The title was a rule from when I was a valet about 10 years ago. Time was tracked per tenths of an hour, so if your shift started at 9am, you were expected to be clocked in within one tenth of an hour (6 minutes) before that, at 8:54. But, you weren't allowed to be in the dispatch office before you clocked in – all prep work, uniforms, etc. had to be done outside that time frame AND physically outside the office.
Extrapolate that out further – we had to park off-site. There was a neighborhood we could park in, but the residents always vandalized our cars. They offered free busing from a lot a mile up the road…but the bus left the lot at 20 after the hour and arrived at our main building at 40 after the hour.
To start our shift at 9am, we had to be at the parking lot no later than 8:10 (because of variability in the bus schedule), and we had to spend the time after the bus dropped us off but before our shift started just idling around.
To sum up:
Arrive at parking lot at 8:10am, wait for bus to arrive sometime between 8:10 and 8:20, get dropped off at 8:40, but you're not allowed to even be in the office and clock in until 8:54. Leaving was the opposite – clock out at 5:00pm, wait until 5:20 to catch the bus, arrive back at your car at 5:40, and finally drive home.