who pays for fuel in au pairs car?

[whizzylala]

Hi,
We are getting our second summer au pair in a few weeks. Last year, she wasn't here for long so we didn't get a car, this year we have decided that we will have to get a car for her. My question is how do you sort our fuel money - she will be using the car to take the children places but also is welcome to use it at weekends etc for her own purpose. How have other people managed this as obviously i am going to pay for the children to be ferried but not for her social life!
Thanks.
Whizzylala

A fair apporionment for business/private use.

I would say keep an eye on mileage, pay for what she uses when she takes your children and she needs to contribute for when she uses it for her own private use.

I guess you would have to ask her to record mileage for trips for 'work' and trips for leisure and breakdown the fuel costs from that.
Our latest decision is to pay for the first 40 miles fuel each week so if our AP uses the car in the same way our first AP did (a few local trips each week) I'll just have to check the mileage once a week, but if they use it like current AP (100 odd miles a week), I'll be asking for a contribution towards the fuel.

Local trips I cover (about £30/fortnight), we are rural and if she wants to have any kind of social life she needs to drive into town.

The local au pair gang "road trips" she has to pay for, I pay to fill the car up at the start of the trip, she has to make sure it is filled at the end of the trip (and collect contributions from the other APs).

When our current au pair arrived we said that we would pay for her petrol to college and back but that we would ask her to pay 5p per mile for personal usage.

However, she has been so fantastic in other ways that we haven't asked her to pay anything towards her personal usage even though she keeps offering. She only uses the car for local travel e.g. going out in the evening or going to the gym.

I am rural and the AP has no way of getting round realistically without a car, so I cover the fuel. Seems pretty unfair otherwise, amd am sure AP's would just get p*d off and move to London if they spent all their money on fuel.

I would give a mileage allowance that was on the generous side, and if they exceeded that it would be up to them to make up the difference.

Ok, thanks for your thoughts, we are rural too so think most of it will be down to us by the looks of things....