Consideration of Privately Owned Vehicle Use as Advantageous to Government

Two questions were submitted by a certifying officer of the Agriculture Department for an advance decision. The first was whether an employee traveling on temporary duty may have the use of his privately owned vehicle considered to be advantageous to the Government under the terms of the general travel order and applicable regulations where that mode of travel was not specifically authorized or approved. The second question was whether the employee should be charged annual leave when, because of weather conditions, his use of his privately owned vehicle instead of commercial transportation caused him to miss approximately 2 days of his temporary duty assignment. An employee of the Soil Conservation Service so traveled to attend a 6-week training course. Because of a snow storm he was delayed and missed the first 23 hours of the course. When he returned to his permanent duty station, he asked that the use of his privately owned vehicle be considered advantageous to the Government. This request was denied and his reimbursement for travel expenses was limited to constructive costs of travel by common carrier. He was also charged 15 hours of annual leave for his late reporting to the training course. GAO held that the employee's use of his privately owned vehicle was not advantageous to the Government and the constructive computation of his travel was proper as was the agency's charging him annual leave. GAO suggested that the Department of Agriculture reexamine its use of the General Travel Authorization to insure that necessary determinations are made before travel is performed so that employees will be aware of the travel benefits and limitations in each particular situation.