What would you consider an acceptable distance to travel?

buglawton

These are the 2003 fifures for average commute time in Europe:

Italy: 23 minutes
Spain: 33 minutes
France: 36 minutes
EU average: 38 minutes
Netherlands: 43 minutes
Germany: 44 minutes
UK: 45 minutes

I was surprised about Germany; I suspect the Unification, where all the East Germans commute vast distances to the Western parts ramped up their figures. When I was in Germany I used to stay within a 20 min cycle ride of work. Most Germans seem to rent and simply move closer to their job of they don't like the commmute. Also there are generous tax refunds for commuting costs (including car travel) as they are seen to be part of the cost of work so a fair allowable expense for all employees not just bosses.

In the UK not only are we tied to our houses most often but need to pay huge stamp duty to move closer to work - e.g. if you own a modest semi within 50 miles of London, expect a £10,000 stamp duty bill for moving to a similar property somewhere else in the S.E. If you move 4 times like this and add in the mortgage interest over the years, that's a lifetime tax bill of £80,000 for trying to be in reach of work.

getmore4less

kernowayr wrote: »

For the past 9 months I have driven to work as it's just not practical to go any other way so MUST now have a car (previously I went by bus 2 miles but job relocated to over 40 miles away and there is absolutely no bus available which goes near enough and/or regularly enough). I am not paid a penny piece towards my travel costs at present but am wondering how long would be reasonable to wait before asking for a raise to cover/contribute towards these given that we're talking over 320 miles a week (4days only - I get Wed. off on a regular basis) and petrol has gone up approx. 10% over what it was 9 months' ago already.

..........

Too late on those grounds should have been done day one.

Allthough you can ask at any time

jadorevintage

I do a similar distance each day and honestly, it's pretty horrendous! I leave really early to beat the worst of the rush hour but it's still not great. I didn't chose to work this far from home and in the future I think I'll be sticking to jobs within 10 miles of my home! Unless you really love the job I think you'll end up resenting it and hating the travel. That's just my opinion of course!

ETA: Yes, my journey is VERY tiring..I feel exhausted constantly and spend all day yawning because I have to get up so early and spend over an hour in traffic each way.

squirrelchops

Hi all,

Well I have done the journey this week as went in to talk to the Manager before I made my final acceptanc of the job.

In all honesty the journey was fine. 15 miles of it is absolutely stunning and would actually be a pleasure to drive.

I asked about flexi working so as to avoid traffic as one part of my journey takes me over a junction to the M4 so can get snarled up and I would like to avoid peak times. They are absolutely fine with this.

Also I will have to visit people that live within the area I would travel to the main office so if I plan it well I can see them en route and thus save myself travelling.

The journey took me an hour but 10 minutes of that was traffic throught he town centre to the office.

I think the other benefits outweigh this small con so am going to formally accept the job offer.

Oldernotwiser

Congratulations then - I'm glad it's going to work out for you.

kernowayr

getmore4less wrote: »

Too late on those grounds should have been done day one.

Allthough you can ask at any time

Didn't know on Day 1 what it was going to cost me in either time or £ to make the journey
Didn't anticipate fuel costs going up so much in such a short space of time either
Don't see why subject cannot be brought up at later date when negotiating a pay rise generally - surely will add some weight to the claim to mention it?

Thanks for your response in the meantime.

kernowayr

If I could no longer afford to run a car I would have to resign from this job anyway as there is no other way to get there in under 2 hours each way and/or at greater expense than petrol costs to drive there. Presumably such a decision would not affect any application I made for JSA whilst I looked for alternative work? In other words, would I be told that I had intentionally made myself unemployed by resigning and therefore not qualify for 26 weeks or whatever?

angel.cake_2

I used to spend 1hr 45mins door-to-door to travel to work in London (50 miles away) and it cost me about £4.5k per year. Most of this was train journeys so at least I was able to read etc on the train.

I now work 21 miles away and have a lovely 30min drive through the countryside. I estimate my petrol to cost around £1600 per year and obviously there are the other running costs but I used to pay these anyway even when I didnt use the car for travelling to work.