Most workers have heard some version of a rule holding that workers’ compensation leaves the commute uncovered. That statement is broadly accurate and it stops well short of the full picture. New Jersey law contains four separate routes to coverage for travel injuries, and our Supreme Court clarified one of them in 2023 in a decision that helps a great many drivers. I see denials issued every year that ignore those routes entirely, and a denial on that basis states a carrier’s position instead of settling the question.
The New Jersey Premises Rule and Its Four Travel Exceptions
Before 1979, New Jersey applied the going and coming rule, which generally barred compensation for injuries during travel to and from work. Exceptions accumulated across decades until the law grew inconsistent and difficult to apply. The Legislature replaced it with what we now call the premises rule, codified at N.J.S.A. 34:15-36. In plain terms, employment begins when a worker arrives at a place the employer owns or controls, and it ends when the worker leaves. The same statute then sets out four situations in which travel falls inside coverage, and most real cases live in those four.
| Route to Coverage | What It Requires | Who It Helps Most |
| Authorized vehicle | The employer authorized the vehicle, and you operated it on business the employer authorized | Delivery, route, and service workers in company vehicles |
| Special mission | The employer sent you somewhere outside your normal work | Workers sent to client sites, training, or bank runs |
| Paid travel time | The employer pays you for the travel time itself | Workers compensated by the hour for travel |
| Direct performance of duties | You have no fixed workplace and were performing work duties | Route drivers, service techs, home health aides, outside sales |
The Authorized Vehicle Rule After Keim v. Above All Termite
This route matters most in delivery, service, and route work, and our Supreme Court applied it squarely in Keim v. Above All Termite & Pest Control, 256 N.J. 47 (2023). Henry Keim worked as a pest control technician, and his employer provided him with a company vehicle. Company policy limited how much product technicians could keep in that vehicle overnight, so when supplies ran low they had authorization to drive to the company shop, restock, and proceed to their scheduled jobs. One morning Keim clocked in, received his schedule, realized he was short on supplies, and set out for the shop, where he was involved in a serious collision that required surgery for bilateral subdural hematomas.
The judge of compensation dismissed the claim on the ground that Keim had been commuting. The Appellate Division reversed, and the Supreme Court affirmed that reversal. The reasoning ran straight through the statutory text, since the employer had authorized the vehicle and had authorized the business he was performing when the crash occurred, satisfying both elements. For anyone who drives a company van, truck, or car, the question reaches past whether the worker had clocked in, and asks instead whether the vehicle was authorized and whether the errand was business the employer authorized.
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| A carrier calling your crash a commute has taken a position, not issued a ruling. Call Schibell Law at 732-774-1000 . No fee unless we win. |
The Special Mission Rule Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-36
An employer that sends a worker somewhere outside his normal work can bring that trip inside coverage, and the classic examples include travel to a client site, a training session, or a bank run. The exception has limits that are worth understanding before relying on it. In Novis v. Rosenbluth Travel, 138 N.J. 92 (1994), an employee assigned temporarily to a branch office in another state was injured walking from her hotel parking area to that office. Our Supreme Court treated the hotel as her home and the walk as her normal commute to the temporary workplace, and denied the claim. The line runs fact-sensitive, and being sent somewhere genuinely unusual helps, while commuting to a temporary regular workplace may fall short.
Is Paid Travel Time the Same as Mileage Reimbursement?
Payment for travel time can place that travel inside the course of employment, and the requirement lands specifically on time instead of expense. The distinction decides cases. In Scott v. Foodarama Supermarkets, 398 N.J. Super. 441 (App. Div. 2008), our Appellate Division held that a salaried employee reimbursed for gas, tolls, and wear and tear fell outside the travel-time exception. Payment for hours triggers the rule, and mileage reimbursement leaves it untouched, so how an employer compensates travel matters more than whether it reimburses the cost of travel.
Route Drivers, Off-Premises Work, and Personal Deviations
Some workers report to no fixed site at all, including route drivers, service technicians, home health aides, and outside sales representatives. For those workers, coverage attaches to accidents occurring in the direct performance of work duties. Our Supreme Court addressed the boundary in Jumpp v. City of Ventnor, 177 N.J. 470 (2003). A worker who steps away from work duties for a purely personal errand generally falls outside coverage during that departure, while minor and momentary deviations receive different treatment. For a route driver the question centers on what he was doing at the moment of impact, and traveling between stops differs meaningfully from a thirty-minute detour on personal business.
Parking Lot Coverage Changed in New Jersey in 2022
This exception deserves separate treatment, because the law reversed within a single month. In Hersh v. County of Morris, 217 N.J. 236 (2014), our Supreme Court denied benefits to an employee struck by a car while crossing a public street between an employer-rented garage and her office, on the ground that the employer owned and controlled neither the garage nor the street. The Legislature responded with S771, signed in January 2022, which amended N.J.S.A. 34:15-36 so that employment also begins when an employee arrives at a parking area the employer provides or designates, and covers direct travel between that area and the workplace. Days after that amendment took effect, our Supreme Court decided Lapsley v. Township of Sparta, holding an injury in an employer-owned lot compensable regardless of whether the employee had been directed to park there.
Suing the At-Fault Driver Alongside Your New Jersey Compensation Claim
Where another motorist caused the crash, two cases open at once. The employer’s carrier owes treatment and wage replacement without regard to fault, and N.J.S.A. 34:15-40 preserves a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver that reaches pain and suffering. The carrier will assert a lien against any third-party recovery, which means the two matters interact continuously from the first month forward. Running both under a single strategy protects the amount that actually reaches the injured worker after the fee, the costs, and the lien have been accounted for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does workers’ compensation cover a car accident on my way to work?
A routine commute generally falls outside coverage under New Jersey’s premises rule. Four exceptions in N.J.S.A. 34:15-36 can bring travel inside it, covering employer-authorized vehicles, special missions, paid travel time, and off-premises workers performing their duties. Where any of those apply, the analysis changes considerably.
I drive a company van. Am I covered on the way to the shop for supplies?
Keim v. Above All Termite & Pest Control, 256 N.J. 47 (2023) addressed close to those facts. Our Supreme Court found the technician was in the course of employment because the employer authorized the vehicle and authorized the supply run. Whether your situation matches turns on the vehicle and the errand, both of which deserve review.
My employer reimburses my mileage. Does that make my drive covered?
Reimbursement for gas, tolls, and wear and tear falls outside the paid travel time exception. Scott v. Foodarama Supermarkets drew that line. Payment for the travel time itself triggers the rule, so how your employer compensates travel matters more than whether it reimburses expenses.
I was hurt walking from the parking lot to my building. Am I covered?
The 2022 amendment to N.J.S.A. 34:15-36 extended coverage to parking areas an employer provides or designates, including direct travel between the lot and the workplace. That amendment reversed the outcome in Hersh v. County of Morris. Claims denied under the earlier standard deserve a fresh look.
The carrier says I was commuting. Is that the final answer?
A denial states a carrier’s position. Whether you were in the course of employment is a legal conclusion, and courts review those conclusions without deference to how a carrier characterized the facts. Bringing the question before a judge of compensation is the mechanism for resolving it.
Talk With a New Jersey Work Injury Lawyer About Your Crash
If a crash on the road has been called a commute, let’s talk. Call my office at 732-774-1000 or reach out through our contact page, and I will review the vehicle, the errand, and the route.
| Hurt in a crash while working? |
| Let me review the vehicle, the errand, and the route. Coverage for drivers runs broader than most carriers acknowledge. CALL 732-774-1000. Relentless Representation. No fee unless we win. Schibell Law LLC, 3459 Route 9 North, Howell, NJ 07731. |
About the Author
Richard N. Schibell is the founder and managing attorney of Schibell Law LLC, practicing workers’ compensation and personal injury law throughout New Jersey from the firm’s office in Howell. He appears regularly in the state’s compensation courts on behalf of warehouse workers, delivery drivers, firefighters, healthcare workers, and others whose livelihoods have been interrupted by a workplace injury.
His practice concentrates on contested claims, including disputed compensability, denied treatment, employment classification, and the motion practice required to compel a carrier to authorize care. He has represented injured workers across New Jersey for decades and continues to try cases that other firms resolve on the carrier’s terms.
Richard can be reached at 732-774-1000 or through the firm’s contact page. Consultations are without charge, and the firm accepts these matters on a contingency basis.
This article provides general information about New Jersey law and is not legal advice. Every case depends on its own facts. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
