High Miler
Is this Britain's highest mileage driver?
What Car? magazine reckons that it's has found Britain's highest mileage driver.
Jason Palmer, a 28-year-old recruitment manager racks up 120,000 miles a year tooling about the country. Jason, who is employed by a security firm based in Gatwick, lives in Llandudno in North Wales. His average week involves driving 2000 miles all over the UK.
And the best bit? He does it all in one of those hideous little Suzuki Wagon Rs!
Jason said: 'I like the Suzuki because it sits high on the road, and the company car tax is minimal because it fits in the lowest tax band and has such a low list price. '
His only criticism is the fuel economy, which can drop to 30mpg on the motorway. That means an outlay of £8993 on petrol if he fails to reduce his annual mileage to 100,000 and hits 120,000 as he did last year.
A typical week in the life of Jason consists of:
- Monday Leave home near Llandudno in North Wales at 2 am for meeting in Portsmouth
- Leave at 3 pm and arrive home around 10 pm
- Tuesday & Wednesday Visit Job Centres in Manchester, Bradford, York and Harrogate
- Thursday Job Centre in Stockport in the morning, drive six or seven hours down to head office near Gatwick.
- Stay overnight
- Friday Drive six or seven hours back to Llandudno
Can you beat that?
Also a average of 2,000 miles per week does not equate to 120,000 miles a year (should be 2,300).
I think he would be better off working from home as doing that sort of mileage means he is probably very tired in the car and potentially a danger to every other vehicle (although that thing would probably bounce off most other vehicles).
m-five said:
he is probably very tired in the car and potentially a danger to every other vehicle (although that thing would probably bounce off most other vehicles).
Quite right. A recipe for disaster. These cars are meant for people who are quite happy to do 3 miles a year while waiting for god.
This sort of car is highly stressful for high mileage driving. Uncomfortable, unstable, and the tiny whining engine that needs to be held on the redline to maintain any sort of speed.
To cover 120miles pa, taking 240 working days a year of eight hours a piece, this guy would be averaging 62.5mph, and that's driving for 8 hours a day without taking time to actually do any work.
Sounds completely unfeasible to me and either the article is wrong or he's in breach of employers H&S laws on driving hours.
>> Edited by CarZee on Friday 26th March 10:34
Failing that, as has been mentioned, video-conferencing, Email and telephones should be the order of the day. The costs saved would more than cover the cost of the equipment.
thanuk said:
I simply don't believe that he needs to PERSONALLY visit all those locations every week.
It sounds like that's his job - to interview people at job centres.
The problem is he's based in Gatwick but chooses to live in Llandudno.
That is the puzzling thing - even though he does work all over the country, north wales is hardly the best place for driving to and from is it? I would have though somewhere east of birmingham (easy access to M1 and M6/M5 etc) would make much more sense. Plus he wouldn't have to live in north wales
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