Daily travel time/distance?
Discussion
Snollygoster said:
That being said, one job I lived a 2 minute walk away which was brilliant as it meant going home for lunch, longer in bed in the mornings, and frees up time and energy at night.
I had that for one job - 3 minute drive (I needed the car handy for meetings & site visits) to and from work.Great in the mornings but I found that I'd get home and couldn't relax as my mind was still full of 'work'. I find that a reasonable commute can be good for planning your next day so that by the time you get home, work has finished and there's a proper split between the office & home lifes.
To add something a little more concrete than personal opinion, I work for a smallish consultancy so obviously travel to wherever the client is.
Our rule of thumb is: if your commute is normally 90 minutes or more then staying over in a hotel is reasonable. Less than 90 minutes and you are expected to commute.
Living in southeast London/NW Kent I've nearly always had a 75+ minute commute (train+tube previously would always take that long door to door). I'm now working for a client in Reading to stay over 2 nights a week (70 miles is anything from 70 minutes to 4 hours, depending on how the M25 is feeling).
Our rule of thumb is: if your commute is normally 90 minutes or more then staying over in a hotel is reasonable. Less than 90 minutes and you are expected to commute.
Living in southeast London/NW Kent I've nearly always had a 75+ minute commute (train+tube previously would always take that long door to door). I'm now working for a client in Reading to stay over 2 nights a week (70 miles is anything from 70 minutes to 4 hours, depending on how the M25 is feeling).
OP - is this not standard practice in the construction industry? I've got a mate who's a Project Manager for a contractor and he's worked all over the country. He's accepted that their construction sites are not always going to be conveniently located close to where he lives and either moves to where the job is, commutes or stays in a B&B during the week. However, if he moves or stays in a B&B his employer meets the costs.
Anything more than an hour would be unacceptable to me. My commute is into a major city centre from the suburbs - 7.5 miles takes 30 minutes on the bike or 30-45 mins in the car, plus a walk from the car park. I take the bike most of the time as I find sitting in stationary traffic frustrating. I started my career doing a 90 min commute each way from my home town and it drove me nuts - after 6 months I moved to where my job is and have never looked back, although I was a lot younger then with no dependants.
Anything more than an hour would be unacceptable to me. My commute is into a major city centre from the suburbs - 7.5 miles takes 30 minutes on the bike or 30-45 mins in the car, plus a walk from the car park. I take the bike most of the time as I find sitting in stationary traffic frustrating. I started my career doing a 90 min commute each way from my home town and it drove me nuts - after 6 months I moved to where my job is and have never looked back, although I was a lot younger then with no dependants.
I was at one point travelling from East London to Oxford every day. I'd leave around 6am and get in work around 8.30. The journey involved;
1 mile walk
Tube to Baker street and change to Paddington
Train to Oxford (quite often having to change at Didcot / Reading)
1 mile walk to office
The whole journey was around 2.5 hours on average. I did this for 7 or 8 months and it killed me however the alternative was to stop in a crap Travelodge instead of going home so I put up with it and just took an early dart on a Friday.
I'd say generally an hour to 1.5 hours is long enough before deciding to either refuse to travel or stopping in a hotel. I personally hate hotels although some guys I work with love getting away from home. It really depends how long you're expected to do it for. 12 months distance travel would be my cut-off.
1 mile walk
Tube to Baker street and change to Paddington
Train to Oxford (quite often having to change at Didcot / Reading)
1 mile walk to office
The whole journey was around 2.5 hours on average. I did this for 7 or 8 months and it killed me however the alternative was to stop in a crap Travelodge instead of going home so I put up with it and just took an early dart on a Friday.
I'd say generally an hour to 1.5 hours is long enough before deciding to either refuse to travel or stopping in a hotel. I personally hate hotels although some guys I work with love getting away from home. It really depends how long you're expected to do it for. 12 months distance travel would be my cut-off.
Two hours is too long! You'd go insane pretty quickly.
My commute is frustrating. It's not far at all, about 22-ish miles? However the time can be the killer. It involves a short drive to the edge of town, followed by about 18 or so miles on the A12. Then battling through the middle of Chelmsford.
The frustrating thing is traffic. I've got normal 9-5 hours, Monday to Friday. I've driven to Chelmsford at the weekends, for social reasons, and occasionally stick around for a drink on a Friday evening. Out of hours the journey takes less than half an hour.
Traffic and roadworks bump that up to around an hour, sometimes 90 minutes at peak time! I have to leave home at 7:30-7:45 am to guarantee to get there for five to nine!
My commute is frustrating. It's not far at all, about 22-ish miles? However the time can be the killer. It involves a short drive to the edge of town, followed by about 18 or so miles on the A12. Then battling through the middle of Chelmsford.
The frustrating thing is traffic. I've got normal 9-5 hours, Monday to Friday. I've driven to Chelmsford at the weekends, for social reasons, and occasionally stick around for a drink on a Friday evening. Out of hours the journey takes less than half an hour.
Traffic and roadworks bump that up to around an hour, sometimes 90 minutes at peak time! I have to leave home at 7:30-7:45 am to guarantee to get there for five to nine!
My Daily Commute is roughly 2 hours door to door. 28 miles in total. Almost solely by train. Do around 3 miles walking a day and around 2 miles in a car. The depressing part, it costs me £305 a month in train fare....I've been doing it for 8 years. Maybe i need to move to London or work closer to home!
After a variety of jobs with commutes ranging from 30 to 90 minutes each way I decided a couple of years ago that life is too short to waste hours at the end of each working day just getting to and from work.
I'm now less than 2 miles from work, finish at 5.30 and home before 5.40 every day.
It pays enough but I'll never be rich. The guys I work with often discuss what price we would put on moving to a job which would mean a commute. factoring in fuel and parking costs to be honest I think I'd need around an £8k uplift to make it worthwhile and that just ain't gonna happen.
I'm now less than 2 miles from work, finish at 5.30 and home before 5.40 every day.
It pays enough but I'll never be rich. The guys I work with often discuss what price we would put on moving to a job which would mean a commute. factoring in fuel and parking costs to be honest I think I'd need around an £8k uplift to make it worthwhile and that just ain't gonna happen.
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