My company has banned all train and air travel

[Whitegrenache]

So I have to drive 275 miles to get to head office for all my training.

I can't understand why

I'm an American who never fails to boggle at the idea that 275 miles is such a long trip that it'd be worth fussing over! The other day we drove 1000 miles with the children in the vehicle, stopping only to refuel ourselves or the car

I’m an English person who never fails to boggle at how quiet and empty American roads are @WombOfOnesOwn. I have driven in New England, the Deep South, Florida and California, and apart from the cities, which have much wider roads with several more lanes than our cities do, the roads are practically empty.

Have you ever been to England? Have you seen how congested and slow moving our major motorways can be?

It once took us nine and a half hours to drive from just north of Sheffield to just outside Padstow on an August Saturday (a distance of 345 miles). This was simply due to sheer volume of traffic and several accidents on the M5. I envy you your wide and empty roads.

I have driven up and down the A1 more times than I care to remember, but wouldn’t be happy to do Newcastle to London in one stretch. It is too tiring and too boring.

We have a complete travel and handshaking ban. Meetings via Skype.

That’s crackers!

We also have a complete travel and handshaking ban. Meetings are to be done via Skype, no visitors on site and anyone holidaying abroad has to wfh for two weeks

They have been very fair about travel and told me to take my time so will just crack on get on with it. Interesting everyone's different take on it.

How would they know. Get the train and stay at hotel near it they be none wiser

I've done 200 miles today and it took just over 3 hours with no stops. Traffic wasn't too bad.

There is a huge difference between driving in the US and driving here. In terms of area, Michigan is approximately the size of the UK. In terms of population, the UK has just over 66m people - which roughly equates to the combined populations of California and Texas. Now put all of the traffic from those states into Michigan, narrow the roads and reduce the number of lanes available. That should give you a rough idea!

I personally wouldn’t be driving at do instance, I find motorway driving* monotonous and I tend to get bored and my mind wanders so have to stop ever hour!

What about people working in retail or hospitality they meet hundreds of people a day. I think this country is going overboard with this corona virus hype! Are your company going to test everyone who is going to enter the training building before continuing with the training?

I live in Mexico City, which they closed down for two weeks during the swine flu scare and saw that these things are full of contradictions. Just shopping, which is generally a necessary activity, exposes one to crowds.

Ah, that is a true difference! We drove through several very crowded metropolitan areas with major slow-moving (2-5 mph) jams, including Los Angeles which is notorious for that, but much of it was done at 70-80 mph. It was about 16 hours in total.

While I've been to the UK, I must admit to only having been in London, and all for business travel -- and London was a city that I expected to be congested and wasn't surprised at that! So the idea is, there's just no long empty stretches with high speed limits, then? That does make driving a lot worse over long distances. I don't think I'd like 275 miles of stop-and-go.

surely your redirecting the virus.instead of containing it to certain spaces your spreading it far and wide via people traveling in cars.so it will be on every stop.every services.every car.every parking meter.every pub on the way or toilet stop.
and once they get there they are there so surely they will still be spreading it to all to then go to the hotels or wherever.

My work will only pay up to 150 miles of mileage. We're expected to take public transport mostly.

If you have a company car you are expected to use it at our company unless it just isn't feasible so say a 10am meeting in manchester followed by a 4pm meeting in london they would pay for a train other than that you have to drive. Cars are fully funded with a fuel card and all mileage has to be logged so yes they would notice the distance not being done and query it.

I wouldn't be doing that drive. If I were you I'd just get the train anyway, how would they find out?

So the idea is, there's just no long empty stretches with high speed limits, then? That does make driving a lot worse over long distances. I don't think I'd like 275 miles of stop-and-go.

There are long stretches of 70mph motorway (our freeways) but the only time they are empty-ish is literally in the middle of the night. Even then many of the motorways in the South, especially the M25 are busy 24/7.