Council vans (vehicles)for comuting to work

fabricator

I drive 17 miles (both ways)home from work at 6.30 each evening and drive through estates and villages to get home
On the way home i counted 24 council vans parked up in drives and on roads the council yard is 1/2 a mile from my place of work

Quick calculation 10 vans using average 30 miles per gallon
5 day comute to yard 34miles x 5 days =170 divided by 30 = 5.66 galons
5.66 x £6.00 per galon = £33.96
10 vans = £339.60 Per week
100 vans =£3,396 per week
£3,396 X 52 weeks= £176,592 per year
This is a large some of money that can go to keep residential homes open etc, etc

ukcarper

fabricator wrote: »

I drive 17 miles (both ways)home from work at 6.30 each evening and drive through estates and villages to get home
On the way home i counted 24 council vans parked up in drives and on roads the council yard is 1/2 a mile from my place of work

Quick calculation 10 vans using average 30 miles per gallon
5 day comute to yard 34miles x 5 days =170 divided by 30 = 5.66 galons
5.66 x £6.00 per galon = £33.96
10 vans = £339.60 Per week
100 vans =£33,960 per week
£33,960. X 12 months =£407,520 per year
This is a large some of money that can go to keep residential homes open etc, etc

They probably don't have to go to yard so it could easily save money to let people take vans home.

PasturesNew

Yard might not be big enough to park them overnight and/or those people might be on call for emergency call outs and have the stuff in the van for their specialism.

dotdash79

Or the first jobs in the morning are away from the yard.

Also not every van is 17 miles away from the yard.

Generali

Or it's a standard perk and nobody gives a damn because it's nobody's money that's being spent.

Loughton_Monkey

What do you want from your council for heaven's sake?

Efficiency?
Effective use of assets?
A commercial approach to their responsibilities?
Common Sense?

I'm afraid that's far too much to expect. This is one reason why council housing is (in all probability) far more expensive than subsidising a family in privately rented accommodation.

Utility companies (albeit now privatised) are equally inefficient. I watched some 'call out' to a nearby house from National Grid.

For virtually the whole day, 6 vans were in evidence (about 10 people) and the end result was the digging of a hole about 3 foot deep, 18 inches square, in the tarmac path immediately where the guy's drive met the pavement. Only ever two guys "doing something", leaving everyone else to sit in the van on their mobiles, lean on a van chatting to a mate, or just standing over the guy digging watching him dig.

fabricator

Valid points but
Councils dont have just the one yard they are doted around the county for different departments and could easily park up vans for those not on call,
The yard near my place of work first thing in the morning must have 30 to 40 vans turn up to do what ever so it means they have all just travelled from home to get there

Loughton_Monkey

Generali wrote: »

Or it's a standard perk and nobody gives a damn because it's nobody's money that's being spent.

My wife once worked for a number of years for a utility company [which will remain nameless]. She worked with 'engineers'.

Of one thing I can assure you. That company's infrastructure was exceptionally well subject to 'routine inspections'. Have no fear. Whether it needed it or not, there were such 'inspections' every single Friday afternoon, just after they all came out of the pub from their 'weekly lunchtime meeting'.

A wonderful life really. I can think of nothing on this earth that would change that culture. I suspect it is still going on.

wotsthat

My BIL works for BT and gets a van which he keeps at home.

It's fitted with a tracker - he can't do any private mileage without being hauled over the coals. Apparently it used to be handy for going to the tip and picking up stuff from B&Q and the like. Of course, it only takes one person taking the p**s to spoil if for everyone. In this particular depot one chap was running a sideline doing house clearances in the BT van using BT fuel.

cavework

The workers have jobs submitted via some clever ipad thingy ( I am old and unable to give you the exact name). They are also timed on how long a job should take. and have to account if they go over.
If they every day had to travel to the office to pick up the van and then possibly travel back the miles it took to go to the office each day , you would complain about the waste of time between jobs
other vans are for emergency calls out of hours .. would you rather they added their travelling time going to the office to pick up the van , then do the job and then add the time it took to return home under their own steam?
No ... you would be complaining about the time it took to attend the emergency call out

fabricator

Its what i have to do,the dept by my place of work is the parks dept some how i cant see they would be on call to go and mow some field somwhere in the dead of night.certain dept need the vans i am talking in general where it seems you can use council vehicles to commute to work its not right and can save thousands of pounds which can be spent where needed eg care homes