Anybody do big business miles in their own car?

[lordrobs]

I'm considering a new job and have an interview next week but it involves a lot of travelling most likely in my own car.

Basically on a typical week I will have to travel to the head office once a week (350 mile round trip), this wasn't mentioned in my original info I was sent and will probably mean that I pass up on the job anyway. This trip will be at my expense and is 50 miles more than I currently commute but in one day rather than 5.

I will then be working out at various places for two days a week. This could be 50 miles, it could be 450 miles round trip. This will be paid at 40ppm, I'm not sure if after 10,000 miles it drops to 25ppm or 40p-tax per mile. I'll find this out if I choose to go for an interview.

I would then work one day at home doing paperwork and stuff and due to the amount of time travelling I would have done my weekly hours and have a 3 day weekend.

I'm just wondering if anyone here does a lot of business miles in their own car? I think my previous highest in a year was 7000 but normally I do about 3000 business miles currently. I imagine annually this job will be around the 10000 to 15000 mark as an estimate on top of the 15000 miles getting to head office once a week.

I don't mind travelling around for work and the job is doing something that I currently enjoy but on the other hand I don't want to hurt myself financially in the process. I'm already in the mindset where I don't want or need anything quick or flash for work so I would probably buy a £5-7k diesel estate Focus or Mondeo should I get the job.

 

[Django x2]

Yes, in my own car, and it's sometimes been massive mileage, but I get a car allowance and mileage. Sometimes I take a hire car and expense it back, but that doesn't seem like an option to you here. I average around 15k a year but there was a two year period where I got the train everyday

 

[Tesla]

If you enjoy the work and don't mind the driving then surely it comes down to finances?

Work out the numbers and go from there.

EDIT - Have you considered using the train to get to head office? Is a fuel card an option?

 

[Rich_L]

Yeah I do about 18,000 miles a year - I get paid 55 cents a mile (standard IRS reimbursement rate) and also $10 an hour on top for my travel time so it works out at quite a nice deal - plus driving in the States is easy as pie - plus I only do probably 2,000 'non-reimbursed' miles which is cool too.

Basically my fuel, car payments and insurance and all maintenance/repairs have worked out at about $6-7k a year so far. My mileage alone works out at $10k almost, so with travel time paid on top my 'driving' is earning about $7-8k a year extra on top of regular pay. (rough back of an envelope calculations)

 

[rodenal]

40ppm is the old rate - they should be on 45ppm by now? In any case with the distances involved I don't belive that will work out at all well financially.

Have I picked you up wrongly or do they expect you to travel 350 miles to their head office (and therefore for work) and pay this trip completely on your own? If so they aren't the kind of company I would want to work for.

I've done it before, on the 40ppm rate at the time then 25ppm after 10k. It wasn't enough to cover my fuel and maintenance costs in 2006 so it almost definately won't be enough now.

 

[lordrobs]

40ppm is the old rate - they should be on 45ppm by now? In any case with the distances involved I don't belive that will work out at all well financially.

Have I picked you up wrongly or do they expect you to travel 350 miles to their head office (and therefore for work) and pay this trip completely on your own? If so they aren't the kind of company I would want to work for.

I've done it before, on the 40ppm rate at the time then 25ppm after 10k. It wasn't enough to cover my fuel and maintenance costs in 2006 so it almost definately won't be enough now.

The initial information I had on the job stated that my work base was home it was only when being offered an interview that I was sent some additional information that stated that "once a week on average" I would be expected to travel to HQ at my own expense which is a 350 mile round trip.

Now as far as I'm concerned my base is either home or their HQ, they can't pick and choose to suit them.

It isn't just a distance issue either it is the time (3.5 hours each way according to google) While the work miles are on the clock I doubt the same would be true for the one day a week commute and do I really want to be leaving home at 5:30 and get home at 20:30 to complete 8 hours of my working week...

It is a shame as the job is right up my street but I think I'll have to decline and as the interview is at their HQ there is little point going to that either.

 

[Kenai]

The initial information I had on the job stated that my work base was home it was only when being offered an interview that I was sent some additional information that stated that "once a week on average" I would be expected to travel to HQ at my own expense which is a 350 mile round trip.

Now as far as I'm concerned my base is either home or their HQ, they can't pick and choose to suit them.

That's a bit cheeky really - you should expect to be compensated for travel to anywhere that isn't your 'permanent' place of work imo.

 

[lordrobs]

That's a bit cheeky really - you should expect to be compensated for travel to anywhere that isn't your 'permanent' place of work imo.

Exactly my thought. Basically they have a number of people that work in this role and it is advantageous for them to be spread around the UK but IMO they can't have it both ways and expect people to just suck up a long journey once a week.

EDIT - Have you considered using the train to get to head office? Is a fuel card an option?

Train isn't an option as I'd need to drop off and pick up equipment. Fuel card hasn't been mentioned.

Taking my current car costs (which don't account for depreciation) and at the moment it costs me 28ppm to run. If I start dipping heavily into the 25ppm rate that isn't going to work out well at all.

In fact the more I look at it the worse it looks. I have a voicemail to phone them up to finalise details of my interview so I better phone them up and say thanks but no thanks.

 

[Morba]

Sounds horrible initially. Definitely you need to ask questions and get some hard answers.

What else would they expect you to pay for, hotels while away if needed to be over night?

 

[MacRS4]

On target for about 28k miles this year, 85%ish business miles so fairly low personal mileage.

Fortunately I don't claim the cost per mile model, I just have all my fuel paid for.

My car costs about 30p/mile in fuel costs alone so 8.4k/pa outright fuel costs. Of that, about 1200 quid is my own fuel costs.

It's not a good model for high mileage for me - but then again I did chose a 4l V8 to do this sort of mileage in, so was kind of went in with my eyes open so to speak.

 

[lordrobs]

Sounds horrible initially. Definitely you need to ask questions and get some hard answers.

What else would they expect you to pay for, hotels while away if needed to be over night?

Overnight accommodation is required on a regular basis but is paid for by them.

To be honest it is just the 16k commute that has been thrown in that doesn't work for me as having zero commuting cost was a huge part of the appeal.

 

[lordrobs]

Just got off the phone to them. They are happy for me to go to HQ once a fortnight rather than once a week which works fine for me as it is actually less than I'm commuting now. As long as I don't mess up a practical demo of what I can do it sounds like the job is mine.

 

[Tesla]

What is the role out of interest? Glad you managed to arrange something.

 

[lordrobs]

What is the role out of interest? Glad you managed to arrange something.

Developing and delivering practical engineering activities in schools. I've been doing it for years and people tell me I'm pretty good at it

My current job is changing focus and this allows me to do what I enjoy but in a uk wide role and for a better salary.