Working Hours? Do you ?

[Dinosaur]

Hopefully you've already paid your Insurance, Vehicle Excise Duty and MOT anyway, so only the fuel and wear and tear are coming out of your 40p - I cost it at about 25p/mile for a 1.6 Nissan Note (15p fuel and 10p to replace the car next time around) so the rest is, in fact, profit

[Wax]

Hopefully you've already paid your Insurance, Vehicle Excise Duty and MOT anyway, so only the fuel and wear and tear are coming out of your 40p - I cost it at about 25p/mile for a 1.6 Nissan Note (15p fuel and 10p to replace the car next time around) so the rest is, in fact, profit

This presumes that you are running a car for other use apart from work. I would not need a vehicle for private use. In theory I could proportion business use against tax but I would need to keep very good records. I once worked it out that to keep a car on the road insured, taxed (serviced) and totally legal was between ?2000-?3000 a year (thats if it is more than 3 years old). I have been running a car for work for well over 30 years and there is no profit in it, if there was you would get taxed on it. Most people underestimate the cost of running a vehicle (or are running an unsafe vehicle!!!)

[Dinosaur]

I do around 20 000 miles a year over and above any paying mileage, so the other stuff's covered (service and MOT last Friday - eek! - and helpful advance warning of where the next 500 quid's going...thanks Mister Garage Man...) - actually I get added value on most of my pay-milage since it's usually instead of commuting mileage I'd be shelling out for anyway, in which case on the above maths I'm actually effectively doing around 65p mile-on-mile when I'm out and about. But yes, you're right, you'd never pay for it solely on mileage unless you're doing epic remunerated work mileage

[kevin wooldridge]

I think the taxman is pretty clued up as to what the average mileage rate (40p per mile) gives the average motorist in return i.e not a great deal of profit unless someone else is paying the majority of costs of the vehicle. One would imagine that any organisation offering say ?1 per mile would soon be on the receiving end of a HMRC investigation if the recipients weren't paying a lot of extra tax on their mileage rate...

...still its refreshing to see that thier are a few 'innocents' still out there in the world of archaeology, who think an occasional 'wedge' is good replacement for a living wage that would spare them the indignity of robbing the taxman (and therefore the rest of us!!) via their car mileage claim....haven't heard from one of them for a few years!! .

[Dinosaur]

Still 40p better than not being paid to go somewhere you have to go anyway to earn the pittance that passes for wages? - your outgoings are still the same. Certainly in my case (94 mile round commute to the office anyway) going out on site and earning mileage instead is an important source of extra income/savings thanks, if nothing else it means someone else is paying the petrol

[Jack]

It used to be profitable to get a 2 (ish) year old reliable (low mileage) car. Be self employed. Declare one of your rooms as an office. Claim all journeys from place of work to place of work against tax (i.e. house to office, house or office to site).
Sell car after about 2 years.
Buy another 2 (ish) year old car etc etc..........

Not sure if it still is. Also depends on a regular stream of away work/ watching briefs.

[Bigpicture]

I think the taxman is pretty clued up as to what the average mileage rate (40p per mile) gives the average motorist in return i.e not a great deal of profit unless someone else is paying the majority of costs of the vehicle. One would imagine that any organisation offering say ?1 per mile would soon be on the receiving end of a HMRC investigation if the recipients weren't paying a lot of extra tax on their mileage rate...

...still its refreshing to see that thier are a few 'innocents' still out there in the world of archaeology, who think an occasional 'wedge' is good replacement for a living wage that would spare them the indignity of robbing the taxman (and therefore the rest of us!!) via their car mileage claim....haven't heard from one of them for a few years!! .

I'm biting my tongue in view of the AUP. While I will bear the patronising nature of this post, it remains a fact that I generally do c. 50 miles e/w p/d or more and at 40p per mile that works out pretty well for me. Maybe you should purchase a more economical car? While I'm on here, you could also consider affording others a little more respect. We may, of course, disagree but it would stand you in good stead to deal with the issues rather than suppress the individual with petty, inconsequential, putdowns.

[BAJR]

That said. This seems to follow the Per deim argument in America. where a crap hourly rate is bolstered by a per deim. where you can juggle it to try and increase basic pay.

People are getting a bit prickly here. (so thank you for abiding by AUP) and perhaps this is a sign of how you have to try and find any way to increase a pay packet that makes a Window Cleaner laugh into their buckets of soapy Water. ( again, no offence against Window Cleaners, they perform a useful task in society) #1 A Starter salary is over 18,000 !

So why do we have to find ways to enhance wages? Why do we accept 37.5 hour weeks and then end up working 40 ( but paid for 37.5) Why should one person with a car be able to glean a few extra pounds while another working next to them not?

We put up with so much and seem to believe in the following : Get by, Keep your head down, don't rock the boat, and take what you can - as well as look out for yourself.

Why do we have to have these discussions, because we are the ones that create the environment to allow it. Imagine a company trying to tender for a job at minimum cost on staffing.... then finding that nobody will work for them, because another company has put staff welfare first. Ah... a pipe dream sadly, because what people do is mutter that the company that pays well and provides all the extras as well as ensuring site accommodation and storage is of the highest standard and has an archaeological field strategy that actually takes into account the archaeology will NOT get the job. Therefore... when the company that wins the job, looks for staff... who will be on minimum (or less) asked to work extra hours ( for the good of getting the job done - nothing to do with under budgeted project! ) Gives you a cake on Friday... which you eat in the toolshed while sitting on the generator. Well guess what the Great British digger often do.

Yup.... they will mutter... better any job than none. :face-approve: and if I can squeeze an extra 13.2 pence a mile ! Whoo-hooo luxury.

Travel should be for travel not to increase a weekly rate to a liveable level.





#1 With regard to age and impact on salary for a Window Cleaner, a statistical average weighting (that is based on how salary varies by age and not for a specific job which may vary considerably) suggests these figures: ?18,114 for a worker in their 20s, ?23,669 (30s), ?28,017 (40s)
http://www.mysalary.co.uk/average-salary/Window_Cleaner_11991

[Wax]

BAJR is right. The real issue is not who is managing to scrape a little extra from their milage claims but rather that we at not rebelling against the iniquities built into the industry. I do not think Kevin was putting anyone down but rather smiling at the naivity of those who see the few extra pennies as a nice little bonus when the reality is so awful.

[Dinosaur]

...while in the meantime those extra pennies (/few hundred quid) come in very handy :face-kiss:

(although this month it's only come to ?50, ho hum)