[Closed] Long distance (car) commuters

Depends on how long it takes too.

1hour 10 mins +, one pretty good road.

big difference between 60 miles of empty motorway and 60 miles through traffic. Where is the journey and how reliable are the journey times.

Either way, you will be wanting a car with good mpg....

1hr 10min is perfectly doable

If that is a reliable time than no big deal if your working hours are sensible.

I would try to make the trip tomorrow at the same time as you would normally have to leave.

It's a long way if there is heavy traffic but if free flowing should be easy enough. Factor in the depreciation & consumables on your car for doing ~30k miles per year. These won't be insignificant.

If your working office hours then I would imagine the honeymoon period would be over rather fast.

I couldn't hack it
tried it - got depressed - found somewhere closer to home
40 mins is my max now

are they paying for the car depreciation / maintainance and fuel.... if not poke that.

Ive driven the road many times with the present job but not had to do it each day, major a road between two towns. Basic office hours but flexible enough I could start/finish either side traffic peaks.

The practicalities are covered its the lifestyle issue thats a concern.

I did 70 miles, 1.5 hr for about 9 months and it wasn't pleasant at all. It's very surprising how knackering sitting in a car 3 hrs a day can be. I found the general fatigue worse than when I was being woken several times a night when my son was born!

i did 40 miles each way for a while - and even then it was only on my 1 week out of 8 in the office !

im glad neither of my cars can do more than the speed limit give or take , i can see why people are tempted to exceed speed limits doing the same roads day in day out .... did my head in.

I did 30miles (between 50mins and an hour) and I didn't mind the drive. The cost however - that soon added up. Much more than 2gallons of fuel a day for sure!

I would see if you could negotiate at least 1 day a week working from home. If the job was really ace, I would take it but be open to the possibility of needing to move once you have settled in and decided that's where you want to work.

My office is approx 55 miles by road from home, but as I'm often working from clients offices up and down the country the predictable 1 hour commute is usually a nice change 🙂

Does anyone commute that kind of distance and consider is sustainable?

I did 75 each way for a while. Traffic was OK (M40, M25, M1 into London) at early o'clock, but it didn't take much to foul things up.

I moved to 25 miles away which meant 35-ish minutes in the car and an extra hour in bed.

I did 70 miles, 1.5 hr for about 9 months and it wasn't pleasant at all. It's very surprising how knackering sitting in a car 3 hrs a day can be.

This. I was doing those miles 10 years ago, before a home life and offspring. I wouldn't do it now.

That's a fair old trek - I do 35 miles each way and that's really bad at the mo because of roadworks (Nottingham council decided to extend the tram and widen teh A453 at the same time) and can take up to 2 hours at the mo. If I'm honest, its starting to break me a bit.

I spent 18 months seconded to a clien in London. I had to be there three days a week as a minimum and the travel by train from home to London wore thin really quickly. I was surprised how tired I was.

For me, 120 miles a day wouldn't be sustainable especially as it doesn't take much for our road system to break.

1hr 10mins? But is it? All year round?

I know my own, pretty direct, on reasonable A roads, 15 mile commute can easily exceed an hour, especially once winter sets in, there's always a few pinch points where traffic gets slowed right down...

I'd be surprised if you didn't end up spending an average of 3 hrs+ a day just sat in a car...
If you can hack the time spent in the car, being away from family/getting home late and find the work interesting and rewarding then go for it, but I've done the whole working a long way away thing and its not for me...
staying within 20 miles of home from now on if I can...

I do about 50 miles each way from Kingston to Dartford. It's fine really I'd be doing about 50mins - 1 hour wherever so I'm used to it. Bit of spotify radio and I'm happy as Larry. 61 miles could be less than an hour which seems alright to me.

Depends on the job I suppose, I like mine so the journey isn't one where the destination is filling me with dread.

One other thing is I worked out a deal where I work from home when I want, I won't work for any "you have to be here" firms again. Oddly enough I tend to come in anyway.

As has been said, even though there not keen on home working, I would push for 1 day from home. They may have given you the stock response, but if they want you enough perhaps you should push them on it. Tell them you love the role and if it was 30 miles closer it would be a no brainer, but you are concerned about 3+ hrs a day commuting (hopefully you haven't told them you can do it in just over an hour each way!) impacting heavily on life with family / partner / goldfish, and 1 day a week where you're not leaving at crack of dawn and getting home late would tip the balance to make it more bearable.

I have a 45 mile / 1hr 15 mins each way commute that would drive me mad if I had to do it 5 days a week. Business owners weren't keen on me working from home a day a week (they're Italian, and it isn't really something they do there apparently), but I made it a condition of acceptance of the job. Turns out I probably do the commute 3 times a week on average, and if I haven't done it for a while I perversely look forward to it as its some time alone with 6 music for company. Been doing it a yr and a half now and not going mad yet. Winters are noticeably harder though.

Have you driven in rush hour traffic twice on different days OP?

If I had to commute just 30miles from Trafford Park Manchester to Huddersfield I'd go loopy. 40 to Leeds and I'd want ALOT more money.

If it involved the word Glossop I wouldn't take the job.

Never again! For 10 years I commuted 60 miles each way down the M40 from Oxfordshire to Greenford in London. Then we relocated and I now cycle 10 miles instead.

If needs must, then by all means. It is perfectly doable on good roads. Journey time is what matters. It will be three hours a day, 600 miles a week. See if you can work from home midweek to break it up.

I planned and bought a VW Vento 1.9 TDI as it was the cheapest car with the most economical engine. It cost about 20p/mile all in (and that is everything including capital repayment). I kept a spreadsheet of statistics for every journey. Sad I know 😉

Audiobooks are your friend. There is only so much Five Live you can listen to.

I've done 40 miles each way for the last 7 years. Takes about 1 hour with no delays. It's perfectly doable but you have to accept the downsides and be a very patient driver.

However in the last year its started to get to be for a few reasons.

Unpredicatbility - It used to be a rare occurence that it took longer than 1h10. That was before Nottingham decided to dig the entire place up and the M1 roadworks started at J28. Now one little issue like a car broken down in the roadworks and it will take 2hrs.
Cost - £300 a month on petrol isn't nice. I could find an infinite number of things I'd rather do with the money. I have a company car so don't directly pay the other costs but it's still a very expensive way to own a car.
Deadlines - I now have to be back home by 6.30 at the latest to pick the kids up from Nursery 3 days a week. The unpredicatability of the traffic means I have to leave at 4.30 to guarantee it and every journey on those days has changed from relaxing downtime with some podcasts to a stressfull battle through traffic.

So my advice - Do it if your are young free and single and can relax in the car. Don't do it if you have commitments

I spend 75% of my time away from base office and often spend long periods of time at clients al owa the shop.

I think 60mi e/w is doable depending largely on the route type and predictability of traffic when you will be travelling. It can take me 4hrs to do a 110mi round trip to one client or 3hrs to do a 200mi round trip to another. The 'trafficky' one is very stressful and not something I would want to do long term, escpecially if I had committments at home.

Google maps traffic is quite reliable these days. Try googling the route every rush hour for a week and see how long it would take with the traffic.

An hour a day may be OK. And you may say you were going to work flexitime to avoid rush hour but it's the expectional circumstances that make it a pain. Say you like to be home early on a Friday but that means the peak of the traffic.

Also consider the social aspects. Work socials will become a pain since you can't get a taxi home or share lifts. Evening events mean hanging around at work for hours between the end of the day and the event. A drink after work is almost impossible.

Nothing insumountable but for me to sign up again it would have to be a bit of a dream job or a short term option with the intention to open up some doors but then leave.

I do 52 miles. I'm lucky & work shifts & head North out of London, so the traffic is always going the other way. Sometimes I ride it,car in ,bike home , bike in, car home.
Tbh it looks horrible sitting in the queue at the end of the A1M everyday...so it depends on where your commute is....Maybe your new employers would consider letting you start early ( a few on days do here)to avoid traffic?
Best of luck to you.

My office is 20 miles from home, takes around 1 hour driving peak times and just under an hour home.

I ride to/from work now, hated wasting 2 hours of my day sitting in a car.

My new (since Feb this year) commute is 55 miles each way, 99% of the time it's circa 1h 10min.

I chose this job because it means I live exactly where I want to live so the longish commute is worth it.

Fortunately, as well, my route is A/B roads for 30 miles then empty dual carriage / motorway for 20 miles.

I live in Cardigan (on the coast) and work just off exit 47 on the M4 so it's never busy except bank holidays but then I'm off too!

The cost is a killer though. I get a car allowance but no fuel. Mine's a 3ltr V6 turbo diesel auto and I had to weigh up costs v's an 'easy' drive. Easy drive wins for me! And I'm near Brechfa going home or add 10 miles and have Afan...

Might consider a spritely petrol supermini alternative or just use my motorbike.

Good luck, as said above, but for me it's worth it.

I used to commute from near Guildford into Croydon every day, mostly on A3 and M25, total of 128 miles round trip, stuck it for 2.5 years, but it is soul destroying, some days it would be 3.5 hours of travel, but 4.5-5 often, 5 hours travelling to do 7 hours work is daft. Plus i ended up having to take off work the friday before bank holiday weekends each time due to the fact that the M25 would just be a nightmare and things like that.

Now live in Norfolk and only concern is getting stuck behind a tractor and it is so much nicer!!

Cheers everyone, thanks for all your opinions and some good advice.

Needless to say its a great job that I really want do which will probably override all the other stuff.

I commute from Bradford to Trafford Park, Manchester everyday (47 miles).
Luckily I need to be at work for 5:15am ish so it only takes about 45-50mins.
Wouldn't even consider it if I worked 'office hours' as the same journey could take over 2 hours at rush hour...

It might be a better quality of life if you stayed in a B&B near the new job for 2/3 nights per week, get a good rest, bike, catch up on work etc. The new company might pay for this as well....

Luckily I need to be at work for 5:15am...

Luckily? 😯

Used to do 60 miles from North of Peterborough to Letchworth.
It was bearable for a while, but I left for a number of reasons. I think if I loved the job, I would have put up with it.

But, it was mainly fast A roads and then straight down the A14. There were only a few pinch points & I had ways round them.

I get at least 55mpg from my car too so fuel costs were high but bearable. I wouldn't have been able to afford a thirstier car...

Been doing 45 miles each way for over four years and I am well over it. Lots of factors - big one for me is hours, was lucky enough to have a half seven start until this year so missed the worse of the traffic but now I'm on 9-17:30 and that extra ten minutes each way grates like a b'stard. Would help if I enjoyed the job but I am ovr it.

Also over the fuel costs, even with the little Corsa turbo diesel, driving steady it's still knocking on sixty quid a week. Finding stuff to listen to is also an issue, lucky enough to enjoy Chris Evans on the way in but a serial station switcher on the way back, 'specially when there's something like the Dauphine on and you want to avoid results. It can be made useful if you want to learn a language or something - picked up pidgin Italian for our honeymoon, for example. If you've got time and a big enough car, you can fit cycling in - I park say twelve or fifteen miles from work and cycle the rest sometimes. Downside to that is you are out of the house forhooooouuuurrrs...

In summary, it can be done - would do it again for the right job, but given the choice I'd really rather not.

Doing 50 miles each way takes aprox 1hr for me a comfy quiet car is what you need to avoid going insane.

I used to do Bradford to Sheffield and back. After 3 years it had a negative effect on my health both mental and physical.

Plus you need a nice car to do it.

Never again

Key thing really after the time is the cost, if you are paying then it'll add up no matter how good your cars' mpg is.

I've commuted those kind of distances but either in a company car (with fuel) or when a contractor (so claimable).

Swansea to Brecon every day for the last 8 years - its is starting to p*** me off.

If you live in central southern England I am going to guess you won't maintain that 1h10. My commute when I have to drive. 20 miles, 12 on motorway, 4 each end of residential / suburban.

If I leave at 715 in the morning the whole thing takes about 50 minutes and the motorway has 7-8 miles of first and second gear grind all except dry school holiday days.

I used to do 70 miles a day round trip - that was ghastly 1h30 was not uncommon.

My wife commutes 50 miles each way, the fuel costs and car repair costs soon mount up. It takes her between 70-90 minutes each way depending on the time of day.

I ride a motorbike 45 mins each way and I find it a bit of a drag. It just seems like dead time out of your life. Walking or bike riding the same time would be fine.

I did a 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hour round trip for four years. How I stuck it for so long i do not know.....it is a waste of your life.

Hacked a 100 mile round trip, 6 days a week, 25000 commuting miles, for a year. Company car, but my own petrol. Never ever again. Then moved to a job where it got worse - right into the middle of Manchester. Yuck. Was permanently knackered from 3-4 hours in the car. Every. Single. Day.

Open question. I presume if you like cycling and you love being out there, fresh air.

Why do you drive diesels and commute/work long distance?

Its at the opposite ends of cycling/thinking about our environment. Or is there something called denial?

Open answer - if you're capable of riding 122 miles a day five days a week, I guess that could be the answer.

I did do National Cycle To Work day last year - that was a 95 mile day with eight hours of work in the middle. Now THAT my friend was a bloody long day...

I live in the South East and occasionally have to commute 40 miles each way. Unfortunately those 40 miles are up the A3, north bound on M25 and then into Slough. 1hr if I leave at 6:15 am - any later (even 10 minutes), then the commute increases in length and my stress levels rise. On the way home it is a complete lottery and has been up to just under 2 hours plenty of times.

I am lucky in that I don't have to do it that often, due to traveling with work. A full week in the office is a pain from the travel point of view. I have a child in childcare 2 days a week and my wife works 4 days, so it all needs some planning if I am in the office, as commuting can be unreliable.

My dream is to be able to ride to work, (mainly so I can loose a piece of this lardy arse), but every job I have had requires either train/car travel time.

I totally understand the desire to live away from a city/particular place of employment, so I can only advise that you try and alleviate it by getting as much as possible from this wish list:

1. an automatic (if traffic is ever bad)
2. fuel efficient car - if my journey was shorter I would seriously consider electric, as closet eco hippy
3. DAB radio - makes journeys more interesting
4. seeing if there is any flexibility in the work day hours

I did about an hour's drive for 6 months. It sucked more than I thought it would tbh. I found it really boring and there were also the regular days when there would be some sort of hold up getting to or from work. Eveyrone is different though, but for me it wasnt do-able. Even thought it was only an hour a day vs my previous commute I found it really ate into my time doing stuff I enjoyed.

I've done 18 months of driving Kendal to Manchester 5 days a week. It's something like 70 miles in each direction.

My old commute was 5 miles. I used to be frequently late, my sleep pattern was similar to a student and I'd get home and watch nonsense on TV for hours on end.

Now, i'm out of the door by 6:30 and in work before 8, knock off at 4:30 listen to the radio on the way (that's much more pleasant than TV) and back home for a walk or a ride mid week now the light has got better. The best bit is the weekends/days off, I've got the Lake District on my doorstep.

I won't lie, it's tough at times especially the diesel outlay but the fact I'm child free, it's 98% motorway, cruise control and Volvo seats help. I'm going to enquire about doing one day a week from home, it's a saving of around £80 / month.

I have on and off before. My dad did it for years before he retired, around half the M25. I couldn't do it for long periods, or without WFH at least part of the time.

You really need flexibility. It can work OK if you shift a couple of hours either way from rush hour, but if your boss insists on you being there 9-5 then it can be a problem. Likewise, they need to be understanding that you're coming a long way and all roads screw up from time to time. Don't imply or state that you'll move for the job unless you're actually wanting to.

Worth asking for work-from-home arrangements, maybe a day a week. It can really help break things up. Get anything agreed in writing, easy to verbally promise something then they decide against it later.

Worth thinking about costs. [url= http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/index.html ]The AA publish running costs tables[/url] you can base that on. It's somewhere around the 30p/mile mark for 30k/year for something Golf-sized - about £36 a day or £9k of post-tax salary (so even more on your "headline" salary). You can probably do it cheaper, but it's a good start. Make sure you're being compensated well enough for that side of things, at the very least enough over the running costs for whatever personal mileage you'll do (assuming you'd own a car anyway).

It's not just money, but time - doing higher mileage then services, tyres, etc come round much sooner. Can feel like every month something needs doing. You're also putting yourself at higher risk of accidents too.

If you're trying it out, bear in mind that it's much more pleasant at this time of year. Depending on timing, you can be doing both ways in the dark which can be miserable.

When I first started here, I couldn't get a week out of a tankful of fuel from my old Punto, felt like I was filling up all the time. The Corsa will do a week and a bit, and that made a difference for me, mentally. 🙂

simon_g - Member

Worth thinking about costs. The AA publish running costs tables you can base that on. It's somewhere around the 30p/mile mark for 30k/year for something Golf-sized - about £36 a day or £9k of post-tax salary (so even more on your "headline" salary). You can probably do it cheaper, but it's a good start. Make sure you're being compensated well enough for that side of things, at the very least enough over the running costs for whatever personal mileage you'll do (assuming you'd own a car anyway).

A lot of that depends on the age/depreciation of your car. I worked it out a while ago (including assumed depreciation of my car) and it was about 18p/mile total costs (fuel, service, tyres, mot, insurance etc.). And I've kept the car for quite a while longer since I did that calculation, so the cost/mile would have come down more.

I keep a savings fund for car maintenance. It was £125 a month, which I put up to £150 a while back, but might put back down as it's starting to get quite high. That money covers everything apart from fuel; servicing, MOT's, insurance, tyres, tax, screenwash......
I find it helpful to do this as it compartmentalises the cost and means I am not having to find fairly large amounts of money at various points in the year.

pondo - Member
When I first started here, I couldn't get a week out of a tankful of fuel from my old Punto, felt like I was filling up all the time. The Corsa will do a week and a bit, and that made a difference for me, mentally.

This does make a difference. At my last place, I was commuting 60 miles each way, so pretty much 600 miles/week. My 45 litre tank wouldn't let me get a week of commuting from a single fill-up and it was always on my mind that I was having to fill the car up more than once a week.
Now I am doing 40 miles each way and have reduced my speed to 60mph. It makes almost no difference to my commute time, but I can easily get a full week of commuting from a tank with plenty spare.
Traffic on the commute will make a massive difference to fuel economy.

I'd not even contemplate it in a privately owned car.

It may work out slightly cheaper on a pence per mile but the stress of it will drive you insane. Much better to have a car you still fuel in and for anything else just phone a number to get fixed and if you are without a car for any lenght of time it's someone elses problem to fix.

Simple things like getting a car serviced are a lot more difficult when you are 60 miles from home all day every day.

Bassically you need to realise that the time in the car is only a very small part of the downsides of comuting long distances.

I used to do Bradford to Sheffield and back. After 3 years it had a negative effect on my health both mental and physical.

Plus you need a nice car to do it.

Never again

+1 on that. not for 3 years, I lasted 8 weeks but that was more to do with, more often than not, not having anything to do when I got there than the journey itself.

I now work from home 4 days a week, 28 mile each way from commute north of Bradford to north of Barnsley (and back again) one day a week & I'm starting to find that a bit of a drag TBH.

My next job will be either WFH 5 days a week OR within 5 miles of home

One thing i learnt from my 128 mile round commute i commented on above, and echoing someone else, get a DAB radio with ipod (or other MP3 player) connectivity.

That way you get 6 music or the station of your choice, you can listen to podcasts, audiobooks or the music of your choice, being stuck with BBC Radio 1 or 2 can make things 10x worse.

Quick recommendation is "We're Alive" zomebie podcast, it is a ongoing radio play in the style of Walking Dead, about 46 hours back catalogue you can download from their websie or itunes.

63 miles each way for 8 years. (2-3 days per week 1 at home 1-2 days on site/driving even further)

Can now speak speak conversational mandarin and spanish apart from that. Shit.

I used to keep a dictionary in the car. There will always be a dreadful hold up and it is nice to pull out a book you can open at any page.

It is perfectly possible in a private car, IF you choose the car carefully. My costs factored in car loan (£7.5K at £188/month), fuel, servicing, tax and insurance. Being a 1.9 TDI it AVERAGED 56 mpg and with a 55L tank would achieve 600 miles on a tank. It is the frequent heading to refuel that is depressing.

And hora, it wasn't denial, we'd lived in the same village for a long time, it was not a good opportunity to move to an area with much higher housing costs. When we relocated, work paid but my mortgage doubled. I've done 10 years because I liked what I did when I got to work, I'd not do it again. But I don't regret it.

One final point - I did have a semi-cycling option; 12 mile bike ride to Oxford, bus to London and six miles to office. Was fun, but I could never get the journey below 2hrs and 5 minutes. I also car shared for about two years on and off.

Work on average 3 days in office which requires 3.5 - 4 hour 130 mile round trip. Yes, really. OK for a few months, but really grates thereafter. Knackered if I end up doing it 4 or 5 days. Utter waste of time, energy etc. Avoid if you have viable options.