Travel Expenses deducted from normal commute

trojan10_om

My normal commute is 14 miles. 

I’m often (but not regular pattern, or contracted to) required to go to another location which is a 15 mile commute from my house. The two locations aren’t a mile apart though. 

I expected to be able to claim travel expensive for the 15 mile trip. However my employer wants to deduct my regular commute (14 miles) off this. 

Their logic doesn’t seem wholly unreasonable. However I feel it is unusual not to be reimbursed in full. My contract, or staff policy doesn’t reference this scenario as far as I can see. My pattern of going to the second location is not common within the organisation, but not unique either. I know when people make occasion trips to London, they would not be deducted regular commute expenses. 

Is there any strong argument I can use to influence them, or is it reasonable to accept I’m only due 1 mile of travel expenses for this trip?

elsien

In my organisation if we go straight on a visit rather than to the office first, then the mileage to the office would be deducted.
It’s not an unusual practice. 

NBLondon

Agree - it's been part of every travel/expenses policy I've worked under.  For claiming mileage anyway - not for rail or public transport.  Is there a written policy you can refer to?  If there isn't one then maybe it's ended up as line manager discretion?

Sandtree

Where are you going after the other location?  Back home or off to your normal office?

A former employer used to make it even more complex by not deducting the full distance travelled but the shared route element so if you went half the way to work then turned off you'd only be able to claim the mileage from the turn off but that was a real pain to calculate and defend so half the time it was easier to just deduct the full distance unless you were literally turning the other way out of your driveway.

Manxman_in_exile

I'm pretty certain that's how it worked in the NHS too.  If you are travelling to a place of work other than your normal base you are only entitled to claim for any "excess" travel above your normal commute.

TELLIT01

Deducting the normal commute distance from the total is absolutely correct as you are not entitled to be paid for your normal commute distance.  Some companies may be more 'relaxed' about it than others, but doing so is in no way unfair or unreasonable.

techwatcher

Sandtree said:

A former employer used to make it even more complex by not deducting the full distance travelled but the shared route element so if you went half the way to work then turned off you'd only be able to claim the mileage from the turn off but that was a real pain to calculate and defend so half the time it was easier to just deduct the full distance unless you were literally turning the other way out of your driveway.

My current employer (a large corporate) used to deduct the mileage cost of the home to office commute from ANY travel expense claim, even when the claim was for public transport and the journey was in the opposite direction of the office! We used to refer to it as the 'home-to-office tax' - a nice little revenue stream for the company. They only ceased this practice 18 months ago.

[Deleted User]

 I had this but i was required to go into my usual office later the same day after my meeting. I argued that due to that i should get the full journey and they agreed, but if not it would be correct. 

trojan10_om

On the basis of these replies, I did not push for reimbursement of the journey. I asked for the distance between the normal site and the second site (7miles) even though I’m not physically doing that journey- they agreed 

TELLIT01

_shel said:

 I had this but i was required to go into my usual office later the same day after my meeting. I argued that due to that i should get the full journey and they agreed, but if not it would be correct. 

If you have to attend your normal office AND another location, irrespective of which is visited first, all mileage over and above that for the normal commute should be claimed as it is true additional expense.  If the other office was en-route to the normal place of work there is no additional mileage and therefore no valid claim.

The calculation isn't rocket science.  If you normally do a 20 mile round trip to the office but do 50 miles to visit another location, the additional mileage is 30 and that is what can be claimed.

Andy_L

TELLIT01 said:

_shel said:

 I had this but i was required to go into my usual office later the same day after my meeting. I argued that due to that i should get the full journey and they agreed, but if not it would be correct. 

If you have to attend your normal office AND another location, irrespective of which is visited first, all mileage over and above that for the normal commute should be claimed as it is true additional expense.  If the other office was en-route to the normal place of work there is no additional mileage and therefore no valid claim.

The calculation isn't rocket science.  If you normally do a 20 mile round trip to the office but do 50 miles to visit another location, the additional mileage is 30 and that is what can be claimed.

HRMC are quite happy for a employer to pay the full mileage & not deduct your normal commute distance.
That a company says they will deduct your normal commute distance from what they pay is a contractual issue