Occasionally I attend a volunteer meeting where I can claim travel expenses. Such was the case when I drove to Cardigan yesterday to attend the Meals on Wheels PEI AGM. It was a 318 km roundtrip from Foxley River, with a couple of stops to pick up other attendees. It took 49 kw of electricity to get there and back, leaving me lots of charge to attend a meeting in Tyne Valley last night.

Using their rate of 60 cents per kilometre, I could have claimed $190 for travel, but the electricity cost to me if purchased from Maritime Electric is less than $10. I’m now also enrolled in a program where I get a rebate on the electricity I use to charge my car at home, so my cost was closer to $5.

There is no way that driving 318 km causes any measurable depreciation or maintenance issues for my car; I barely used the brakes the entire trip, using regenerative breaking most of the time, so there wasn’t even wear to brake pads.

I couldn’t in good conscience claim $190 as I knew I’d be making a huge profit from a non-profit group, and it was silly to claim $5, so I didn’t claim anything at all. I wonder how these travel expense forms will change in the future to reflect different vehicle power sources?