Price of a New Job: Transportation

This post continues the discussion of unexpected or underestimated costs associated with a new job. This series looks at clothing, transportation, dining, and professional fees.

Transportation: A new position can take you either closer or further from home than your last position. Clearly, if it turns out to be closer, then you are probably saving some money in transportation costs. However, if you decided the new job is worth a longer commute, you may be surprised at exactly how much that new commute is going to cost in time and money.

Transportation & Costs: Start by calculating the cost per mile to drive your car. You can look at several online calculators and articles for details on doing this. Calculators range from simple (gas price per mile), moderate (cost per mile), and complex (true cost of driving). I highly recommend calculating in insurance, maintenance, and wear and tear for more accurate consideration.

Driving: If both the new and previous job require a driving commute, it is easy to compare the difference. Simply multiple the number of miles to and from work each day by the cost per mile. You can compare the daily differences, but also compare weekly (day x 5) and yearly (week x 52). What can be a $3 difference a day works out to $780 over the year.

Public Transportation: If either or both commutes required the sole use of public transportation, simply calculate your daily and annual cost for comparison.

Driving & Public Transportation: Now, if your commute requires the use of both public transportation and driving, calculations and comparisons are slightly more complicated. I found several calculators that allow you to compare the cost of driving versus using public transit, but most lacked the ability to combine both options and were region specific. The WMATA Calculator gives you comparisons for several different commuting options (driving, driving+public, public); however, their calculator is based on local fares and fees. For do-it-yourselfers, just add the daily public transportation cost to your daily driving cost if you combine public transportation and driving in your commute.

Important: One very important item to realize: even if you take public transportation you still incur annual vehicle costs if you own a car. Insurance and maintenance fees will be less when you are not driving every day but they will not disappear. This is something that many people overlook when championing the public transportation platform and calculating their annual transportation costs.

For my new job, I am using public transportation exclusively and using this option as one of the justifications for selling my car.

Transportation & Time: This area of comparison is more subjective and there are several options for how to address it.

Option One: If you simply alter your driving commute, there will be a straight forward comparison of time commuting. You can use this as a simple comparison.

Option Two: In my Comparing Job Offer Series, I calculated the value of time at work on a salary per hours worked basis. When considering a commute, some people may simply add the commute time to their workday. For these people, this is time that cannot be used for anything else and should be counted as part of their workday calculated as such.

Option Three: When using public transportation, you have another option. You may conclude that the time you spend commuting is free time to read the morning paper or a good book. This time would not count as part of your work day and you may find it a valuable use of time.

For my new job, my public transpiration commute of nearly three hours a day is time that I use for personal reading and relaxation. I do not consider it part of my work day and am happy to have “me time” each day – something that often gets cut out of my schedule when other tasks take precedent.

There are many ways of looking at time and commuting. These three options simply offer some options for how to consider your commute. As mentioned, evaluating time is subjective and is dependent on individual preferences and situations.

Price of a New Job Series: Clothing, Transportation, Food, Professional Fees