Travel Expenses for Trades & Field Services in Ireland
Electricians, plumbers, HVAC engineers, and surveyors live in the van — between the yard, the merchant's, and a string of sites that changes every week. That makes travel one of the biggest and most confusing cost lines for a trades business. The questions owners actually ask are simple: what's claimable from home to the first job, what about site to site, does it matter that it's a company van, and where does "country money" fit in?
This guide answers them. It covers how site-to-site travel is treated, the normal-place-of-work problem (yard vs home vs site) that trips up so many trades, van versus personal car, country money for site-based workers, and how to handle tools, parking, and tolls. The Revenue figures are date-stamped: civil service motor rates effective 1 September 2022, domestic subsistence effective 29 January 2025, and the country money rates below verified current as of June 2026.
Site-to-Site Travel and How It's Treated
The good news for trades is that the travel during the working day is the easy part. Once you're at work, moving between work locations is business travel.
Between sites during the day — claimable
Driving from one job to the next, or from the yard out to a site, is business travel. Where the worker uses their own vehicle, it's reimbursed at civil service mileage rates through the progressive bands — see the rates guide.
First and last journeys — it depends
The journey from home (or the yard) to the first site, and from the last site home, are the ones that cause trouble — because whether they're business travel or commuting depends entirely on where the normal place of work is. That's the next section.
The "lesser of" rule on home-start days
When a worker drives straight from home to a site rather than via the yard, you compare home-to-site against base-to-site and reimburse the shorter distance. Our calculation guide works through it.
The "Normal Place of Work" Problem: Yard vs Home vs Site
This is the single biggest source of confusion — and of disallowed claims — in trades. Almost everything depends on identifying the normal place of work (NPW), and for a mobile tradesperson that isn't always obvious. It's a question of fact, not preference.
If the yard is the NPW
Home-to-yard is commuting (not claimable). Yard-to-site and site-to-site are business travel. This is the most common set-up for a firm with a fixed premises.
If there's no fixed base
For genuinely mobile workers with no normal base, treatment of home-to-site travel is fact-specific. Don't assume it's claimable — assess it against Revenue's guidance for your roles.
When a site becomes the NPW
A long, continuous posting to one site can make that site the normal place of work — after which travel to it becomes commuting and stops being claimable.
Van vs Personal Car
Whether mileage applies at all comes down to whose vehicle it is and who pays for the fuel.
Company van — no mileage
If the firm provides the van and pays the fuel and running costs, there is no mileage claim — the cost is already covered. Paying civil service mileage on top would be taxable pay.
Private use of the van is handled through Benefit-in-Kind. Confirm the current van BIK rate on Revenue.ie rather than quoting a figure from memory — it changes with each Finance Act.
Own car or van — mileage applies
When the worker uses their own vehicle for business travel, civil service mileage applies through the progressive bands — common for an owner-operator or a subbie using their own van.
If the firm also provides a fuel card or reimburses fuel directly, the worker can't also claim the full mileage rate — the rate already includes fuel.
Country Money for Site-Based Workers
"Country money" is a construction-industry travel and subsistence allowance, separate from civil service mileage. It applies to site-based workers posted to a site 32km (20 miles) or more from the employer's base (or from the GPO for Dublin-based employers). For the full conditions and the eating-on-site allowance, see our country money & site-based employees guide.
| Country money rate | Applies when | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Daily rate | Four days or less | €36.34 |
| Weekly rate | More than four days | €181.68 |
| "Eating on site" | Per day, conditions apply | up to €5.00 |
Revenue approved country money rates for site-based construction employees, verified June 2026. The "eating on site" allowance requires the employee to work at least 1.5 hours before and after their lunch break, among other conditions.
When country money can't be paid tax-free
- The employer provides transport to the site.
- The employer provides board and lodging.
- The employee was recruited to work at one site only.
Tools, Parking, and Tolls
A frequent misunderstanding: the mileage rate does not cover everything. It covers the running costs of the vehicle — and that's it.
Parking & tolls — reimburse separately
Parking and toll charges on genuine business travel are reimbursable at actual vouched cost, on top of mileage. They are not built into the per-km rate, so keep the receipts.
Tools don't change the rate
Carrying tools and materials doesn't increase the mileage rate, and it doesn't turn a home-to-NPW commute into business travel. The journey's treatment is set by the route, not the load.
Vouch and keep receipts
Because parking and tolls are actual-cost claims, the receipt is the record. Capture it against the trip so the claim stands up to Revenue without reconstruction.
How Expense.ie Helps Trades & Field-Service Firms
Site-to-site and the "lesser of" rule built in
Log the yard, home, and each site once; Expense.ie applies the lesser-of comparison on home-start days and treats in-day site-to-site legs as business travel automatically.
Correct bands per worker
Each worker's cumulative distance is tracked and the right progressive band applied — including splitting trips that cross a band boundary — so an owner isn't reconciling rates by hand.
Van vs own-vehicle per person
Set each worker's basis once: company-van drivers generate no mileage, own-vehicle workers do — keeping a mixed crew consistent and audit-ready.
Parking, tolls, and receipts captured
Vouched parking and toll costs are recorded against the trip with the receipt attached — separate from mileage, and ready for an ERR export and any Revenue query.
Trades & Field Services FAQ
Related Resources
Clarity on Every Trade Journey
Expense.ie handles the "lesser of" rule, site-to-site mileage, progressive bands, van-vs-own-vehicle, and vouched parking and tolls — so an owner-operator knows every journey is claimed correctly and stands up to Revenue. Spend the evening quoting jobs, not reconciling mileage.
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