Is being paid for work mileage a money maker?

[redpoint5]

You would have to be doing things very wrong to loose money on mileage reimbursement. My TSX is hardly the most efficient vehicle out there, and it costs $0.11 a mile in fuel. Even if my other maintenance and depreciation costs were $.09/mi, that would only be $0.20/mi. Anything paid over that is pure profit. A cheaper, more fuel efficient vehicle will do much better. Take a look at your fuel log to find out how much you spend in fuel every mile, and estimate your cost per mile for maintenance and depreciation.

My friend had a Mazda Protege completely paid for in travel reimbursements. He'd get a check every month for roughly the cost of his car payment.

Of course, a company vehicle that you can use for personal travel would be even better.

[poomanchu]

I would never call 'mileage' or trip fee's a money maker. It's just to offset the cost to get you there, even if you can make a bit off it you have to consider wear and tear. The real money lies in the reason they called you there in the first place; your expertise and the job ahead. Unless you are a Taxi cab or courier xD

[user removed]

If I could collect 50 cents a mile, in 20 k miles that would have paid for my Fiesta. Thats a heck of a lot more money than it cost me to drive it 20k miles.

$5000 for 10k miles.

regards
Mech

[Cobb]

Delivering news papers the miles didnt pay much. I want to say it was like 12-13 cents a mile. For most vehicles of the time you broke even in the early 90s.

Weigh all your options. If your a smoker it maybe your best bet since you could likely getaway with smoking in your own vehicle on the job and not just on your 2 15s.

[American Viking]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Many jobs that pay miles, pay less in drive pay. For example I wanted to go into pest control. They pay x for an hour for a service call and y an hour to drive their truck or y+per mile to drive your vehicle.

Originally Posted by Cobb

In the end it paid more to do service calls, than drive to service calls.

That's true, but its still is better to get paid when the only reason to be traveling somewhere is for the job.
I've worked jobs where trips to the client were not paid for nor was mileage.
I've worked jobs where the mileage was paid, but not wages for the travel hours.
I've worked jobs where the mileage wasn't paid, but the wages for the hours were.
I've worked jobs where the wage was on differential rate and the company required a rental car (so we would rent a saab or volvo).

But to really answer mcrews' question, You have to figure in not just the cost of gas, but a % of the annual insurance, maintenance and resale depreciation due to advancing the mileage, for your vehicle.

[pete c]

Well, I landed a field gig. Started a few weeks ago.

Company pays at the gov rate, currently about 56 cents/mile. I can typically do about 33 mpg if I pay the slightest bit of attention to driving frugally. I plan on installing a FICO switch and maybe investing in a mpguino or scan guage. I think with a bit of effort, I can get those numbers over 35 mpg. Most travel will be highway.

The tech I have been working with has been raking up the miles pretty fast. Over 500/wk is not uncommon. It will probably drop off a little as I will be taking some of the load off him.

Guess I will find out what sort of a money maker it is soon.

[Hersbird]

The rural letter carriers make a bunch of extra money and work out of much nicer cars using their own cars then the rural carriers forced to use the mail trucks. These carriers have the worst possible usage as well, slow idle stop and go, and every one complains when they convert the route to use a government mail truck. Not just the lost income but the mail trucks are noisy, rear drive, poor steering, and hotter then hell with no a.c. and a thin aluminum firewall and floor.

[Joggernot]

Originally Posted by pete c

Well, I landed a field gig. Started a few weeks ago.

Company pays at the gov rate, currently about 56 cents/mile. I can typically do about 33 mpg if I pay the slightest bit of attention to driving frugally. I plan on installing a FICO switch and maybe investing in a mpguino or scan guage. I think with a bit of effort, I can get those numbers over 35 mpg. Most travel will be highway.

The tech I have been working with has been raking up the miles pretty fast. Over 500/wk is not uncommon. It will probably drop off a little as I will be taking some of the load off him.

Guess I will find out what sort of a money maker it is soon.

I just took 1200 mile trip at the .56 cents/mile and came out $700+ ahead, not counting insurance, wear and tear, etc. That's at 30 mpg. I also got paid for 16 hours of the 20 hours of driving. I was ok with that.

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by Joggernot

I just took 1200 mile trip at the .56 cents/mile and came out $700+ ahead, not counting insurance, wear and tear, etc. That's at 30 mpg. I also got paid for 16 hours of the 20 hours of driving. I was ok with that.

As you said,

not counting insurance, wear and tear, etc.

Funny how we often don't calculate and add on those factors as part of the bottom line, as to whether we are coming out ahead, or not.

[ksa8907]

I get paid $0.56/ mile tax free. So far this month ive driven about 200 miles and in the summer I will average around 400 miles/ month for work. Its a nice junk of change but by the time you factor in depreciation, oil changes, tires, alignments, suspension repair, maybe you hit a pothole?, etc. Its not like you are really making money at it.