Childminder petrol

[Myusername2015]

Hi all; my childminder has been collecting and dropping my 5 year old son home from childcare this week while I’ve sustained an injury. We are 3 miles apart. I told her I’d contribute towards her petrol. It’s country driving around 5 minutes drive…I should have clarified exact costs but what do you think a sensible fuel contribution would be?

@Gwen82 oh you're one of them 🙃 🤡

100% @amiold's message. Unless she is charging for her time too.

I can't understand if she is and this is on top of her time, just for fuel, or this is including her time.

TBH you were a bit of a CF only saying you would “contribute” towards her petrol in the first instance. Quite an assumption that her time is for free.
In you position I would just pay and then make alternate arrangements for travel if you still need it and don’t want to pay her rate.

So it's a fiver each journey? Sounds reasonable

I’m an ex-Childminder. You will mostly be paying for her time, with petrol added on top. You are well within your rights to ask politely for a breakdown of the costs……. Then decide it adds up with the extra time that she has done. As a parent I absolutely would not expect to just pay for petrol and for her to give up her time for free. She has gone above and beyond, inconveniencing herself to help you, all presumably at very short notice. She sounds like an Angel.

I would assume she is charging for her time.

She might sound like an angel, but if she is doing pick up / drop off within the time she usually minds OPs kid, then she is a CF!

So a 5 year relationship with someone. Who has cared for your child. And presumably both you and your child have been very happy with her care over half a decade!

and the op makes no indication that this CM has ever taken the piss before with money.

And you’d go in with that?

Added to which…. It’s not a taxi rate.

4 journeys. 12 miles in total. On country roads? Nah, a taxi would charge £8 a pop for each journey I reckon

As the government milage allowance is inadequate to cover the fuel and wear and tear why pick that? What about the time it takes to get ready drive both ways and get everyone out when she's dropped lo off....I do a school pick up 5 mins drive but I have to start getting everyone ready 20 mins before and pray for no last minute nappy or toilet visits once at the car it takes exactly 5 mins to strap everyone in then unstrap when we're home it's the most stressful part of the day....obviously I don't have to strap the schoolies they do it I check.

If you told me my effort was worth a couple of quid I'd be well peed and not help you again.

blooming heck - our car does 400 miles on £50 worth of petrol! Must be for her time??

Does the op say she's dropping off early or picking up late?

She must have thought it was so kind of op to say she'd contribute to the petrol.

She must be charging for her time. If this is over 5 days- it works out as £12 per return trip each day.

Sounds ok to me

Surely you owe her labour costs too? Her time isn't free. Plus, 45p a mile isn't a fair reflection of costs - I was getting that 20 years ago in a lowly retail job when petrol was half what it is now!

It must have been a massive inconvenience to her to do this OP. It isn't just the driving time, we all know getting small DCs out of the house and into the car is a PITA. You both should have agreed a price up front, but if I was the CM, I would want enough to cover fuel, the amount of time taken (loading and unloading time as well as time behind the wheel), plus some 'hassle money'. £24/day feels steep for the time and fuel costs alone, but I can't say I would be willing to add the 'hassle' onto either end of my day for much less 🤷🏼‍♀️

@Gwen82 we don't know if she's took the piss before either.

If it's £120 on top of her time then that's a lot, if it's including probably not bad she's probably done an hour tops twice a day for five days. Say £10 an hour plus diesel then it seems right. When I first read it I thought it was on top of time but I think op just expected to pay for the diesel 😂

I don’t think you should even be thinking in terms of a sensible ‘contribution’ towards her fuel. You need, at very least, to cover her full costs. I assume that you would expect her to have business use included in her insurance before allowing your child in the car with her. It costs a lot to properly maintain a safe vehicle, and even the 45p per mile still agreed by HMRC is on the low side.

She has collected and dropped off your child presumably 5 days, so 10 return journeys? That’s 10 times safely strapping your child into a car seat, and getting him out, etc.

£120 is £12 per return journey, so £6 for a single journey. It might be a 5 minute drive, but it will clearly take her longer than that, walking to her car, securing your child, walking him to your house at the other end, etc.

I am sure you hoped for a lesser amount, but it was fairly unrealistic to think that a professional child minder would provide her time for free. With the wonderful benefit of hindsight it would have been better to have discussed the cost beforehand, but lesson learned for the future.
Would you have been able to get anyone else to take your child to and from the childminder for a lower cost if you had known what she intended to charge?

@jannier I thought it was £120 on top of her time but now I'm not sure.

Also can't charge for "getting ready". My boss doesn't pay me til I'm at my desk, I don't think many will be paid to get sorted beforehand

When I was a CM, the family I worked for dropping off their kids and picking them up again just paid for all my petrol. I just gave my receipt and they paid it - that was 5 days a week, obviously both pick up and drop off. Similar distance, so 12 mile round trip for me each pick up and drop off. This is about 10 years ago, and was about £50 a week in fuel.
In terms of the time, i only charged for the time I was actually with the children though.

Ex childminder here. I think it's steep but some childminders charge for whole hours rather than part hours, since they can't fill your space with another child if you are using part of the hour. Obviously with her being out of the house going an errand for you, she wouldn't be able to use that hour for anything else.

I think £20 per day sounds fair. Presumably she'd have to work over her usual hours as your child wouldn't be the only one she cares for, but I don't get where the extra £20 has come from.

Fair enough it seems like it’s reasonable. Just to clarify she received £445 for this week’s care and wasn’t working any extra hours for me. My house is between her school drop off and her house (3 miles apart) so when she offered to help out by offering lifts (inside of her usual paid hours) I just assumed it would be a £50/60 petrol per week; but I can see I was wrong. Next time I’ll know not to guess!

So the £120 is just for fuel on top of her £445 and you've asked her to do no extra hours??