As fuel costs are uncertain and have the potential to increase, what can providers do to make sure they are monitoring or reducing the cost of travel?
Mileage and Travel Time Review
All homecare providers are aware that travel time and mileage are outgoing expenditures that offer no return. It’s essentially dead money, and costs need to be kept to a minimum. This can be easier said than done, especially in rural areas. Completing a mileage and travel time review is a must.
You should include the following as part of this process:
- Geographical areas – are people you support still grouped in the most cost effective manner in terms of location?
- How many miles are staff driving per day on average?
- How much are you spending on travel time per day on average?
- How many drivers, cyclists and walkers do you have?
Following the Review
You may wish to consider the following:
- Set your maximum travel time limit per person/per hour of care or support – make sure the coordinators are aware of this
- Do the same for your mileage
- Some routes, although shorter in mileage, may be much longer in travelling time – do your research
- Make sure your runs are realistic for the length of time spent travelling
- Can you create a run for two carers to travel in the same vehicle? For visits that require two carers, or clusters of service users who live close to each other
- Work out how much you can spend per minute and ensure that you take on any future care packages accordingly
- Reduce non-essential travel – such as meetings that can be done online
- Introduce a digital software system that has GPS, this often has dual functionality where you can choose the route based on shortest distance by miles or shortest travel time
- If you have been using fuel cards, consider paying mileage per mile – it may work out cheaper
- Consider asking staff to review their work patterns, if this may have a positive effect on the amount of travel and mileage
- Consider approaching some service users to see if they may be able to have their care delivered at a different time, you may find some people are willing or might prefer it
Talk to Your Team
Talk to your team, let them know the concerns and why. Make sure everyone understands why reducing or monitoring the travel time and mileage is important, especially for your coordinators but also for the carers, they may not understand why runs are being altered – it’s always nicer to know first (and better for morale).
Important Note: Travel time can have a real impact on staff ability to earn the National Living Wage if travel is not paid at the same rate as contact time. This is a huge factor in your rota planning and not one to be missed! You must ensure that the distance travelled by carers in no way affects their ability to earn the National Living Wage. In order to retain staff, this is an important factor.
Did you know?
If the company pays less than £0.45 per mile, staff can claim the difference up to the first 10000 miles.
You may find this useful
The Cost of Care Toolkit a useful tool to help you see how much is really being spent in all areas of the business.
https://www.costofcaretoolkit.co.uk/hc-download
Download the Factsheet
