Commute Vs Energy App

23% of UK workers are considering ditching WFH to save on heating bills!!! Was the title of a news article that appeared on my phone at the end of August.

Back then, and I say back then because the rate at which things are changing in the UK make a month feel more like a years worth of policy and financial worry. The fear was, energy prices could continue to rise every quarter until we’d all be selling a kidney every time we wanted a bath.

For a second it made me think this could actually have some legs.

Then it made me wonder. What about the cost of commuting?

For instance I used to live in Tunbridge Wells and I remember clearly the train season ticket being £6000 to get to London. So, would 10 back to the office hours including commuting actually save me anything or would it just cost me more?

The answer in that scenario was obviously a resounding no! Going to the office was the financially un responsible move.

But there must be some situations where going back to the office makes sense. 23% of UK workers can’t be completely mad. Can they? What home to work distance makes going to the office to get warm economically viable? How much of a difference does the way you get to work make? For instance walking is free, a 6.2 ltr V8 is not so free.

There were too many factors to fit onto a single A4 sheet of paper, so as is the case in many businesses, I released my Excel abilities (predominately the =sum() one). I produced a good data set, with the ability to recalculate based on the miles to office, chosen vehicle, lunch and parking if appropriate.

For me commuting failed to win the economically viable game even after I removed all vehicle related expenses other than fuel. But it was fun and I wanted to share it.

Luckily for me we have a Lucas at Rittman Mead.

For the uninitiated a Lucas is an APEX guru able to spin up even the most random of concepts into a well designed, functional APEX application. Over a few days of listening to Oliver the Sales / Amateur Product Owner explain how he wanted a slidey thing for this and a button for that. Lucas was able to produce my vision in a way others could enjoy.

So here it is the Commute vs Energy application brought to you by the APEX Team at Rittman Mead.

https://commute.ritt.md/ords/r/energy_tool/calc/home?session=404835286670167

Disclamer

The Commute vs Energy app is the brain child of a non technical Sales man who’d had a lot of coffee. So while it does give you a calculated answer based on your options it is in no way an exhausted analysis of every possible penny involved in your WFH or not decision. It’s a fun slightly informative tool for your pleasure.