how far is too far to commute?

Rich1988

Rich1988

Rich1988

Soldato
Joined
8 Jan 2005
Posts
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Location
wiltshire
To cut a long story short I want to become a tree surgeon, after emailing and phoning round different companies none seem to have any vacancies or none seem to have any which I could take having no experience, I have however been possibly offered a part time position but it would mean a 40 mile commute there and 40 miles back, this seems like too far really but I would like to get some experience to see whether I want to take it up as a career so should I take this part time job not earn much money at all but get some experience or just wait till something around here comes up?
Cheers
 
Depends at what time, and how bad the traffic is. Try doing the journey at the would be times before taking on the job to see what it's like.
 
It is probably more appropriate to think in terms of time than distance. 40 miles by pokey country lanes might take you 2 hours where as 40 miles on the motorway could be done in half an hour (say). That being said, I think an hour each way would be my absolute maximum.
 
Think it hugely depends on your circumstances. I commuted 30 miles each way for my placement year, but because of traffic it usually ended up being 1 hour. As I was only working 8 hour days it wasnt so bad though, but i was hugely happy to have stopped doing it now.

If you know youre only going to be doing it for a certain about of time it doesnt seem too bad, but I wouldnt want to be doing it indefinitely!
 
It's not something I've had to do thankfully but if I was doing a reasonably long commute, I would consider it too long if the time spent travelling each day amounted to more than the free-time I had at home each evening.
 
thanks for the replies guys, AA route planner says 54 minutes it wouldnt be permanant I would see if I like it, if I do then maybe stay for a year to get some experience under my belt and move on
 
Have you thought about doing your chainsaw course?

The NPTC CS30 & CS31 course will cost you around £850 and will take 5 days.

This will give you a good idea of what type of work you will be doing and will also give some experience and the chance of getting more work locally.

It is expensive for a company to train you up because of the chainsaw courses you need to take.

For them to put you through all the courses for you to be quailified to use a chainsaw in all situations will cost them around £2500 and this is without teaching you what cuts to make etc...

At least with a CS30 & CS31 under your belt they can give you some work to do because without this you can't even touch a chainsaw and also you will start doing the more interesting work from day 1 and will more likely enjoy it more.
 
It depends, on how much you are earning, your other outgoings, how many miles per gallion your car does (if you are driving) or how much public transport will cost to get you there etc

I travel from Stoke to Runcorn each day, which is about a 40 mile commute. Takes me between 30 and 45 mins. Does not bother me too much and I have been doing that for a year and a half now.
 
as said time is more important than distance, and if aa says 54 mins that could be down to half an hour (depends on the type of roads)
doing that sort of commute on a low earning your weekly petrol expense will become a greater impact, i was doing a 50 mile commute for a few weeks before a desk opened up at a nearer office and that worked out a bit over a tank a week just for the commute, more like a tank and a half if i did anything else
 
pay will most likely be crap to begin with, my car will do about 34 mpg if driven carfeully so will cost me about a tenner for both ways
 
I used to commute 75 miles each way for a while - 3 months to be exact. You soon get used to the distance and it doesnt seem too bad. However I now live 15 miles from work and its motorway right from my front door to my work almost.

How far really is down to how much you like driving and how much fuel costs you can afford per week.
 
I did the same amount of distance a few years back, for less than £6ph and it wasn't too bad, but it did sting the wallet.

Thankfully, I know earn a bit more (still at the same place). Still don't like the £150 fuel bill each month. But the travelling isn't too bad though.

As others have mentioned though, it depends on the route. I'm lucky enough that I don't often get caught in traffic, so it only takes me about 45 mins each way.
 
if in a car then no bother.

Better than taking 50 minutes in a smelly full bus with 10 minutes or so waiting for it and possible rain or possible drive right by you, for about 10 miles :(

Just get a descent audio unit in the car for either cd's or ipod. Or find a descent radio station :P
 
More than 50 mins each way then I'd have to be paid a lot to make it worthwhile. If it's an hour each way you waste 440 hours a year (18 and 1/3 days!!!) assuming you get 8 weeks off a year.
 
AcidHell2 said:
depending on the route get a motorbike, could slash fuel bills and time.
Click to expand...

yea but I would need to get a 400cc/600cc and to do that i would need to get a bike licence and wait 2 years for them to be de restricted :(

I do like driving A LOT so I dont think thats a problem its more cost and having to get up even early:p
 
I drove 1.5 ours each way when I worked in Manchester.

I did it for 18 months but I'd never do it again.
 
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