As many posts as possible to this question

Hi all,

I was wondering if engineers/consultants in the uk could post here to tell me what their company gives them for working away from home ?

i.e. Do they pay for your hotel the night before or make you drive ?
i.e. Do they give you a food allowance for the evening ?
i.e. Do they give you some time the day before to travel or do you have to do this when you finish work for that day ?
etc...

I am just after a feel for what other employers do in these circumstances.

Cheers

Wayne

There's quite a complicated policy, but basically you get your hotel paid for (from a list of company approved ones, you can't just choose) and you get an allowance of I think about £24 for the day's eating. Plus if you leave before 04:30 to go somewhere you can claim for a breakfast as well, and if you eat on a train you get whatever it costs. You have to produce receipts for everything and claim it back afterwards; takes up to a fortnight to get it. You can also claim per night for 'personal incidental expenses' which means stuff like a newspaper or a new toothbrush because you forgot it. And you're allowed to phone home. As to whether they make you travel or give you a hotel that depends on your manager's discretion. Some are reasonable and some are not. I argue strongly for travelling the night before and staying over because I'm not a morning person and consider it unreasonable for the company to expect me to drive for hours while mostly asleep then do a full days work. Most of the time I get my way. But then after the last day I travel straight home so they get their saving at one end if not the other.

Cheers Bishop

Can no-one else share what their company does ? I have been asked by our MD to determine what the market place does for these situations.

My last job had a policy similar to the Bishops.

They would pay for a hotel the night before.
Pay for all food.
If I drove my car, I would get mileage reimbusement.
They would encourage me to site see.

I guess it really depends on the company or contract.

I am in the US and the company I work for has a set prefered list
but you can vary from this by submitting a reason.

Cheaper hotel or comperable, non in prefered distance, connected with a pre set conference.

My company pays nothing up front except Transport = Train or Airfaire.

Meals are only paid in conjunction with a hotel stay. (yes if you save them $$ by staying with a friend and saving them the hotel charge they reject your meals)

My company even breaks it out by breackfast, lunch and dinner.
Prior to being purchased, the former company had a set daily limit.

If you got from the hotel breakfast and the unit treated you to lunch, then you had a real nice dinner allowance.

Not sure this will help, but at least you know that it's never a set standard.

Having my own company I guess really doesn't classify my post for this thread, however when I was working in Australia, the company would pay airfares, taxi and general transportation, alongside with all meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They also provided us with an American Express card so we could charge it all on the card The great part was that we earned points that after a few years were transformed into bonus miles for free air-plane tickets I actually earn enough points to send two friends around a 11,500km trip to various cities around Australia and another two relatives to two different cities

Hope that helps,

Cheers,