Liability is part of the issue ....
Publication 15-B Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits
Commuting Rule
Under this rule, you determine the value of a vehicle you provide to an employee for commuting use by multiplying each one-way commute (that is, from home to work or from work to home) by $1.50. If more than one employee commutes in the vehicle, this value applies to each employee. This amount must be included in the employee's wages or reimbursed by the employee.
You can use the commuting rule if all the following requirements are met.
•You provide the vehicle to an employee for use in your trade or business and, for bona fide noncompensatory business reasons, you require the employee to commute in the vehicle. You will be treated as if you had met this requirement if the vehicle is generally used each workday to carry at least three employees to and from work in an employer sponsored commuting pool.
•You establish a written policy under which you do not allow the employee to use the vehicle for personal purposes other than for commuting or de minimis personal use (such as a stop for a personal errand on the way between a business delivery and the employee's home). Personal use of a vehicle is all use that is not for your trade or business.
•The employee does not use the vehicle for personal purposes other than commuting and de minimis personal use.
•If this vehicle is an automobile (any four-wheeled vehicle, such as a car, pickup truck, or van), the employee who uses it for commuting is not a control employee. See Control employee , later.
Liability is part of the issue ....
My company lets me take the survey rig home with me. I am allowed to stop at the grocery store on the way home as long as it's not too far out of the way. Obvious going to a bar is a big no-no and is not a good idea anyway. It's too easy to get a DUI, and I can't afford one in many different ways. My current job site is 12 minutes from where I live. The office is one hour away the opposite direction.
The weekend or after hours when I'm home, I use my personal vehicle.
My chiefs still take a truck home. Not "much" personal use is allowed. The higher up you are, the more lax that rule becomes.
We had a similar event happen to us, except he didn't tell us until the Monday morning afterwards.
About 25 years ago the PLS that ran the field crews was canned due to excessive partying in the company truck; also not showing up for work for days at a time. I had the task or retrieving his truck from his home since he refused to return it. Talk about disgusting. Loaded with beer cans etc. and reeking of old vomit. Truck was in horrible mechanical condition. It took a car wash 3 hours to make it somewhat drivable, no lie. I needed a steam bath afterwards.
It always amazes me how anyone can take a gift like that and just screw it up so bad.
You just never know. One time a couple of years ago, on my way home from work after putting in about 11 hours, the transmission failed at a stop light. No drive, low 1, low 2 or reverse. Nothing. I was going nowhere. It was just a fluke. The truck only had 35,000 miles on it and it failed prematurely. I had to call my boss to come pick me and the equipment up before the tow truck came to pick up the vehicle. Now, if I was out at a bar and on my way home, that would of been a hard one to explain. It was bad enough trying to convince my boss that I wasn't abusing it.
Turned out that the splines on the main shaft were made of a softer steel than they should have been and it sheared. Ford did know of the problem and fixed it. They sort of had a silent recall on those vehicles. They paid for the parts and we paid for the labor which cost us around $500.
> About 25 years ago the PLS that ran the field crews was canned due to excessive partying in the company truck; also not showing up for work for days at a time.
Those may have been the stated reasons, but the real cause was that he wasn't getting the job done. If it was just about drunk driving they would have just taken the truck away. Excessively disgusting, nonetheless.
When I was employed by a contactor in the mid to late 1960's I was assigned a pickup to drive and to take home. All the supervisors and superintendents, which were numbered around 50 nor 60, were assigned a vehicle and took them home, some lived in other towns 30 to 60 miles away from the main office. All maintenance work was done in the shop at the main office in Douglas and I lived in Casper, 50 miles away. Drove both ways on my own time and they furnished the gas and a credit card to use when away on a project where you couldn't get back to the main office to fuel up. Gas was 25 to 30 cents a gallon in those days. 😉
When I worked for the feller that had the firm that I bought into and eventually bought out, I did get to take my truck home once in a while, but not every day.
When I had my own firm in the 1970' - 1980's my chief of surveys and party chiefs took their vehicle home most of the time. Some of this was for security reasons and sometimes to meet with a client on the job site early in the morning. They were not to use the vehicle to run personal errands, keep it cleaned up on weekends and were assigned as a designated driver with my insurance carrier. Gas the was in the 30 cents a gallon range then. :'(
In my early-20's I had a few too many, was driving boss's brand new eddie bauer bronco in rain storm at night, hit a slick spot and did 360 in the middle of the road with a lot headlights coming my way.
Nothing happened, not scratch, but I was so scared I got the shakes, pulled into a parking lot to settle down, then right home.
He never knew, is passed on now, he was an ashhole but in a good way, I liked him.
In Tampa worked for a company where a crew was doing a lot survey, the crew was surveying while chief sat in truck drawing the notes with truck running.
The crew came up on chief, he was in driver seat dead with a needle in him..
We had an engineer come out for site visit on raw land, he came barreling down a dirt road about 40 mph in a new Cherokee, did not notice the cable across the road.....doh!!!
Totaled the vehicle and embarrassed him....lol
Liability is part of the issue ....
we are similar to a lot of companies - the PC gets to drive the truck home overnight. no personal use, and exchange for that they keep up with oil changes, washing, etc.
all GPS, robots, radios etc get unloaded each and every night - no exceptions.
The policy I set up was based on 25+ years of being in that position, and understanding that a PC will take better care of the truck he drives knowing he needs it running well to get himself home each night. Have them leave the truck at the office overnight, and the PC's won't care if they break down on the job, it's not their problem or truck. Fine line with the compensation part, overnight security of the truck is a factor.
