More than half a million claimed on SBC private car travel

‘Grey mileage’ refers to the distance driven by employees using their own vehicles for work purposes.

This practice involves employees claiming mileage reimbursement from their employer for business-related travel in their personal vehicles.

While it can be a cost-effective solution for businesses with low travel requirements, it can also lead to significant expenses if not managed properly, especially with higher mileage claims.

Scottish Borders Council received claims totalling £552,018 for 1,231,308 miles travelled in the financial year 2024/25, it has emerged.

Prior to claiming mileage employees should seek alternative measures to physical travel, including meeting via Teams.

Additionally, if a journey is necessary they should check out alternative travel methods, including the use of public transport.

To reduce the costs to SBC one of the suggestions has been that incentives are given for using public transport, such as bus passes.

Increasing the existing fleet of pool cars is also seen as a method of reducing costs with potential to achieve a sub 40p per mile cost for travel.

The local authority currently has 32 pool vehicles in its fleet.

The council has 26 electric cars, four petrol hybrid and two diesel vehicles.

The authority is also currently awaiting the arrival of a further five hybrid and five electric pool cars, to be distributed across the council, with 727 registered users.

Members of the council’s Scrutiny & Petition Committee were informed that there was “high demand” for the use of the pool vehicles.

John Curry, the council’s director of Infrastructure & Environment, said: “There was just over half a million in expense claims in the last financial year, so it’s quite a significant cost, so the more we can do to reduce that the better it is for the council and also manages the risk to employees who are using their cars.”