What is the official definition of duty start time? Is it from when you leave your house or from when you start RAFAC responsibilities?
Different CFAV have told me different things. On the basis that some think travel time is included as part of the total duty time and others think it’s travel time + duty time.
Would coach travel (for example) where you’re responsible for cadets be considered duty or travel?
I consider home → pickup as travel, and pickup → destination as duty in this case.
I thought the forms included travel time because it counted towards the 8 (or 4) hour minimum.
According to JSP 752, travel time only counts as duty when it exceeds two hours and isn’t to your normal duty station.
For a day of VA you need 8 hours of activity, of which 4 can be travel.
When I’m doing OME movement, my duty starts on arrival to the parent station, the travel from their to the range location I consider “activity” as I stopped travelling and started doing something.
If I was going on camp via coach, I would class the time from my house to camp as travel and would not consider sitting on the coach as “activity”.
Nah, to me, if the cadets are on it then that’s duty time.
If the cadets are on the coach, and their parents are not. I’m on duty.
I know staff that have met the coach at a pickup point, escorted cadets to camp, and then got the train home. And that counted as a VA day. They were just there for escort duties.
Home to unit is travel for me. Once at the unit I’m on duty even without cadets present as I might be setting up or prepping ready for them.
If I wasn’t going to the unit and went directly to an activity, travel would be from house to arrival at location.
I think of it similarly to my work where any travel directly between my house and office isn’t claimable for mileage, but if I add a venue inbetween then it is.
Under HMRC rules your normal commute isn’t expensable. It’s why we can claim the difference between the MOD rate and the HMRC rate on MMA but not on HTD.
Then who is looking after the cadets, the coach driver.
As an aside, spending 15 hours on a coach going to Nijmegen was never eligible for VA. Teams from Scotland would be even longer. They would begin their journey on Friday lunch time to get to Kamp Heumensoord on the lunch time on the Saturday. The return journey would be the same, home in the Sunday morning. Only allowed to claim 7 days even though been on duty for 9 or even 10 days
Broadly the same, if I am going via my or another unit to collect people or kit the ‘day’ starts when I get to that pick up point.
If I’m just going directly to the venue to instruct then I’d view travel as from home to the location.
But it’s another area where we need clear guidance. In my view anything accompanying cadets is clearly duty not travel. I’d argue any other ‘official’ transport is likewise part of duties.
So, ACP 300 says this:
When eligible to receive Volunteer Allowance, one day’s VA will be issued for a period of continuous activity from 8 hours up to 24 hours inclusive whether wholly in one day, or partly in one day and partly in another, subject to the completion of at least 4 hours contact time (or 2 hours for each half day) at the place of RAFAC activity. For periods in excess of 24 hours, VA will be issued for each day (midnight to midnight) when the Officer, WO or SNCO RAFAC is required to attend for 8 hours’ activity or more and completes at least 4 hours attendance at the place of activity. An 8 hour period will begin and end at the Officers’, WOs’ or SNCOs’ RAFAC unit or home, whichever period is the shorter. For Chaplains duties refer to FI 314, para 7.
My bold. Certainly seems like if you are attending an event not at your unit, then you can count the time from when you leave your house to when you get home.
If activity is 10-16, and it takes you an hour each way, that’s 6 hours duty plus 2 hours travelling = 8 hour day.
Yep, that’d be my interpretation of the rules.
Or 5 days if you claimed Cosford for 2.
My bold… so is the coach a place of RAFAC Activity on your way to RAF Someplace for Annual Camp?
Noting that so long as you arrive at RAF Someplace by 20:00 and departed from home by 16:00 you will still hit the 8 hour total for that day.
Erm… Yes, if you are supervising cadets on it?
Yep, this. It’s “contact time at the place of RAFAC activity”. For that’d be any time I’m directly with cadets or other staff, including driving them in a minibus or car or supervising them on a coach. If I was just driving my self somewhere then no, not contact time, but still travel time so included in the 8-hour day, but not 4 hour contact.
We don’t have a normal commute though, this isn’t our job. 