Using your own car for work?

[girlfriend44]

I don't mean driving to work, I mean using your own car as part of the job. Visiting People and Places etc as part of the Job.

Although you get paid mileage, that dosent really cover the true cost of using the car for example wear and tear?

You see alot of jobs say must drive but how many people are getting the true cost of using their car back.

Does it annoy you?

The 45p rate is usually enough to cover the marginal cost of using your car. Especially if it is a reasonably cheap car. Obviously if you have to purchase a car or run a Bentley it is not going to be cost effective.

The 45p rate is marginal for me when fuel, business insurance and wear and tear are taken into account.

45/mile is that standard HMRC rate I believe. If you are using your personal car for work purposes you should also have business use on your car insurance.

I get a car allowance of 6K a year and then a random rate of 25p a mile or something. Colleagues in ROI get a higher mileage rate instead of the allowance.

Car allowance is a life saver, pretty much doubles my take home now I’m on mat leave. Looking at what others get it seems pretty generous!

You’re not using your own car then?

I think the problem is that mileage rates haven’t increased for years but fuel and other costs have sky rocketed. I’m not sure they can force you to own and run a vehicle

It isn't always as simple as getting a cheaper car. I need a big car, a 7 seater.

It would depend on your contract. If you're employed on the basis that you'll use your own car eg care work or you're given a car allowance and told that you have to use to run a car for work, they can force you.

Or its not in your contract and they want you to visit places for work, they'll have to provide a pool or hire car or pay for public transport/taxi.

Isn’t that discriminatory unless the job is actually driving? I know employers try and force people but can they legally? What happens when someone isn’t able to drive? Surely most places would have to accept someone also travelling by public transport to their main job

But we're talking about people driving while at work.

Some jobs need to get to places in a timely fashion and/or carry equipment so public transport/cycling/walking isn't really going to be practical unless the work is based in a town or city where modes of transport other than private cars will be an advantage.

But no, it's not discriminatory to require someone to be able to drive, and even supply a car, to do a job that involves driving and use of own car.

Not everyone declares that their vehicle is used for business use!

https://www.hse-network.com/what-are-your-responsibilities-when-it-comes-to-grey-fleet-management/ states the following:

Driver safety - In summary, you must ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health and safety of all employees while at work, and ensure that others are not put at risk by your work-related driving activities. Added to that, you must carry out an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of your employees, while they are at work, and to other people who may be affected by your organisation’s work activities. It is not just a case of ticking boxes; rather, that you genuinely care for the health and well-being of your employees. It is recommended that a designated, competent person have full responsibility for managing grey fleet safety in line with the organisation’s wider driver safety policy. Additionally, line managers and supervisors should be trained and fully understand their responsibilities for helping to manage grey fleet safety. It is advisable for employment contracts to specify that drivers using their own vehicles for work purposes must abide by the same policies and procedures as company car drivers and that drivers’ understanding of this is confirmed in writing.

Insurance - The key point to address is whether the driver is legally entitled to use the vehicle for business purposes. Driver licence checks and a visual inspection of insurance documents can confirm this. Note that standard personal vehicle insurance does NOT usually cover a driver for business use. If an incident happens while an employee is driving their own vehicle for work purposes and that driver is not correctly covered, it’s unlikely that the driver’s insurance company will cover the costs. Furthermore, in the case of a serious incident, failure to ensure that the employee was adequately insured could leave your company open to potential prosecution, civil litigation and damage to reputation. If insured correctly, a driver using their own vehicle for work purposes will be covered by their insurance policy, should a collision occur. Remember that the risk to your company comes if the driver does NOT have insurance that allows for business use, or has the wrong type of insurance. In these cases, it IS possible for your company to be considered to have “vicarious responsibility” – where someone is held responsible for the actions of another person

Of course you will be paying the extra insurance premium for driving your car on business. That isn't worth it for just a few miles a year.

It cost me about £2 more to have business use on my policy. I'd get that back in one journey claimed.

@BungleandGeorge is isn't discriminatory to say you need to be able to drive to do a particular job - like it isn't discriminatory to say you need to be physically capable to take on a gardening or bricklaying or roofing job, or you need to be fluent in the language to take on a translators job, or have the necessary qualifications to do vast numbers of jobs. It is a skillset needed for the job. Perfectly normal and sensible, and, indeed, reassuring. Most employers won't care how you travel to and from one base, but where the job involves you visiting many sites / clients / offices / customers then of course it is a requirement of the job.

Not everyone declares that their vehicle is used for business use!

My employer needs proof that my car is insured for business use, otherwise they won’t pay expenses.

Adding business use on our car insurance cost like a fiver a year more than just personal use.

Do you drive a Chieftain Tank?
45p per mile equals about 15MPG, so either you’re driving something terrible on fuel or your maths is way off!

I’m rural and car seems to go through lots of fuel going up and down hilly, bumpy roads. The cost of extra insurance and petrol. I don’t think it’s worth it so I drive the 12 miles and take a work car. Work cars are nicer than mines anyway, heated seats and adjustable lumbar support. My spine thanks me!

Being able to drive isn’t a protected characteristic, so they can stipulate it even if your car isn’t needed for the job.

People who drive are much more punctual as they don’t have to rely on our shaky public transport in this country.

Not being able to drive due to a disability is a protected characteristic

Obviously as a visually impaired person I would never apply for a role that actually required driving as that would be daft

Nevertheless if a company told me that I had to be able to drive for a job that didn't require driving I would challenge that.

And in my experience people who regularly take public transport are often more punctual as they plan to get their early. Where as plenty of car drivers "get stuck in traffic" because they haven't planned to get to work 10-20 minutes earlier due to the bus timetable

HMRC need to increase the tax allowance. It must be around 10 years that it has stuck at 45p. It would definitely be a vote winner. We get 17p per mile and have to make a submission to HMRC to claim the difference.

I live rurally and it’s fairly common for adverts to specify that you need to drive and have your own transport as work location not served by public transport. Even for posts like admin where you don’t need to drive. It’s four miles to the nearest bus stop mainly uphill so it’d be a brutal cycle.

Generally people with convoluted arrangements that involve other people for getting to work don’t stay long term as they find somewhere more convenient. I’d of said it’s practical rather than discriminatory but willing to be wrong.

@Deathbyfluffy if I was doing long journeys on the motorway it would cover it but stop, start jounrveys around the city where I work it doesn't really.

Yes, they don't have a say in that. Everyone pays for their own travel to work.

You need to get that rate. It was 44p in our NHS trust for many many years, and it's recently gone up to 56p. It does drop to 20 something pence though after 3000 miles ( in 1 year), and then resets again.

How come NHS are paying more than HMRC rates?

I'm in another public sector organisation and we get 45p for the first 10k miles, but we're expected to use pool or hire cars if available and costs less so only use own cars for the occasional short journey if all the pool cars are being used by someone else and the hire car would cost more than paying private car mileage.