[Alan Rowley]

Hi all,

I have now taken on two more staff so that myself and my partner can spend more time in the pub concentrate on building the business. The new ladies live quite a way from the jobs so I will need to formalise the way I pay travel and petrol allowances.

Our arrangement with our current cleaners is as follows:

1. The driver gets paid a petrol allowance for private car usage, which she submits at the end of the month. I have no way of checking if this is correct. She also gets paid from when she leaves her home until when she returns, provided there are no rest breaks, including picking up other cleaners.

2. The non-driver gets paid from when she gets to the job until she finishes the job.

3. All cleaners get paid for travel time between jobs, excluding any rest breaks.

I want to replace this agreement with something that is simpler and easier to manage. I was thinking of paying the driver an allowance of 30p per mile. This will cover her time and petrol costs.

The non-driver will also get an allowance, based on 30p per mile, for travel between jobs.

By doing it this way, I know in advance how much I am going to have to pay out in travel costs and it is not open to abuse.

Do you think this is fair? Is 30p per mile about right?

[Rousey]

Why don't you go to the cleaners house and 'do her run' this will give you a good idea of what she is doing!? Then what I would do (might be to late in this instance) is build the cost of her allowance into the contract you have, so it is not eating up into your profit!?

[Helen]

check on HMRC website, but I think the claim is 40p per mile per the first so many thousand of miles.
For mileage claims the person has to submit their claim which details mileage start, mileage finish, total miles. what reason are they claiming mileage for, per each time they use their vehicle for work purposes. Also fuel receipts should be checked in conjunction with this.
As for paying ASWELL for time leaving home and getting home.......can I work for you? Think about it if you were going to work for someone else each day and you contract said  start 8.30 to finish 17:00 and it took you half an hour to travel each way, would you get paid an extra hour? Also check out, but I think mileage claims can only be made whe it is a case of milegae used to carry out the work and not for getting to and from the work.......Wish HMRC would make it simple

[Alan Rowley]

Hi Helen,

At the moment, I only have one person who does the driving. This will rise to three or four in the next few weeks.

The driver will come to my house (she only lives a few hundred yards away) and she picks up keys / materials / invoices etc for her jobs.

She will then set off to pick up her team-mate - this is when she starts getting paid. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that she has to pick up her mate and travel to the first job is enough for her to be paid.

Surely no-one would pick up someone and drive maybe 5 or 10 miles to work for us without some form of payment. The mate doesn't get paid until she starts work.

ALAN

[Helen]

Hi, I'd she only lives a few hundred yards away I would take the kit etc to her. Car sharing which is happening here for you is a "personal" thing and iy should be up to the couple to come to some form of agreement between themselves, after all if the non driving one, didn't get picked up then she couldn't do the job anyway. Don't get me wrong I know where you are coming from on this, but too many times we nicey employers get S*** on 

[pdl]

If your cleaner is using her own car, has she informed her Insurance Company?  She must also prove to you that the car is taxed and has an MOT.  Just some of the pitfalls of employees using their own cars.