Long commute to contract - experiences?

[SueEllen]

If my long commute involves the train then I can do it daily. If however I have to drive and the predicted journey time is over 85 minutes I stay over a few nights during the week, and try and get some working from home.

Unfortunately in the SE due to volume of traffic, accidents and road works a commute that takes 85 minutes one way can easily turn into a 3 hour nightmare.

I've been stuck on dual carriageways leading onto the M4 and M3 for 2 hours before due to things like lorries losing their loads. A couple of those a week and a day or two of poor visibility in winter were you have to drive slower means you will appreciate a night or two at a hotel/b&b.

[sbakoola]

I live in central London have a job in the Square mile and door to door on average on the tube it takes 50 minutes at rush hour, so your commute aint too bad.

[kingcook]

Currently got a 230 mile commute, so I stay in a B&B Mon-to-Fri. Been doing this for 12 months now. Getting very tired of being away from the family. But it's all there is for me atm!

[quackhandle]

I did a round trip of two to three hour commute from Cheshire to Derbyshire last year and I lasted four weeks (awful commute was just one of many reasons I quit). I had not realised how much driving every day can take it out of you. Saturday was spent feeling knackered and Sunday was a bad mood knowing what was coming. In fact I think I've only ended two contracts early and that was because of the commute. I just see it as dead time, but maybe I'm not organised enough. I used to see one bloke on the train knitting every morning and he seemed happy enough. Prefer the train any day, but even this can grind you down (esp in the winter months).

Seems odd to say that I detest commuting in car when contracting for 10+ years. Current gig is a half hour in total!

qh

[NotAllThere]

Stay over - arrive late on Monday, leave early Friday (or Thursday!), putting extra hours in on other day. If they won't agree, or there's no decent accommodation, then don't do take the contract.

I did once do very early Monday, coming back late Friday. I don't recommend it. I also commuted 180° around the M25 and back every day for two years - three hours on the road. But I was a permie in a fully expensed very nice car - got to work at 10, left at 6. Listened to a lot of Radio 4.

[BlueSharp]

My old perm commute was 45 minutes each way, my current commute will be 90 minutes each way. I'm planning on staying over Wednesday and Thursday night in a local B&B so I can work on plan B, go to gym, have some down time before the weekend when family life will take over. I would rather sacrifice a couple of nights at the end of the week to a gig then my weekends.

[BolshieBastard]

Stay overs or travelling to a site and staying over for a couple of days aint commuting imo. Anyone can do a 2, 3 , 4 hour or more journey one way and stay over a few days then travel back. Commuting is a daily journey to and from a site.

I used to travel to the north east which was a 2 hr 45 min journey from stepping out of house to walking into client's office (and that was if there were no accidents on the roads etc). I stayed B&B until I found a gaff to rent but I dont call the drive to the NE a 'commute.'

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I'm not sure if it is that I am really good at what I do or really lucky (perhaps my 2 arch enemies NLUK and Bolshie would say that latter), but since I started contracting in early 2010 I have had the following commutes:

45 mins each way (30 miles) - 9 months
1hr 15 each way (58 miles) - 3 months
1hr 40 each way (65 miles) - 4 months
25 mins each way (14 miles) - 10 months
5 mins each way (2 miles) - 4 months
25 mins each way (14 miles) - 11 months

I think I would find it difficult to commute longer than 40 mins each way now I have got used to the easy life.....

[GB9]

I've done daily round trips of up to 200 miles on and off for years now. It kills after a while and the missus used to say that by Friday I was knackered. Still, I hate staying away from home.

Get yourself a boring but reliable car (Mondeo, Avensis) second hand for around 5k and make a profit on the fixed rate mileage scheme. Enjoy.

[VectraMan]

I had two clients that were 95 miles away. On a good day that'd be a 1 1/2 hour drive, but often would take longer. I think anything under 2 hours is doable, but for some reason any day that'd take 2 hours and I'd turn up feeling knackered, whereas 1 3/4 hours and I'd be okay.

I sometimes used to stay over 1 night a week, but I found that more unsettling. There's a lot to be said for routine. And if you're bored in a Travelodge or B&B room at 7pm you'll be thinking "I could be home by now".

After 18 months of that I felt pretty knackered, but my next gig was 6 months only 15 miles from home, and I found myself feeling just as knackered. Which lead me to believe that it was mainly the 8 hours in front of a computer that was killing me, not the 3-4 hours of driving.