On Mileage

As an RVT Locum of 7 years, Business owner of 10+ years, Entrepreneur, 4x business owner and now the runner of a 'seamless' Locum Platform - I am here just as much as a locum and an admin, as I am to help you understand your everyday business needs. While locuming around Alberta - I still run into many locums that say "mileage?" "I don't charge mileage." or "why would you charge mileage in the city?" and a few other statements as such. We forget as a Locum we need to separate the RVT/DVM employed mindset and engage our business, entrepreneur mindset with adding time, asset and tool cost into our daily work.

You are now a separate business entity, running a business efficiently (using a vehicle to get or take lunch in, to get to and from work, to meet business owners, to pick up supplies, etc etc).. we now have a very important asset that depreciates very quickly in our business. A vehicle is an important asset in your business, everything with this asset is written off, accounted for: expense-wise throughout tax season, and with that needs to be accounted for in our daily charges. Mileage is such a simple, well appreciated, and well-known in business as a 'cost.' And guess what? Most clinics will write this off of their expenses at the end of a tax year too (yes your mileage charge is their write off).

With today's increasing inflation, and increasing gas prices we definitely need to be charging mileage in business, especially a business that requires us to navigate to various different clinics. Whether you choose to accept it or not this is a large part of locuming - we are coming to a clinic that we don't normally come to, it is probably out of range and no where near your hosue, and not in walking distance. You are being sourced to locum because there are no locums directly in that area - and that costs money.

Whatever the CRA rate is at that time (check it as it may change with inflation) I have always charged at least 10 cents more. As a business we are also accounting for: depreciation, gas, oil changes, tires (winter), maintenance, insurance, etc. Also to remember that an employee may get reimbursed for anything outside of their day to day work and home clinic(CE, Webinars, Conferences, Wellness, etc), locums never get that - we need to account for it.

There is no "guilt" in running an efficient business, not to mention a sustainable one. You charge for your livelihood, your business upkeep, your ability to maintain tools and assets, and all of your own self-employed benefits. I have always stated that whether you are driving to locum 10km or 200km, you should be charging mileage (both ways) - I have for 7 years, with over 60 clinics around Alberta, with no problems, and you should too !

Hope this post helps you in your locum business, and feel free to reach out anytime with questions/comments. Best, Locum Admin: Kara B. RVT, BSs, WRC work@letslocum.ca