Obligatory disclaimer, I DO NOT travel every day to work because if I did, I would go crazy. This is just a calculation so that I can be more grateful for the work-from-home privilege that I enjoy. Also, if during job negotiations there is an ongoing debate about whether you should travel every day, or not, and how much would the travel expenses cost, then I would walk away from that company.
Calculating travel Costs for 150 km
In this small post I will make an attempt to calculate travel costs for someone required to travel every day from home to work with a total distance of 150km.
Considerations
If I travel every working day with my personally purchased car, then I will use the car mostly for work-home travel. Therefore, the car is used mostly for work (and not for my personal joy), and she will be utilized for work only, and the wear and tear will happen mostly because of this and not because of my personal use. Therefore, we can conclude that the calculations done below can be based on the expenses caused by this usage alone.
The total costs would be the sum total of the fuel costs + car maintenance + tires replacement AND the how much your car cost you during the time you owned the car.
To begin with we need to establish some baseline for the calculations. I will begin with Fuel (the most obvious), the regular service maintenance and the tires. Other costs like the car price or occasional repair are not taken into consideration, in the first part even though they are a valid argument.
NOTE:
The car calculations are more complex, so later in this article in its own additional section I am also including the price of the car too.
Regular car maintenance
Every 10.000 km = ~200€, more or less depending on the service cycle as per the manufacturer.
Set of tires
Every 50.000 km = ~500€. These vary between manufacturer and tire specifications. I am using general purpose all-season tires, and they cost me 500€, so I am using this value for my calculations. If you are using separate summer/winter tires, you will need to adjust the calculations below accordingly. To each their own, I guess.
Fuel costs and distance traveled
These take the most of the expenses.
Daily
The overall formula is:
(KMtraveled x FuelSpendRatio) x FuelPrice + TollCosts
- 150 km - each day for 21 working days for a month.
- 6% - Fuel consumption
- 1,62€ per liter - Current Fuel price
- 4€ - toll cost
So we have:
(150 x 0,06) x 1,62 + 4 = 18,58€
18,6€ fuel costs for a day
Monthly
- 150 x 21 = 3.150 km distance traveled over one month
- 18,6 x 21 = 390€ fuel costs for a month
Yearly
- 3.150 x 12 = 37.800 km a year
- 390 x 12 = 4.687€ fuel costs for a year
Total costs for 150km a day (without the car)
With the above knowledge we can finally calculate the total costs for traveling 150km/day. This is without taking our car into consideration.
FUEL
So yearly costs are ~38.000 km travel distance a year which totals for about ~4.700€ for fuel.
MAINTENANCE
Once every three months there is a regular car service coming. So that's four times a year for a total cost of ~800€.
TIRES
Tires are a bit tricky because they are generally replaced every 50.000km. In my case, the travel distance is about ~38.000 km a year, so that's roughly every 15 months. So the tire costs would be 500€ / 15 = 33,33€/month and a year the cost would be (500€ /15) x 12= 400€ for a year.
Finally, the conclusion is that the total costs for 150 km work travel per day over a year are 4.700 + 800 + 400 or roughly :
~5900€/year
~490€/month
~23,5€/day
Extended travel costs calculation
These calculations also include the costs of the car taken from her initial price puchased from a car saloon, minus the price that you can sell the car after a five-year period or roughly after 200.000 km.
A normal mid-range vehicle nowadays costs about ~30.000€ and I will use this price for the baseline, even though with the war in Ukraine due to shortages the prices today could be higher.
Before discussing how much you will probably sell you car, let's talk about the concept of Car Depreciation.
Car depreciation
The difference between how much your car was worth when you bought it and what it’s worth when you sell it. The value of your car goes down over time with the wear and tear of everyday use. So, the more you drive your car, the faster your car’s value will drop (or depreciate). Makes sense, right?
NOTE:
The post in the link above discusses some considerations based on the author's country. In this post I am discussing the same but from my country's perspective.
There are multitude of factors contributing to this but usually this is formed from the factors below:
- The mileage of the vehicle;
- The consumer preferences;
- The season of the year (in summer the cars are more expensive due to the increase in demand);
- The reputation of the manufacturer (Toyota cars for example usually maintain a high price even after 5 years);
- The current brand market availability on the market (some models just drop in value because there are too many of them being sold at that specific period);
- The current fuel prices;
- The condition of the vehicle at the time of being sold etc;
- Are you selling your car to a used cars reseller or to another casual guy/lady? Resellers will give you less because they need to sell it for higher;
- How fast do you want to sell the vehicle? If you want to sell it now, and i mean NOW, you can simply put your 5-year-old, 30.000€ car for just 5000€ on a sale, and I can guarantee that you will sell it for 24 hours or less;
Knowing the above we can see that including the car expenses in the travel expenses is not a simple task as you can't predict what will happen over a five-year period.
However, based on some general considerations we can define the basis for our depreciation. As a general rule, it is also well known that new cars use their value faster than old cars. While you can agree or disagree with me on this, I will use the below considerations for making my calculations which are more or less based from car prices and the overall situation in my country.
- As soon as you leave the shop, the price drops for 10%.
- After one year for another 15%
- For each consecutive year the price drops for additional 5-15%
Yes as we said before there are a multitude of factors, and you can sell your car for less, or more, I won't argue on that. Anyway, for those who wish to sell their cars at this time, and are disagreeing and raging at me for establishing these values, consider the following:
- If you are going grocery shopping with a predefined budget (for example you have 100€ to spend on groceries today this week), after you come back home, did you usually spend more or less than your predefined budget?
Anyway let's go back to our calculations for a 30.000€ vehicle bought in January 2020. Let's also assume that you are a car guy. You like your car, you maintain it well according to the manufacturer specifications and keep it garaged and in top condition at all times.
-10% After leaving the shop
You can sell her for 27.000€ in February if you change your mind right after buying the vehicle.
-15% After the first year
22.950€ in 2021
-10% For each consecutive year
- 24300€ in 2022
- 21870€ in 2023
- 19683€ in 2024
- 17714€ in 2025
I know, these values really are demoralizing but if you are considering selling your car back to the car dealer probably this is what you are going to get. However, since we established that you've been a car enthusiast, and you have been taking good care of your car, let's set up some better selling values and make them more realistic with some added value and space for bartering, and decide that you will sell your car for 18.000€ in 2025.
Finally, with this knowledge we can establish some definitive sum and include it into our travel costs.
For 5 years your car will cost you, 30.000 - 18.000 = 12.000€ 12.000 / 5 = 2.400€ cost for a year, or 200€/month or ~9,5€/day
Total travel costs for 150 km a day (with the car included)
FUEL
So yearly costs are ~38.000 km travel distance a year which totals for about ~4.700€ for fuel.
MAINTENANCE
Once every three months there is a regular car service coming. So that's four times a year for a total cost of ~800€.
TIRES
Tires are a bit tricky because they are generally replaced every 50.000km. In my case, the travel distance is about ~38.000 km a year, so that's roughly every 15 months. So the tire costs would be 500€ / 15 = 33,33€/month and a year the cost would be (500€ /15) x 12= 400€ for a year.
CAR
2.400 € for a year
Finally, the conclusion is that the total costs for 150 km work travel per day over a year are 4700 + 800 + 400 + 2400 or roughly :