Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

[gkelleway]

Hi Guys

I have a curly situation where the company mileage policy will only pay for the lesser of two distances.

It works like this;

If the distance from Company office to Customer is shorter than the distance from Home to Customer then the company only pays for the lesser distance covered.

Example

Company office to customer 15 miles. Home to Customer 45 miles.

The company reimburses only 15 miles.

Ordinary, I wouldn't have blinked if its a one off travel, but I'm currently deployed at the customers site for a number of months (5 days a week - 8 hours a day) racking up quite a few miles.

Obviously I've put it to them that their company policy is unfair as it does not reflect the true travel accrued and therefore the cost of travel. but so far they remain unmoved in their position.

Also, just confirming that this would also be on business travel as it's not my ordinary place of work?

Does this sound fair / right or other?

Thanks in advance

[Sangie595]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

In my experience the policy is common. You would have to pay for home to work location travel anyway, so that is deducted from the claim amount. You are being reimbursed for the additional mileage only.

[charitynjw]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

https://www.freeagent.com/guides/exp...ployee-travel/ (2010 article)

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...517266/490.pdf

[gkelleway]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

In my experience the policy is common. You would have to pay for home to work location travel anyway, so that is deducted from the claim amount. You are being reimbursed for the additional mileage only.

These a distinction between travelling to your usual place of work ( as per my contract) & travelling to a customers office, I thought. The former being a private journey to attend your occupation, the latter being business journey to undertake duties on behalf of the employer for the customer.
It seems https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...517266/490.pdf section 2.4 of that guidance would support this position?

[gkelleway]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

Agreed and the scenario could also be:

Company office to customer - 45 miles
Home to customer - 15 miles

In that situation, it would be possible for the OP to claim the whole 45 miles, despite only travelling 15.

The above would be fraudulent & a good way end up in performance management or dismissed.

What I'm arguing is, that the company is paying for less than the full amount of miles travelled. By travelling 45 miles the business incurs a cost on my personal asset to undertake this travel. The employer is then only covering 1/3 (15 miles) of the cost thanks to their policy. This leaves me 2/3 out of pocket on running costs of the car. In affect the company is offsetting the cost travel to the employee.

[Sangie595]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

The above would be fraudulent & a good way end up in performance management or dismissed.

What I'm arguing is, that the company is paying for less than the full amount of miles travelled. By travelling 45 miles the business incurs a cost on my personal asset to undertake this travel. The employer is then only covering 1/3 (15 miles) of the cost thanks to their policy. This leaves me 2/3 out of pocket on running costs of the car. In affect the company is offsetting the cost travel to the employee.

I think that this can be boiled down to one basic premise. The employer is not obliged to provide ANY mileage costs at all. Even if they require you to drive and use your own vehicle. There are tax breaks for such situations precisely because of this.

So the employers policy is the employers policy.

You are looking for a reason to tell them that their policy is wrong, and they can't do what they are doing because XYZ says it is "illegal". There is no XYZ. So you have the right to question their policy. But if they disagree with you, you cannot make them change it, because there is nothing that says what they must do.

HMRC guidance is about something else entirely. It is not about what payments an employer must make. It is about what taxation is due on payments an employer decides to make.

[des8]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

Do you normally travel to your place of work in your own car?

[gkelleway]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

Do you normally travel to your place of work in your own car?

Yes.

[gkelleway]

Re: Company only pays for the lesser of the two distances travelled

It would not be fraudulent. If you are directly employed, then the company can argue (quite legitimately) that they will pay you for travelling from your base (their offices) to the customer, which is 15 miles. You don't have a leg to stand on. The company will have based all quotations and estimates upon a basis that it is 15 miles away from the customer.

If you were self-employed, you might be able to negotiate that your base was your home and that is where you would be working from. The company would still be likely to insist that the mileage started from their office.

You took the job on knowing that the distance from your home to work was circa 30 miles. Many people travel further than that to their place of work and receive no reimbursement. If the company have based their office as the starting point then it is quite within a workers rights to use this as a base when the distance works in their favour.

Busyboddy - Thanks for your input here. Regards

- - - Updated - - -

I think that this can be boiled down to one basic premise. The employer is not obliged to provide ANY mileage costs at all. Even if they require you to drive and use your own vehicle. There are tax breaks for such situations precisely because of this.

So the employers policy is the employers policy.

You are looking for a reason to tell them that their policy is wrong, and they can't do what they are doing because XYZ says it is "illegal". There is no XYZ. So you have the right to question their policy. But if they disagree with you, you cannot make them change it, because there is nothing that says what they must do.

HMRC guidance is about something else entirely. It is not about what payments an employer must make. It is about what taxation is due on payments an employer decides to make.

Thanks for the reply on this, as this is what I was looking for. This is why I brought the issue up to check if such a precedent existed or not. A sounding board to check my understanding on this issue.

Thanks again for your time & effort here Sangie.