Salary Increases for Maintenance Staff

In the past week, there have been discussions with my team members about gas mileage, use of vehicle compensation, bonuses and salary increases.

Each team member was told in their interview that there would be no gas mileage or use of vehicle compensation and were told they would have to travel between our 3 properties, as needed. One property is 60 miles round trip, the others are 20 minutes apart.


Maintenance staff were offered about $3.00 more per hour than our previous staff and this was largely due to the fact we did not want to deal with mileage payments anymore. Previous staff would forget to turn in records then they would complain if they didn't get paid right away. It really was constant complaining about having to keep records and requests for payments for mileage. We also caught one staff member fudging!!

I have been asked for gas compensation and use of vehicle compensation from two staff members. They have been with the company less than 4 months.

All staff member's request for gas assistance has been denied.

If you have staff with multiple properties who travel back and forth, what kind of set up do you have. Or, what do you think is a good standard?

Just wondering?

Thanks!

HR issues are never easy! The best thing to have is a company vehicle! If not that, then one way around the issue might be a company gas credit card where the Maintenance Supervisor either has control of it or requests it from the Manager and uses it to fill up snow blowers, lawn equipment and the On-Call person's vehicle (up to a set amount of money, especially since gas prices vary/) In the meantime, do employees sign something in their personnel file that says they understand they are required to travel at their own expense between properties with no reimbursement and must keep a valid drivers license and insurance on their personal vehicle? I would also educate each employee on how to keep records so they can deduct, if applicable, these costs when they file their taxes as an unreimbursed work expense. Many companies that are smaller only reimburse for travel expenses to out of town/state conferences. Just my opinion, but if staff is too lazy to record their mileage and turn it on on the specified date each month, then that says a lot about them - as a manager, I would work with the team to train each person on how to do this and it was kind of like turning in time sheets, etc. "Okay, everyone, I need your mileage expense report. Everyone report to the Office and we'll work on it together." Then everyone is there with the Maintenance Supervisor and the Manager and questions can be asked and verified so perhaps the lying can be eliminated, for those who choose to offer reimbursement.