Travel Expenses deducted from normal commute

JohnDorian

Not sure what the issue is here. The whole point is to reimburse the additional costs over the regular commute so seems correct to me. 

mistmountain

Hello, everyone, I'm new here: just found this forum via a search for a similar issue. 

May I add another thought into this argument: the driver would not be required to have business insurance for a regular commute to one place of work, but is required to have business insurance for driving to one or more other places of work  from time to time? 

Business insurance is more expensive than standard commuter insurance, so a mile travelled to the regular office is not the same as a mile travelled to another location. The mileage allowance paid by HMRC is supposed to include the additional cost of business insurance (or so my employer tells me). 

Therefore, the employer should pay the business travel rate for all miles that are not the standard commute, and not just apply it to the distance over and above that which would have been travelled on a standard commute to the usual office. 

TELLIT01

mistmountain said:

Hello, everyone, I'm new here: just found this forum via a search for a similar issue. 

May I add another thought into this argument: the driver would not be required to have business insurance for a regular commute to one place of work, but is required to have business insurance for driving to one or more other places of work  from time to time? 

Business insurance is more expensive than standard commuter insurance, so a mile travelled to the regular office is not the same as a mile travelled to another location. The mileage allowance paid by HMRC is supposed to include the additional cost of business insurance (or so my employer tells me). 

Therefore, the employer should pay the business travel rate for all miles that are not the standard commute, and not just apply it to the distance over and above that which would have been travelled on a standard commute to the usual office. 

Some insurers charge nothing for adding business use, and others charge a minimal amount.  If business mileage rate is intended to include an element for the additional cost, it would be far more cost effective for the employer simply to pay the additional insurance cost as a one-off payment.

TBagpuss

I always add business travel to my insurance as I do have to drive to other locations for work, and have never had to pay extra for it, so it's not a given that there will be extra costs.
But the mileage allowance paid is generally for the overall costs - e.g. HMRC is happy to allow 45ppm whereas the actual fuel costs are generally much lower .

Like a lot of things, there are general policies which aim to produce a fair outcome the majority of the time without becoming insanely complex.

Everywhere I've worked the policy has been that you can claim for travel over and above your normal commute, so if you go direct to a different location you can only claim for the difference between that journey and your normal commute, and most have had a rule that if you are going to a different location you get the lower of the actual journey, or the journey from your normal workplace to the other location.

happyc84

The place I worked for changed the travel expense policy from paying any non-commute mileage to only paying the difference, in the end I moved locations to save money; was missing out on 60 miles per day at 45p per mile. Another example of the company changing T&C's for the benefit of the company and not the workers who were asked to do site works.