How far do you commute?

Originally Posted by Greenman

I'm shocked you drive if it's that close. Lazy bastard...

At 36p a day I'd rather the time spent in the gym

it's a young person's game I reckon. I think the worst I did was a secondment which was a good hour & a half each way. That even then was 1/2 hour too long. Best (& this is revealing) is when we were setting up a new store & building a bookshop in a warehouse on an airfield in the middle of nowhere. That was a good 2 & 1/2 hours. Hotel whilst there. But every single mile I did anywhere during that time was paid at something like 45p & I did it all in a 1.1 ford fiesta I'd won for a bet. The only car that ever made me any money. After all that I reckoned 1 hour each way was maximum but to avoid traffic I arrived an hour early, & to avoid obsecene parking fees I walked 15 minutes in. Ditto evening. It doesn't really leave you much time at home, but that hour in the morning was superb planning time. My time. The extra hour or so in the afternoon was getting the stuff done you hadn't.

Originally Posted by Nik S

Down the stairs, into the lounge, through the kitchen and into me office.

Does mean I never really get away from work though.

These days all of about 30secs. And it's just like yourself & Nik say. There is no distinction & working with living creatures-yep it's 24/7. Not often, but it can be. And there is ALWAYS something. Like in any given classroom there will always be a kid with a cold, got the snot, banged itself. But if you include the shows as work (rethinking this right now-what value do the big gong's really give one?) then that's prep, time away (overnighter coming this week), food, someone back at base gets to do it all by themselves (i.e. me) & expense. Entries are £20 a dog, but it's the tax, insurance & fuel on a big estate or that bloody van. As an average I reckon a show costs about £200 in cash. I haven't factored in anything for the previously mentioned costs on having the vehicles on the road & maintaining them. Fuck all compared to racing I know, but again, it's the transport (& time) that's the killer.

TBH Iccy you (& Dools) bought the right thing. Low stressed good quality vehicles, with none of the last decade or so emmision controls up their chuffs. Excellent mpg, should be piece of piss to maintain. Allows you to do yer daily planning on the way in some comfort-which I couldn't or wouldn't ever do on the bike. Be even better if they paid you a mileage allowance on it yes? And yeah-if we're talking good money an hour each way is fine. Those breakfast morning presenters/captains of industry all get picked up from their nice farmhouses each morning in a car & driven there & back. That'd be more than an hour but with being able to snooze/plan/read etc. All the advantages of say a train, with none of the disadvantages. <thinks> so what I'd be wanting is a fully funded RV plus driver, or a stripped out coach or double decker bus. Enough room to play a game of tennis in it. And a bar for the way home.

another that just strolls downstairs...

i am very good though as I have an office and i actually 'go to work'. When i am busy i do just sit in my office and work other than drink/loo stops. I have worked at home for so long I am used to the routine.

I do travel for work although a lot less than I used to. At first I missed it but now i am happy with my set p and get a bit begrudging when i have to travel. If traveling it is usually 20 mins by car to station then 2 hours of train/tube to office or if i have to drive it's 2 hours or 3.5 hours each way depending on office.

The plus point for me is i get a car paid for and a fuel card. As I rarely use the car in the day the other half uses it for work so we don't have any commute costs for him for work

Originally Posted by icarus1859

Fuck me, I just realised I'd got you and Hawker mixed up and thought you were in intensive care.

I was on ITU twice last night, but only dropping off punters.

Originally Posted by Lily

The plus point for me is i get a car paid for and a fuel card. As I rarely use the car in the day the other half uses it for work so we don't have any commute costs for him for work

I think company cars appear to be going the way of the dodo.
I remember when everyone had company cars, if you worked in the office then you had a car, it was that simple but I enquired about a 60k a year fairly senior managers job a couple of weeks ago and was told "Sorry, there is no company car with this position".
10yrs ago anyone on over 40k would have been driving a company Jag or 5-series.

At our place now unless you do are expected to do a lot of driving then you don't get a car regardless of your position, whereas before 2008 anyone in a 25k Supervisors position would get one.

Originally Posted by Lily

another that just strolls downstairs...

i am very good though as I have an office and i actually 'go to work'. When i am busy i do just sit in my office and work other than drink/loo stops. I have worked at home for so long I am used to the routine.

I do travel for work although a lot less than I used to. At first I missed it but now i am happy with my set p and get a bit begrudging when i have to travel. If traveling it is usually 20 mins by car to station then 2 hours of train/tube to office or if i have to drive it's 2 hours or 3.5 hours each way depending on office.

The plus point for me is i get a car paid for and a fuel card. As I rarely use the car in the day the other half uses it for work so we don't have any commute costs for him for work

That fuel card will be costing you several hundred pounds a month built into your tax code, so whilst he doesn't have any commute costs you are paying for it

Originally Posted by Deer Stalker

That fuel card will be costing you several hundred pounds a month built into your tax code, so whilst he doesn't have any commute costs you are paying for it

UK tax pisses me right off, these dole dossing rioters had fuck all to moan about, its the tax payers that should be rioting.

If you earn 10k a month (for example) you pay more than 3.6k in tax, then tax on your fuel, in fact tax on just about everything you spend your money on.
Over the years I must have paid in a fucking fortune just in VAT, and now I pay income tax as well.
I'd like to have David Cameron in front of me with his bollocks in a vice and unless he can tell me where my money goes and give me value for money his bollocks would be coming off.

If I earned 150k+ and was paying 50% tax I'd want a fucking Batphone to Number 10 and every night I'd be wanting an explanation of what value I was getting.

When the MP expenses scandal came out I wasn't too arsed because I wasn't paying UK tax, but if it happened now I'd be out looking for blood.
Fucking cuddly wuddly beary beary boos.

Originally Posted by Deer Stalker

That fuel card will be costing you several hundred pounds a month built into your tax code, so whilst he doesn't have any commute costs you are paying for it

It's not that much. Mine used to cost about 1500 quid a year. The tax I paid for a company car (Audi A6) and fuel card combined was about 450 a month, which was about 50 quid more than I used to pay out of my own pocket for commuting fuel. Therefore a no brainer

Originally Posted by icarus1859

UK tax pisses me right off, these dole dossing rioters had fuck all to moan about, its the tax payers that should be rioting.

It's the opacity of it that fucks me off. If it was just income tax and it was clear, I'd be much happier about it. But it's not, it's all stealth taxes, NI, fucking about with allowances, anything in fact to avoid putting up the headline rates of tax - but you still pay more

Tax take out of my wages went up over a two year period (not including VAT) by north of 5000 GBP a year in lost allowances and NI fiddles despite my headline rate not changing. A substantial chunk of anyone's money and one of the reasons I looked to leave. Pissed me right off, you'll note they always pitch the rises at points that don't get picked up much by reports. Taxation over here is much more honest in the main

One of the other reasons I left (since this is the point of the thread) is that my commuting was getting out of hand. My "stock" commute was 75 miles each way, the roads were quick so I could do it in 70mins but any sort of accident and it would quickly be 90+....but I was increasingly going in to central London and that would take at least 90 door to door.

3 hours out of every day was getting ridiculous and I hated it - a waste of time and money. We loved where we lived, didn't want to live closer to London but realistically all my work was always going to be in London so not much of a solution to be had

Over here I live *much* closer to work. We've bit the bullet and live in the city, but it's a lot more suburban/leafy/spread out than UK cities so hardly gritty. The big win is the distance to work - it's 13km.

In summer I cycle it, takes about 25 minutes each way + getting changed time. Say 35 mins all in. Can't do that in winter as going home would be in the dark and I'm not cycling in the dark on the Pacific Highway - deadly. It's bad enough in the light. So I train it. 15 mins walk to station, 18 mins on train, 2 mins walk at other end. Total 35 mins each way so much the same, and pretty cheap - $25 a week which is fuck all in the Aussie scheme of things, a small round of drinks. Once or twice a week I run in and then get the train home. Takes me a tad over an hour to run it but it's a good way to get exercise

Less commuting has made a massive difference to my life. I'm much less tired, I spend a huge amount less, and I get to see my son every night (within reason) as I can get home by 6pm almost every night rather than the 7:30pm that was the norm in the UK

Originally Posted by dodgy

It's not that much. Mine used to cost about 1500 quid a year. The tax I paid for a company car (Audi A6) and fuel card combined was about 450 a month, which was about 50 quid more than I used to pay out of my own pocket for commuting fuel. Therefore a no brainer

The mileage at which you broke even on the tax deal used to be about 15,000 private miles. Anything less and it was costing more like £175 a month

Originally Posted by dodgy

Less commuting has made a massive difference to my life. I'm much less tired, I spend a huge amount less, and I get to see my son every night (within reason) as I can get home by 6pm almost every night rather than the 7:30pm that was the norm in the UK

I finish work at 4.30pm, so I'm home around 5.40pm.
I'm contracted to do 37.5hrs, but I do 40hrs because thats what we previously did before the hours were dropped to bring us all in line across the whole company.
So they get 2.5hrs a week for free, I'm fucked if I'm doing more than that.
This UK 'stay late' mentality pisses me off, if there is a crisis then fair enough I wouldn't walk out on the team, but if people are consistantly in the office at 7pm then either they're shit at their job and need the extra time or the company is asking too much of them.

I work part time two days a week about 5 miles from home and I cycle. The 5 mile route is a bit boring so I've worked out some 10(ish) mile and 15(ish) mile routes that are on interesting roads and give me a good work out. Some of the people at work think I'm daft cycling 15 miles.

My commute into london daily is 33 miles each way, and takes just over an hour by bike. I figure if your work in london and your commute is and hour or less you are doing ok. Using the train is at least 2 hours each way and the car 2 to 3 with less than ideal parking.

I am used to commuting as I have done it most of my career. I dont really notice the costs, but I put about £45 worth of petrol in the bike a week and the hidden costs must be high: My bike has 15000 miles on it in just over a year.

Mines a company car with a fuel card but I buy my personal fuel back
Seems to work well!