CUCC Expedition Handbook

Expo Travel Accounting

Travel expenses - How it was done in 2018

Transport is coordinated with the objective of getting all the people and gear to Expo at minimum overall cost consistent with reasonable comfort, safety, timeliness, etc.

Where a vehicle goes off elsewhere before or after Expo, Expo usually pays for the 'useful' part of the journey.

Expo does not pay fines (speeding, parking or otherwise) but may pay road tolls.

Part 1: To and From Austria

With regards to claiming back on your travel costs to and from Austria, please see where you lie in the following table:

I traveled alone

I traveled with friends

I brought only my own kit

You pay for all of your travel costs

You each pay a share

I brought my own kit and some expo gear

You and expo pay a share each

You each pay a share, and so does expo

I brought my kit, a friend's kit, but no expo gear

You pay one share and your friend pays a half share

You each pay a share, your friend pays a half share

I brought my kit, a friend's kit, and some expo gear

You pay and expo pay a share each and your friend pays a half share

You each pay a share, expo pays a share, your friend pays a half share

Examples:

  1. Bill and Bob go to expo. They drive and take the ferry. It costs them £150.00 total. They each have their own kit but also Ben's kit in the back. Bill and Bob both pay £60.00. Ben pays £30.00.
  2. Jen and Jean go home from expo. They take the train and a plane from Salzbug. It costs £150.00 total. They each have their own kit in their bags and have also brought 500m of expo rope in a suitcase. Jen and Jean both pay £50.00. Expo pays the other £50.00.
  3. Ben goes to expo. He likes to live the high life. He buys a trip on the Eurostar from St. Pancras to Brussels followed by a sleeper to Salzburg via Vienna and a local train to Bad Aussee. He gets his friends to bring his kit. It costs £3252.54 in total. Expo gives him nothing. Ben pays £3252.54 in addition to £30.00 to Bill and Bob for taking his gear.

Exceptions to this scheme will be made at the discretion of the treasurer. If you had so much expo gear that you couldn't see your steering wheel, for instance, expo will likely repay a larger portion of your costs than half. Please get in touch and state your case if this applies to you.

Part 2: In Austria

Full fuel expenses may be claimed by people who drove in Austria on the toll road. These vehicles are considered "fully expo funded."

If you used your car in expo and it was NOT on the toll road but you think you deserve compensation (e.g. if you did a record number of supermarket trips) please get in touch and state your case.

Part 3: How to Claim

If you know how to use the BoE, please enter your travel costs as a Split Expense, charging the relevant expo virtual account. Email me all booking confirmations or receipts (or get them to me by any reasonable means).

If you do not know how to use the BoE, please (a) write it in the bier book, and (b) email the treasurer photos of all receipts as above and also details of your travel. That is:

If you have already added your travel to the BoE (some of you have) please either amend your entry or let me know the details as above and I will amend it for you.

Part 4: Allowance for Car Owners

A car allowance can made to owners of Expo funded vehicles to cover wear and tear. How much this is and whether it includes an element for extra motor insurance cover is determined by the treasurer; recently it has been £80 including insurance and £50 not including insurance (which was paid separately if requested). Partially funded vehicles were given a proportional allowance. However, as the car allowance was started when we had problems getting enough cars, and this is no longer the case, the treasurer may make it optional, or direct it towards skint/unwaged car owners, as appropriate. An 'options' page in the Bier Book may be used to let people sign up for a car allowance.

Please get in touch with the treasurer if you think this applies to you and it will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Travel expenses - How it used to be done (pre-2001)

In the first 25 years or so of expo all transport was to/from Cambridge. This has not been the case for several years.

There used to be a specifc expo travel spreadsheet with weightings for the travellers but the complexity in recent years has made this infeasible and much more is left to the discretion of the treasurer these days.

Travel expenditure on behalf of Expo

As well as the cost of transporting gear, there is the job of determining who the full, semi-independent and independent travellers are and which vehicles are funded in full or part. This may be a bit iterative, depending on how helpful and communicative various people have been.

Travel Arrangements: traveller types

Each Expo member may be regarded as anything from

  1. A full traveller: went to and from Expo in Expo-funded vehicles, through
  2. A semi-independent traveller: went only one way in an Expo-funded vehicle, to
  3. An independent traveller: went to and from Expo at his or her own expense.

The first Expo fiddle-factor traveller is used to describe this state. Traveller normally ranges from 0.1 for an independent traveller to 1 for a full traveller. The semi-independent traveller value is about 0.55. All these are determined by the treasurer and can be adjusted to take account of exceptional circumstances.

The reason that the independent and semi traveller values are not 0 and 0.5 respectively is that Expo equipment must still be transported both ways even if some people go elsewhere before or after Expo. Thus these people still pay something towards the Expo transport bill.

In some complex cases, the process of assigning everybody's respective traveller value and deciding which vehicles Expo will fund is a little iterative. The treasurer aims for an overall fair settlement.

Once all the traveller values have been assigned, the total cost of the Expo-funded vehicles is divided in proportion to each member's value. This is done automatically in the Expo spreadsheet.