Am I being a mug?

[ForBrickSnake]

My job involves driving from home to different clients houses throughout the day. I get paid 40p mileage. I have been told that I won't be paid for the first 6 miles to client and last 6 miles as this is considered normal commuting. I understand this, but where does this 6 miles come from? So if I drive to four different clients with a mile between each I get nothing, using my car providing a service (minimum wage). Is this right?🤔

Time to look for a better job! And I'd be telling them why!

Does your employer have an office that is 6 miles from home address? This is typically where they get the “normal commuting” miles from. So anything less than that isn’t paid as you’d be doing that anyway if going into office but above that you get mileage.

Very common practice in that type of job with care companies.

I have similar thing if I travel for work.
My work contract stipulates that the office is my work location. So I only get travel expenses if I go further than 'my home to the office' would be.

Are you in care? If so, this is standard. Equivalent to driving to the office in the morning and returning home. As long as you are paid for all calls in between the first and last

Same for our external contractors too. They are self employed, their travel is expected as part of their job, and is considered their normal overheads... But if they go further than is classed as 'standard' then they get time+ miles money.
The standard is classed as 'our office to the client'... Anything over that is considered extra.

That was my experience when doing home care. It's been my experience in better paid jobs that involve driving to people's homes, too. I think the issue with home care is more the generally shit pay.

It's not terrible that they work like this, many employers don't pay the first few miles as it's no different to commuting, but you're obviously at a disadvantage compared with non driving colleagues so perhaps they should pay a fixed token allowance for you making your car available for work? Is having a car part of your employment contract? Are you required to carry a colleague and is there anything in your contract about allowances for carrying a passenger as that's obviously an extra cost on you and a benefit you're providing them.

What's more important however, is that you're paid from at least the time you arrive at client 1 to the time you leave client 4 including the travelling and any waiting time in between that's not an unpaid lunch break.

Seems fair to me.

So 6 miles is not far and won't use much petrol will it? If you went to the office instead how many miles would you do anyway?

But if you drove 30 miles you would claim 24 of them at 40p per mile which is a decent rate and more than it would cost you (if you drive your car economically).

It's standard to deduct normal commuting journey on mileage claims and is for tax reasons.

It sounds like this should count for 12 miles in total per day at the most though, rather than a succession of 6 miles between visits - doesn't it?