Business mileage is always less commute miles. Company policy. Help.

theoretica

Can you in that case claim as working time from when you would have needed to leave the office?

Undervalued

theoretica said:

Can you in that case claim as working time from when you would have needed to leave the office?

If you were regularly being disadvantaged then yes you should be compensated or allowed to take time off in lieu. However presumably no appointments would be booked that involved either leaving home earlier or returning later than you would have done commuting to the office?

Going back to the OP's question, had his wife normally commuted to the office by bike, then she could potentially be out of pocket as she would have had no commuting car miles to deduct. Apart from wear and tear on the bike (and maybe a higher food intake!) her normal commuting costs would be zero.

TBagpuss

As others have said, this policy is very common, as it compensates you for the extra ,mileage you do over what you would do for you normal commute. You don't get paid for commuting or reimbursed for that mileage, all the policy means is that you don't get paid extra f you happen to go straight to an outside location rather than going to the office / workplace first. 

Stateofart

Don't think of it in terms of direction, think in terms of miles over the average commute.  Commute 10 miles to work, that's 20 mile deduction per day on your overall mileage for that day.