travelling for meetings for work

invisibleyousee

It's a company van that I take home, but I don't pay tax on it because we only use it for work purposes i.e. no personal use. If I were to use it for personal use (like calling in and doing my grocery shopping or going to the doctors or something), then I would have to declare that and pay tax. So yesterday I had a dentist appointment after work, so I had to go via my home and park the van and get my own personal car.

I think the idea of having a van is tha i tmeans they haven't got to pay a car allowance or pay mileage expenses.

I'm not sure if it's tracked or not - I wouldn't want to risk it as I wouldn't put it past a company to track them.

scheming_gypsy

you could try arguing that as it's for work use only, your commute is from your front door to the van and when you're get in it you're working.
Although i doubt it'd work. lol

getmore4less

Was your current boss involved in the recruitement?

If not, since this is still early I would talk to those involved and HR to check if this is policy or just a local dictator.

What about stoping taking the van home(to stop the taxable benifit) so you have to come into work to pick it up and then go off to meetings and droping it off at end of day in working hours.

Another angle is to arrange meetings at your own office same days as the meeting out, so you have to come back

silvercar

silvercar wrote: »

Is it the hours you object to or the fact you are not paid for the commuting time?

Red_Elle wrote: »

Whether or not other people choose to do extra hours out of standard work hours and/or travel is entirely irrelevant.
The OP is not asking for people's opinions on their ambition, drive and what they are willing to do to get on in the workplace and also didn't sign up to this.
My DH travels away a lot with work in his new role, but he chooses to do that.
The OP specifically left a role for the very situation that they now find themselves in.
Comments like 'it's real life' suggest that the OP is whining when it's a perfectly legitimate issue.
'Real life' isn't a specific thing. You will find that not everyone in the world has an identical 'real life!'

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

there's a big difference from once a month to on a 'near daily basis' which is what the OP said theirs is on their first post. they left their job because of the commuting and this once has gone from 30 minutes to a few hours.

I understand this, I was just making the point that some people do do this.

Obviously not everyone wants or even is in a position to with care responsibilities etc.

Which brings me back to considering whether it is the commute or the lack of pay for it that is the problem.

I would hazard a guess that the van is only insured for business use and travel between home and a work place, hence the restriction.

DVardysShadow

vax2002 wrote: »

You are employed from the second you start under the servitude of your master.
If you were to gestate at passing motorists from this company van whilst travelling in this unpaid time, would you be disciplined or would they say you were not at work until 8 ?
They can have one.
They can have the other
But they can not have both.

I think you mean 'gesticulate'. Gestate is something different .... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

DVardysShadow

invisibleyousee wrote: »

It's a company van that I take home, but I don't pay tax on it because we only use it for work purposes i.e. no personal use. If I were to use it for personal use (like calling in and doing my grocery shopping or going to the doctors or something), then I would have to declare that and pay tax. So yesterday I had a dentist appointment after work, so I had to go via my home and park the van and get my own personal car.

I think the idea of having a van is tha i tmeans they haven't got to pay a car allowance or pay mileage expenses.

I'm not sure if it's tracked or not - I wouldn't want to risk it as I wouldn't put it past a company to track them.

Leave the van at your office? Accept no private use of it, because it blurs the boundaries. That way, they cannot complain if you turn up on time at your base office.

Wellery82

invisibleyousee wrote: »

yesterday it was over 2 hours to get to a different office for a meeting, plus my 8 hour working day, meaning my day was 12 hours long for 8 hours pay - I got home and was so tried I cried.

Its an inconvenience, and if a regular occurence on a small salary something you should raise.

But to get home and cry because of a 12 hour day seems slightly over the top if i am being really honest

PasturesNew

With jobs like this, you either do it or quit.

I've had jobs where I've had to go to London and back in a day (company wouldn't have wanted to pay for a hotel) and ended up leaving home at 4:45am, arriving in London at 10am, getting to the office, doing meetings, leaving office a bit early to catch the last train home and getting home about 11pm.... all without extra pay and nobody cares.

Or the one where I did my day's work (9-6), then had to load up my tiny car with customer goods and drive 400 miles, stay in a hotel (arrived midnight) and be in a meeting at 9am, then drive 50 miles to the next meeting, then at 6pm leaving there to drive 100 miles to another town, stay in a cheap hotel, meeting at 9am on a customer site the next day, leaving the customer site at 5pm and driving 400 miles home again.

I left the 2nd job, on the day me and a colleague had to drive 250 miles to find/rescue a colleague from an angry customer site; colleague had disappeared and we found him, sobbing, in a motorway service station ... and he had previously been a right hard nut.

Not all employers are created equal. You have to work out what you're prepared to do and suck it up or leave.