Using private car for company use...

Spocker

I'm currently employed as a "Software Engineer" for a company (I use quotes as it's the term from my contract).

Recently the company has decided to branch out into managed services for professional type offices (soliciters and the like) who have PC's/networks but no in-house IT support. I was told (not asked) that I'd be part of the team supplying this service to our new found customers (cause I used to have a support job in a previous incarnation ).

So far, no problem.

What I'm looking for some help on is this: one of the customers has a second office approx 50 miles away (-> 100 mile round trip) that I may/may not be called upon to visit at some time in the future (i.e. the milage in a given year will be low - say less than 1000). I am expected to use my own private vehicle for this purpose, but only have a private car policy (and a clean no claims record as well), so my insurance is reasonably cheap. The company has agreed a milage allowance with the customer (approx 60c a mile) and I appreciate the fact that when a milage allowance is paid, the employee generally picks up all other charges.

But given that the milage will probably be low, should I insist that my employer make up the balance of upgrading my private car policy to include business use?

I've already mentioned it in conversation with the boss (the rest of the team were there as well) and was fobbed off with "Oh but the milage allowance is generous ..."

I'm not looking for legal advice as such but would like to get an idea of where I stand: can I be "forced" (I use the term loosely) to use my own car and am I being unreasonable in expecting them to pay the difference?

If it's any help I did a quick check on an insurance companys online quote jobby and the difference between private only and private/limited business use was about 25% (of an increase).

Has anyone else even been in this situation...?

RicardoSmith

Make your car unavailable at the appropriate time, and then ask to borrow the boss'es car. See how he likes it. They tried this on one of my contracts and all of a sudden I had all these mechancial problems with my car, and I never had money for taxi's. Odd isn't. Why take on the problem. Let the company sort it out. They are making money from this arrangment Potentially it could leave you out of pocket and its possibly illegal. Why take the risk? Whats the tax situation with these expenses?

eoin_f

been in this situation before, id assume your employer charges a call out charge for you to maintain your customer, this would be either a flat call out charge, possibly time included after and possible mileage. either way the company is making good money on this contract. the mileage charge you recieve is only to cover wear and tear and petrol costs but does seem extremly low. i used to get 34pence per mile on a company car in 1997. i believe it is up to your company to include you on their company fleet policy (assuming they have one) or pay you for converting your car from personal to business use, they are basically trying to keep costs down with this deal.

hope this is of ues to you

E.

Borzoi

Have you checked with your insurance company and policy, most allow for visiting customers etc, but you should check

Kernel32

My first computer job 9 years ago or so required me to be on the road a good bit and all I got was to claim expenses, milage plus meals. I wasn't too bothered by that aspect of it really, what bothered me was that I would sometimes have equipment in my car, PC, backup devices etc. If my car was stolen or broken into and then insurance would probably have been tricky when it came to those items. If it were me I wouldn't be bothered by it unless I was carrying equipment, if you are then you need to make sure your boss knows that if anything happens to it you are not responsible and your insurance won't cover it.

WhiteWashMan

check the insurance company.
if there is a change in the cost of your policy, then get a quote and ask the company to pay the difference.

otherwise, unless your contract already tells you that they can do it, they dont really have anything they can do, except to renegotiate your contract to include call out and to pay remuneration for the additional work.

of course, if it is in your contract, then you need to read it carefully, and see what you can expense.
but unless you have specifically been employed to be a field engineer or travelling sales, i suspect your car is not considered for company business, and you should be able to claim for the additional insurance. after that, its a case of company standard milage.

Spocker

Thanks for the help guys. Just to answer some of the questions:

RicardoSmith wrote:

Whats the tax situation with these expenses?

AFAIK, according to Revenue, once "all other costs (sic - I assume this means insurance as well) are borne by the employee" then you get to keep the milage allowance without having to pay tax on it.

eoin_f wrote:

the mileage charge you recieve is only to cover wear and tear and petrol costs but does seem extremly low

From what I've heard, 63 cent is supposed to be generous (in the private sector), I believe civil servants can claim 116.39 cent for less than 4000 miles for vehicles > 1501 cc (would be the same as my vehicle and expected milage)

Borzoi wrote:

Have you checked with your insurance company and policy, most allow for visiting customers etc, but you should check

Yup, they say social, domestic use only. Visting my companys customers constitutes "Limited Business Use" and will incur a further charge

Kernel32 wrote:

If it were me I wouldn't be bothered by it unless I was carrying equipment, if you are then you need to make sure your boss knows that if anything happens to it you are not responsible and your insurance won't cover it

I think you're right there Kernel, it seems to be the path of least resistance (Note this is based on the assumption that I may have to carry some items of equipment but probably not a lot)

WhiteWashMan wrote:

otherwise, unless your contract already tells you that they can do it, they dont really have anything they can do, except to renegotiate your contract to include call out and to pay remuneration for the additional work.

I don't think they'll re-negotiate my contract but there is no mention of car use - there is the standard "may have to travel" clause - AFAIK this isn't legally binding - I don't think a company can force you to travel on their behalf


No calls to use the car yet anyways (it may never happen) - I'm sure this will all come to a head when they do ask. If anything happens I'll post up here

WhiteWashMan

if its in your contract, then yes, they can make you travel to do work.
however, limited travel does not constitute the use of your car.
you will only find that in cases where the peerson is a sales rep, and account manager, or a field engineer.
and in these cases, the company will make provisions for these situations with either a company car, or a milage and car allowance fromthe start.
for example, in my last job, i had a BMW. in my current job, i get 500 quid a month car allowance, plus 40p a mile.
i would talk to your HR people and see what the story is with car allowances, milages etc if youa re going to be doing this travel stuff. you may be entitled to something.
or you may not

Spocker

Dr. Spock wrote:

there is the standard "may have to travel" clause

That'll teach me not to read my own contract . There is no "may have to travel clause" as such - it reads as follows:

However the company reserves the right to relocate or to require you to work at such other locations as the Company may consider necessary or appropriate for the proper discharge of your job duties and responsibilities

This clase is to allow for the fact that our parent company has other European offices that we occasionaly have to travel to. I'm sure it could probably be applied to my situation so, yes, I have to go.

Will still try to wiggle out of using my car though, will come up with some excuse on the day and try and get away with it . Thanks for the help guys