geordie mandy

I often have to go clients house to assess them for home care, Some days i just visit one client who may live either close to my office or near to my home and i dont worry about that. However for eg, the other day i did 80k visiting 4 clients , the next day visited 1 client and clocked up over 200k round trip well it was rural and nearly a 4 hour round trip.
My company dont pay me any fuel allowance , they say i have use of a company car but we dont have one for every case manager/ coordinator so i always seem to dip out . Being part time and having clients that live all over Darwin down as far Darwin River. I have just been told to claim on my tax which i have been. When ever ive tried to book a car to use especially when im traveling long distances there is never anything for me.
The support workers my company employ very rarely stay as they have to use their own cars to take clients shopping and to appointments. They are always complaining about wear and tear on their cars etc. Dont blame them but not sure of a way around this, when head office wont acknowledge its an issue
Am i alone in being in this situation or are there others who have had the same situation and found away around it, or should i just lump it
Mandy

IvanM

I get a car allowance or I can hire a car.

Bermudashorts

No experience of it personally in Australia but I have never heard anything like that before in my working life. I would be telling my company that I am reimbursed or I don't go.

Grayling

Sounds like typically shonky australian work practices

Dorothy

I'm with BS. Tell them either you get mileage allowance, a company car or they can reschedule the client to a time when a car is available.

Alfresco

Yep, it's not right to have to fork out your own cash for mileage.

chris and farideh

Mandy I even get milage allowance, it's part my contract, I would talk to them hon, 200km isn't a joke.

spalen

I work for a blue chip company and we have a casual mileage allowance

i have never heard of a company not paying mileage -that is rubbish

Yes you can claim on Tax - but all you are claiming is 70% or 50% or whatever your marginal rate is - so i'd be telling them to cough up or make the cars available for you to use. If you cant find a car then you should be reimbursed.

quoll

When I worked in local government we could claim for work miles but they reimbursed less than the tax allowance so we could claim the difference in our tax. It was such a convoluted process though that many of us didnt bother to claim and just claimed off tax (keep log book).

My last employer (charity) didnt have a mileage allowance - not that I knew of anyway so would claim on income tax. I much prefer the freedom of driving my own car and not having to book a car etc so it was never a problem for me.

Buzzy--Bee

Quite apart from the mileage reimbursement issue, it is unlikely that your regular car insurance would cover you, especially for passenger transport such as this.

If you had an accident with clients in the car, you might find your insurance company use that as an excuse not to pay out at all.

BB

goldchoccycoin

I get 74c per km. Fairly generous on a small car - wouldn't be great if I had a bigger car.

Wouldn't do it for nothing!

geordie mandy

Thanks every one for the in put, BB i was wondering about the insurance stance , but when support workers are employed they are told they need to use their own car, so im not sure if they declare it with their insurance companies.
Usually its not often i take a client in my car, unless they have an appointment at the hospital and ask for me to attend as their coordinator.. I know my husband hasnt declared that i may use my car for work purposes.
What i try to do is visit clients on the way to work or on the way home when possible so that im being truthful saying im on my way to the office /home.

I think at our next office meeting i will once again bring the issue up of using personal cars for work purposes.
Mandy

chris and farideh

I have had to declare it to my insurance company, but it wasn't much add on to the original insurance quote so if you take your client out to appointments you need to declare to your insurance company too hon.

Bermudashorts

You really should talk to your insurance company. I would do that before you use your car for work again.

If you have a claim and it is revealed that there was a client in the car or that you were driving around in the middle of the day (a clue that maybe it was not travel to and from work) then I believe you will have a realy battle getting them to pay out and probably you would lose.