How far do you commute to work?

motorguy

w00519772 wrote: »

I was offered the job. They originally offered me £41,000, but I managed to negotiate an increase to £44,000. I would be grateful for any thoughts.

Also does anyone have any experience with websites like this: https://www.sharetheride.com/public/Home.aspx. It would be helpful to share commuting costs.

A 45 mile each way commute is not pleasant, but is doable.

I did it for a couple of years and i was able to go in early and leave early on flexi.

I also found country roads to use rather than sitting in rush hour traffic.

Its hard on a car too, so you'd have to factor in depreciation and maintenance. Including social driving, i was putting 25-28k per year on my car.

Also you want to be doing it in something comfortable and very economical. I had a 2012 Golf 1.6TDI that did 65-70mpg on those runs.

CrabbitDutchie

Mine is just under 30 miles each way. Currently takes 35-40mins on the way there and about 1hr on the way back. In winter that increases to 45-50 mins in the morning and 1h30mins on the way back.

I carshare, split the cost between 4 of us and only drive every 2nd week, but almost 1 year in am serioulsy starting to consider trying to get a job closer to home.

andygb

motorguy wrote: »

A 45 mile each way commute is not pleasant, but is doable.

I did it for a couple of years and i was able to go in early and leave early on flexi.

I also found country roads to use rather than sitting in rush hour traffic.

Its hard on a car too, so you'd have to factor in depreciation and maintenance. Including social driving, i was putting 25-28k per year on my car.

Also you want to be doing it in something comfortable and very economical. I had a 2012 Golf 1.6TDI that did 65-70mpg on those runs.

You must have had a lot of annual leave plus "sickies" to have managed that;)

martyp

Mine's 5 miles and the best part is that most commuter traffic travels in the opposite direction to me, heading to the nearest city as I drive into the countryside through fields etc. I pass neverending queues of traffic heading the opposite direction a lot of the time and makes me think how horrible it would be to be stuck in those queues and how much time must be lost each day just stuck in traffic jams.

jaydeeuk1

My office is 2 miles / 7 minutes away, sometimes work from home or pub depending on weather. Off to Leicester tomorrow, no one wants to go to Leicester at the best of times, but at least it means more 45ppm goodness as I take the scenic route and treat myself to a company pub lunch after pressing a reset button on a server. It's a tough job, mine.

FredG

20 minute walk to the office in the city centre which is incredibly lucky.


Also, I live just a fraction out of the central noise near the canalside which is probably about the best placement for me as I hate cities. Willing to take the hit though for such a convenient walk!

keith969

I worked for 4 years once at a place 40 miles from home. It was a 1hr commute, so 10 hrs/week, equivalent to working a full extra day, on top of the cost of fuel/depreciation etc.

Never again...

vacheron

I live about a 15 minute drive from work (or a 50 minute scenic cycle journey).

I was once offered a job which would have been and extra 1 hour drive each way.

Aside from the fact that cycling would have been out of the question, I calculated that if I stayed in my current job but just worked the extra hours as overtime instead, I would have earned an extra £8500 gross per year even before extra petrol and depreciation costs were even considered.

I'm still where I was. And now I have a son I can convert those 20 hours into family time at home. Something I would not have been able to do had I changed jobs.

rebecca1982

At the end of the day, you'll have to balance out.

1. Time costs.
2. Travel costs
3. Any extra salary you'll be getting.
4. Is this job a good one for your future prospects?

Personally, I think you need a very strong 3 and 4 to take the job seriously.

Doshwaster

The shortest commute I ever had was when I worked from home so had about a 5 second commute to the spare bedroom which I used as an office. However, the lack of social interaction was driving me potty so I changed to an office based job which was a 20 minute drive away with very little traffic.

Working from home does have its advantages (save time/money on commuting, always in for deliveries and no need to get shaved every day) but you need to be very self-disciplined and it's often not good for career progression.