Expenses: commute mileage deducted, but I cycle if no car needed for work that day.

mistmountain

Good evening everyone

Quick summary: sometimes I drive my own car to work in order to carry out a site visit that day. My employer reimburses me for business miles excluding my normal commute distance, even though I don't normally drive to work (I cycle instead) on days I expect to stay in the office. Is this fair?

Full details:

My job is mostly done from one office: however, once a week or so I will be required to make trips to various other sites for work, using my own car (for which I have business insurance). Sometimes I will spend some of the day in the office; other times I will spend all day at the other site(s) and will not go into the office.

The company pays the standard HMRC mileage rate for trips to other sites. They used to pay for the total distance travelled: however, they have recently introduced the rule that whatever the distance travelled in one day, I must deduct the distance from my house to the office and back again. Their argument being, of course, that I would have had to come to the office as usual were I not visiting another site, and that this would not have been eligible for expenses.

The same policy applies to everyone in the office who does a similar job. My problem with this is that I don't usually drive to the office: if I am not required to drive anywhere else during the day, I cycle to and from my house. I only bring the car on days when I know I will be making further business trips. My employer is fully aware of this: in fact, I bought my bike on the Cycle to Work scheme, so as part of the agreement I am required to use it for at least half of my journeys to and from work. Nonetheless, they treat my expenses as though I drive to the office every day.

I have of course objected to this, but does it sound like a reasonable policy to you? After all, I am free to drive to the office every day if I wish: I simply choose not to.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Diamandis

Is having a car a requirement of the role? Would you have the job if you only had a bike? If so I'd say getting your car there is at your cost.

mistmountain

Having a car is not a requirement of the job, although in practice the company relies on people being willing to use their own cars for work as there are not enough company vehicles.

kimwp

While I understand it must be frustrating, they are aligned with the HMRC rules on expenses - I wonder if reimbursing your commute would be tantamount to a pay increase? I think you either accept it or cycle every day and demonstrate the need for more company vehicles by not doing the business trips unless there is a vehicle available. 

Sandtree

To be paid for your commute would be an employee benefit and therefore attract tax. Your commute is defined as going to your usual place of work (you can have more than one office covered) and to the best of my knowledge is method of transport agnostic. 

happyc84

How much time or distance is involved here? Similar thing happened to me when the company changed the expense policy. It was worthwhile changing office locations as I was out by 60 miles per day when I had to do other business trips.

If its a short distance I would say you could cycle to your established place of work then in their time travel to the other location; finish work 1 hour early then cycle back to your original place of work. Depends  how long you've been there and does it matter if you have your card marked.

oh_really

How would the employer react should your car become unavailable?

Brie

If you are driving to your normal place of work and then driving to the other site and then returning before driving home then you should be paid the distance from the office to the other site. 

If on the other hand you are driving directly to the other site for the entire day before returning home then you should be paid the entire distance as that is not your normal place of work.  

mistmountain

Thank you for the replies everyone.

 

I may not have made it clear that it's not the working hours I'm querying: obviously I don't get paid for the time it takes to travel between my house and the office. The round trip between office and home is about 20 miles, so if I am asked to drive to work in order to make a site visit later in the day, the additional cost to me is the difference between driving and cycling 20 miles. 

 

According to HMRC rates on the gov.uk website, mileage rates for cars are 45 p per mile and bicycles are 20 p per mile. So according to these rates driving in costs me an extra (45p-20p) x 20, i.e. £5 per day. This is what annoys me as it's effectively doing the company a favour by reducing the number of vehicles they need to have available, and means I don't have my usual choice of how to make the trip.

 

Kimwp: indeed, I'm considering trying not to use my car for work trips any more.

 

Happyc84: yes, travel from the office to the other site, and back again, is in work time (although it's not the hours I'm querying here). I would not have the option of finishing work there early; also, I would have driven there so would have to drive back; cycling during work hours is not permitted by the company because it's considered too dangerous.

 

mistmountain

oh_really – if my car should become unavailable it's hard to say what they'd do: technically they just have to take it in their stride, but in reality it would depend on how much notice I gave, how urgent the job was and whether it could be rescheduled or given to another person.