Calculating the most cost-effective method of travel

Speaker 1: Hi Lauren. One of our colleagues Fran is going on a work placement next week, she's gonna be training a group of apprentices on health and safety in the workplace.

She's gonna be there all week, Monday to Friday nine to five.

And can you work out the most cost-effective way for her to get there?

She does drive, but could be train or car?

Speaker 2: Sure. Where is Fran going?

Speaker 1: She's going to the High Street in Haywards Heath, so if you can let her know once you've worked it out.

Speaker 2: Perfect, I'll get right on it.

Speaker 1: Thanks.

Speaker 2: (TO AUDIENCE) I have to first look up where Fran lives.

I need the price of the train costs, then work out what the car mileage costs will be.

Then do a comparison to see what works out cheapest.

I can see Fran lives in Croydon, her closest train station is East Croydon.

I'll look online to work out how much the train fare is.

On this train fare website, it says that a single to Haywards Heath is £12.50.

So that would be £25 for two standard single fares to get Fran there and back.

Now, to look at the cost of a return.

Okay, here it says that a return from East Croydon to Haywards Heath is slightly cheaper, at £23.20.

That's a standard day return. That means in this case, that buying a return ticket is cheaper than buying two singles.

Speaker: Now I know the cost of a return train fare for one day, I need to times this by 5 to get the cost from Monday to Friday.

That comes to £116. OK, I record that figure on the spreadsheet.

I need to compare the train fare with the cost of driving and then state the least expensive option.

I know the standard mileage allowance, that's the amount of money we pay per mile, is 45 pence.

I can see she lives approximately 32 miles from the venue.

So I need to times the number of travel by 45 pence. That's 32 times 0.45.

OK, that's £14.40 for a one-way journey, or £28.80 for the journey there and the journey back.

OK, now I must multiply by 5, the cost for Monday to Friday.

That's a cost of £144 for the company if Fran travels by car.

I'll add that figure to the spreadsheet too.

Speaker 1: Hi Lauren, have you managed to work out the most cost-effective way?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I worked out it's cheaper for the company for Fran to go by train.

The mileage allowance costs come to £144, compared to the train tickets that only come to £116.

Speaker 1: OK great, could you give Fran a call and let her know you'll be booking her train tickets?

Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, no worries.