Privately Owned Vehicles (POV) Used for UM Business

University employees may be required to use their privately owned vehicles in order to carry out their assigned duties if a University vehicle is not available or if the employee does not satisfy the rules for driving a University vehicle. The University is not required to provide a University vehicle to employees who refuse to use their own vehicles to perform their assigned duties.

Authorized persons who use a privately owned vehicle for official University business shall be reimbursed in accordance with the approved rate.

Authorized drivers shall be reimbursed for reasonable parking and toll expenses incurred while conducting University business in a privately owned vehicle.

The University shall not reimburse University employees for any increased insurance premiums or gasoline expenses accountable to use of their vehicle for University business. Reimbursement for insurance and gasoline is reflected in the mileage reimbursement rate.

Reimbursable Mileage

Reimbursement is based on the principle that the employee should be reimbursed for all official business mileage accumulated in a privately owned vehicle that is beyond the normal round trip mileage incurred from the employee's home to the permanently assigned office or work station and back home again.

• A University employee who leaves the office, travels to a field site, and returns to the office may be reimbursed for all mileage directly connected with the business trip (i.e., mileage from the office to the field site and back to the office) because the driver will have driven the normal daily commute to and from the office by the end of the day.
• A University employee who leaves home to conduct business without stopping at the assigned office may be reimbursed for all mileage directly connected with the business trip that is in excess of the commute miles normally traveled (i.e., total official miles driven minus normal daily commute miles). In this situation, the driver has not driven the normal daily commute and therefore, must subtract the normal daily commute miles from the total official miles driven.
• A University employee who conducts University business prior to coming into the assigned office or on the way home from the assigned office may be reimbursed for all mileage in excess of the commute miles normally traveled.
• These policies apply to any day in which the employee travels in a privately owned vehicle to conduct University business including a normal working day, after hours business travel, and business travel on Saturday, Sunday, or holidays.
  

The supervisor is responsible for ensuring that reimbursement of employees for the use of privately owned vehicles is controlled and authorized only in the University's interest.

The current privately owned vehicle mileage reimbursement rate is available on the DBS Website at http://www.dbs.umd.edu/travel/services/rates/pov.php