workload, customer satisfaction, and compliance.
“Can the software simply stop accepting time after 10 hours?”
“Does the tool automatically deduct breaks?”
“Does the app have a start-stop function?”
“Does the system warn the technician if the required rest period hasn’t been observed?”
We hear these questions regularly in introductory and strategy discussions with service managers and those responsible in mechanical and plant engineering.
The answer is often disappointing: No.
Not because occupational safety or compliance is of secondary importance to us or our customers – quite the opposite. We are convinced that software is not the right place to technically enforce the Working Time Act.
A field service management solution should first and foremost realistically reflect the actual working situation in service – with all its uncertainties: travel times, waiting times, unforeseen breakdowns, international assignments, and postponed breaks.
The Working Time Act addresses this reality, but it is upheld through organization, leadership, and processes – not through rigid software limits.
Once a system starts blocking time entries, “correcting” breaks, or preventing bookings, it may produce formally clean documentation. At the same time, however, it destroys exactly what service managers need for sound decisions: an honest, undistorted picture of what really happens in the field.
This article is aimed at service managers, operations leaders, and anyone who coordinates and bears responsibility for international service deployments.
It will show you:
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Why the Working Time Act can only be planned to a limited extent in field service – and why classic office or production logic often doesn’t apply.
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Which operational and organizational challenges service leaders face every day – from travel times and breakdowns to international assignments.
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What role a field service management solution should reasonably play in creating transparency, making risks visible, and supporting decisions – without distorting reality.
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What service organizations should look for when selecting FSM software, so they can relieve their teams, reduce legal risks, and still maintain control.
Key Requirements of the Working Time Act (ArbZG)
Quick fact check:
Regulation | Key Point for Service |
|---|---|
Maximum working time | 8 hours on workdays, extendable to up to 10 hours if the average within 6 months or 24 weeks does not exceed 8 hours. |
Rest breaks | For more than 6 and up to 9 hours of work: at least 30 minutes of break. For more than 9 hours: at least 45 minutes. Breaks can be split into segments of at least 15 minutes. |
Rest period | After the end of the daily working time, at least 11 consecutive hours of rest must be granted. |
Work on Sundays and public holidays | Generally prohibited, with exceptions possible. If work is carried out on Sundays or public holidays, a substitute rest day must be granted within the statutory time frame. |
Recording of working time | Employers must provide an objective, reliable, and accessible system for recording working time. |
Why this matters
Violations of working time rules are not a theoretical risk. They affect the executive management and responsible leaders directly – legally, organizationally, and operationally.
In addition to potential fines and inspections by authorities, there are serious health risks for service teams, with direct impact on safety, performance, and motivation. Especially when working on complex machines and plants and during international assignments, fatigue and lack of recovery are risk factors that should not be underestimated.
On paper, the legal requirements are clear. In field service practice, however, this is exactly where the tensions arise that service managers have to balance every day – between the reality of deployments, customer demands, and legal responsibility.
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Field Service Reality – Where Theory Breaks Down
As a service manager, you will recognize the following stumbling blocks from your daily work:
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Travel times: Long journeys by plane, train, or rental car are standard. But which parts count as working time – and how do you handle active vs. passive travel time?
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Waiting times at the customer’s site: Approvals are missing, spare parts arrive late, special tools aren’t ready. For the customer, it’s “downtime”; for the technician, it’s time on the job.
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Safety and site inductions: Essential procedures that are non-negotiable, but often consume several hours of a working day.
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Unplanned breakdowns: When a plant is down, the working day doesn’t end at 5 p.m. The technician stays until the system is running again – regardless of shift schedules or daily maximum limits.
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Breaks: Clearly regulated in theory, but in practice often hard to schedule – or simply not feasible in critical phases.
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International deployments and time zones: Night flights, jet lag, long deployment periods, and varying local regulations cause working time and rest periods to blur.
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Coordination and documentation: Alignment with back office, customers, and project managers, plus reports, invoicing, and performance documentation are often completed in the evening at the hotel – formally outside the “official” working day.
Many service managers know the pattern: everything is documented as compliant on paper, but in reality, times are adjusted later, breaks are recorded that were never taken, and overtime is shifted.
What Field Service Software Should Deliver for Time Recording
An FSM tool should reflect reality, not manipulate it. Only then can it provide service managers, HR, and management with reliable data for solid decisions, without distorting the actual work of the teams.
Core functions of an FSM solution for service staff and leaders:
1. Flexible time recording
- Practical recording of working time, travel time, waiting time, breaks, and interruptions – without rigid blocking.
- Adapted to the dynamic nature of field work so technicians can document their time realistically.
2. Transparency on irregularities
- Clearly highlight days over 10 hours, violated rest periods, or weekend work.
- Provide warning messages that give orientation without automatically blocking bookings.
- Show working times and breaks in a way that is easy to understand and trace.
3. Traceable adjustments
- Log changes made by back office staff or technicians.
- Be audit-ready: who changed what – and why?
4. Evaluations for managers
- Identify patterns: systematically long days, high travel shares, unrealistic SLAs.
- Use the data as a basis for capacity planning, SLA monitoring, and targeted training.
Counterproductive: What FSM should not do
- Hard limits that simply stop time entries
- Automatic break deductions that have no basis in reality
- Rigid start–stop tracking that restricts field staff unnecessarily
Such mechanisms may create formal compliance but destroy the honest picture of reality that leaders need to manage resources, capacity, and employee protection effectively.
When choosing a field service management tool, you should look specifically for features that reflect reality instead of bending it, while at the same time relieving your teams.
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Transparency Instead of Avoidance
Even the best FSM software cannot change reality – it can only make it visible.
If working times in field service are recorded honestly, violations of the Working Time Act will inevitably appear: 10‑hour days, postponed breaks, uninterrupted travel, or weekend work.
This is not evidence of poor management – it reflects the dynamic, international service environment in which technical staff must respond flexibly to customer needs.
Only those who know the reality can take targeted measures to reduce working time violations and relieve their teams.
Practical Measures to Reduce Working Time Violations
1. Deployment planning with buffer times
- Plan realistic travel times, including transfers, check-in, and safety inductions.
- Build in buffer times for unforeseen breakdowns to avoid 10‑hour days.
- Use FSM data to determine average deployment times per plant type and to improve planning.
2. Actively manage breaks and rest periods
- Set up reminders or checklists in FSM tools so breaks are not forgotten or permanently postponed.
- Allow short, flexible breaks, including on the road or between jobs.
3. Early warning systems for overload
- Use FSM warnings for long working days, frequent overtime, or weekend work.
- Enable managers to reassign jobs or add resources early on.
4. Optimize capacity and team planning
- Split long assignments between multiple teams.
- Use rotation and shift models to reduce fatigue.
- Use data from the FSM solution as the basis for templates with expected durations per job type.
5. Transparently document subsequent changes
- Log changes made in the back office and store the history in an audit-proof way.
- Transparency provides legal protection and reliable data for future decisions.
6. Involve employees and promote responsibility
- Inform teams about working time limits, fatigue risks, and break rules.
- Encourage self-responsibility: technicians should be able to recognize for themselves when a break is necessary.
7. Regular analysis and process optimization
- Identify patterns: which types of assignments regularly cause overtime? Which customers or plant types tend to generate long working days?
- Use realistic data to continuously improve processes, training, capacity planning, and SLAs.
Conclusion
The Working Time Act also applies to field service, but software on its own cannot enforce the complex reality of international deployments. Service managers need honest, reality-based data to:
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Detect working time violations early
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Optimize processes, shift schedules, and capacities
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Ensure employee protection and safety
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Reliably manage SLAs, resource planning, and customer commitments
FSM systems provide exactly this transparency by realistically recording working times, breaks, travel times, and interruptions. Based on this data, you can create structure, minimize risks, and sustainably relieve your teams – without masking reality or putting compliance at risk.
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