What was/is the longest (drive) commute you've done for a job and was it worth it?

[fatandhappyxxx]

Just that really. Considering a one hour drive each way twice a week for a job. It's much longer than I've ever commuted. Would love to hear of others' experiences...

15 hours a week (1.5 hours each way five days a week). It's worth it for the right job.

An hour each way twice a week doesn't sound like much of a commute at all. Is that an hour door to door (ie leaving your front door, driving there, sitting down at desk) or just the driving part?

Well maps says an hour door to door but that's on a good day. My guess is it'd be up to 1.30h. It's the A14

I wouldn't want to do it but then I was at my last job for 22 years and had a 20 minute each way commute! I'm dreading having to find another job in case it's not local!

90mile round trip that took about 1hr 20 each way, 5 days a week, 1 kid in nursery, 1 in primary school, a husband that worked away for months at a time and all for the princely sum of £22,500 a year (in 2015). The commute before that was 1hr 15 4 days a week whilst pregnant, with a toddler, and studying masters mostly on the train!

When people ask how I managed to progress my career despite having children young, that's how, with some tough times and decisions!

But I only needed to do for 1 year and it led to a big jump in my local city, now I WFH on stupid money having never missed a sports day, a parents evening, a school play.

Sometimes you've got to think of the long game.

Doesn’t sound too bad with it only bring twice a week. On a good run mine is a 45 min drive, but it’s usually more like 55 mins. That’s 5 days a week.

That sounds ok for 2 days a week. I used to do 40 mins 5 days a week then in my next job did an hour public transport 5 days a week.

Once a week I leave home at 5.20am: walk, bus, train, bus, walk. At my desk about 9.15. Leave office at 5.45 pm and home by 10pm. I don't enjoy it but make good use of the time as no driving. I like spending time with colleagues. It is, ironically, often the only day I have time for lunch. For me it means I live outside London but receive a London salary. I would not get a similar role locally so for me it is worth it.

My current role.

It's about 25 miles and the bulk of it is on a dual carriageway which takes about 20 mins; then the last 5 miles or so are stop-go through a loooooaaaad of traffic lights. On NYE it took me 30 mins dead. As a rule at 8am it takes me about 50 mins.

I also drop DD at work most days which is kind of on the way but not really, so that adds ? 10 mins at least. So today, for example, we had a very good run; we left the house at 8.04 (late!) and I dropped DD at 8.45 and got to work at 8.56. That's a win. More usual is leaving at say 7.55 and pulling in to my work car park at 9am on the dot.

It's fine for me. I really enjoy so much about my job that I can take it. In fact I quite like it to decompress. I have to say tho, we live very close to the dual carriageway (like, 3 mins’ drive away); if I lived four miles further round my city’s ring road in another lovely suburb I would probably not have taken the role as that would add about 25 mins each way I reckon.

I could never have taken this job in earlier years bc I always had to be back to take the DC to things, so I guess the fact that I now can is a positive.

One factor tho @fatandhappyxxx which I am not sure one always considers – the car. Bought my lovely Aygo 3.5 years ago when it had done about 15k; it is now close to 90k. I do have a weekend hobby that involves a fair bit of driving to and from, plus I go and watch DS play his sport, and DD and I drive to the theatre a fair way... but still, the killer on that is 12k+ a year just in getting to work and back. It's costly in frequent services, tyres, other work (tho my car is very reliable) as well as the obvious petrol.

Oh just seen that you will only be doing it twice a week! oh no worries then, mine is every day and it's fine (tho maybe a bit shorter that yours - how far is it?)

110 mile round trip, but my commute home can take two hours on a bad day. Thankfully I only do it a couple of times a month.

God I would LOVE a one hour drive; that's perfect for me as I like the alone time and I love driving.

Right now I have a 90/100 minute drive and it's about half an hour too long. Plus the cost...

minimum 1 hour each way by public transport, 5 days a week.

It was totally worth it, couldn't afford to live anywhere near central London and the jobS were great.

It's a complete waste of time, but it's not really a choice and 1 hour is quite short for London commuters.

120 mile round trip (60 each way) - for about 12 years in total - 5 days a week for about 5 years (before children) then 3 days a week for about 5 years then 4 days a week for another couple of years. Busy motorway for most of it, then driving into city centre.

What helped (once I'd had children) was moving my working day to 8am to 4pm once I had children, so left home at 6am (husband did drop off) to be at desk for about 7.45am and then left at 4ish to do nursery / after school collection by about 5.45pm. Sometimes had to pick up work in the evening though to accommdate that.

It worked for us, husband had to be on standby quite alot for children's pick up (he was much closer) if there was an accident / jams, and it cost a small fortune in petrol, car maintenance and parking.

An hour each way twice a week would be fine - I'd definitely do that.

2 hour drive each way plus park and walk, Birmingham to Bristol, for a 6 month contract. On a few days I sacked it off and stayed in a hostel (whose curtains didn't meet in the middle but it was cheap!). Drank more Redbull in that 6 months than the rest of my life! Worth it at the time, knowing it was a finite contract and work was otherwise scarce.

3 hours each way for 3 years. Now thankfully a 5 minute walk.

Literally moved to a beautiful location just over an hour from work during the pandemic. Company went fully remote six months later, but the distance was perfect and I was expecting to do it most days.

If it's only twice a week, I think you'll probably enjoy the time - warm in winter, aircon in summer, tunes, audiobooks, just you and your singalongs. Just remember you are traffic, you're not in it. And there's not a lot you can do if there's a traffic jam or accident.

Omg. Was that full time?? How ?! Six hour round trip daily ... that's hardcore

Wow. These things can be done.

50 mile round trip but across a rural county. Could take me 1.5 hours. Was in office 5 days a week then.

It was worth it as I was a graduate and the learning experience and development was brilliant. I did 2 years then moved nearer home. Still about 40 mins commute but fine.

I'm dumbfounded by some colleagues who complain about driving for work as we go out to people's home. 1 person was whinging about a 30 minute drive....one patch I worked the furthest boundary was a 1.5 hour journey!

I did a 115 mile round trip for several years. It wasn't dreadful as I like driving and it gave me a lot of time to solve all the problems of the world each day!

I also worked 200 miles away for a few years so that was a long trip - I stayed over 3 or 4 nights a week though so I was only commuting one direction at a time (still took between 3.5 and 5 hours though depending on traffic and the sodding M6)

@fatandhappyxxx
Yes, full time. Significant and permanent promotion. Was two trains and 3 walks. Slept on train! Up at 5.30am, back home at 9-10pm.

I’m about to start a job that’s 100 miles away but only 1 day a week in office and mileage paid.

100 km each way, 5 x a week for nearly 5 years. Used to take about 1 hour 15 minutes each way on a good day.
Then the boss stopped us coming in early, so I hit bad traffic every day and it was anything up to 2 hours each way.

It wrecked my car and nearly my MH. I loved the job and in the end I was made redundant which was a blessing.

As a headteacher, an hour each way ( average) , on rural roads.
Five days per week term time, Some Saturdays and 2-3 days per week in school holidays apart from when I was actually away on holiday.

Sometimes the drive was really late at night and on roads which could be affected by snow, ice and fog.

I wouldn't do it again as part of a 10-12 hour working day. The maximum would be 45 minutes.

I currently drive 2-2.30 hours, perhaps twice a month and a more usual 40 minutes 4 days a week. About manageable.

I used to do 2hrs each way twice a week for a couple of years - it was fine but it wasn't forever, I don't think I could have kept it up permanently.

Two hours often turned into three or more when there was horrendous traffic on the motorway and at the end of a day of work I would often dread the drive home. On the other hand, there were plenty of days where I loved the drive and the time to decompress between home and work!

I think it'd depend on the route - mine was M6 and M62, which are both terrible. If it was a quieter route or less likely to be prone to big traffic jams it'd be easier.