Payment for Travel Between Home and Common Carrier Terminal

An advance decision was requested concerning payment of the difference between a mileage allowance for two round trips by privately owned vehicle and one round trip bus ticket in connection with an employee's temporary duty travel. The round trip mileage was authorized, and the employee was verbally instructed that his wife could drive him on the trip in his privately owned vehicle and that she could pick him up at the end of the temporary duty. Joint Travel Regulations limit reimbursement of such travel to the cost of round trip bus travel. Clarification was requested as to whether or not the responsibility of the official directing travel includes the authority to override the use of the available common carrier. Further inquiry was made as to whether the employee should be penalized when he used his automobile based on authorization provided in his travel orders. Federal Travel Regulations provide that travel by common carrier should be used whenever it is reasonably available. The determination that another mode of transportation would be more advantageous to the Government should not be made on the basis of personal preference or minor inconvenience to the traveler. In view of the distance involved, the cost of available bus service should have been used as a measure of the amount to be reimbursed. Even though the employee used his automobile based on his supervisor's authorization, he could not be paid an amount in excess of that authorized by applicable regulations. Accordingly, his claim for additional payment was denied.