The short answer
- Travel is not charged unless you agreed it firstThe contract keeps travel outside the expenses a carer can claim back. It is payable only where both of you agreed it in advance, in writing.
- Driving your relative is part of the visitTime in the car on the way to an appointment is charged at the carer's ordinary rate, £18 to £25 an hour with our fee included. The miles are a separate question.
- The rate to start from is 55p a mileThat is the rate HMRC approves for a car. It applies only where you have agreed it, and only to journeys in the carer's own car.
- Write down the rate and when it appliesOne message before the first visit is enough: the rate a mile, the journeys it covers, and who counts the miles.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency, and holds no CQC registration. Carers are self-employed and set their own rates, so travel is agreed between your family and the carer rather than set by us.
Journey by journey
Which journeys you pay for, and which you do not
Only some of the driving in a carer's day has anything to do with you. Here is an ordinary Tuesday for a carer who sees your mother twice and another family in between.
7.40am
Their own home to your mother’s house
Not charged
This is the journey into work, the same as in any other job. Nothing is payable for it unless you and the carer have agreed travel in advance and in writing.
8am to 9am
The visit itself
£18 to £25 an hour
This is the hour you booked, at the rate on the carer’s profile with our fee already in it. It covers getting up, washing and dressing, breakfast and the morning tablets.
9am
On to another family, two streets away
Not charged to you
Time between one family’s visit and another’s belongs to the carer’s own working day. Neither household is billed for it.
1pm
Driving your mother to the chemist in the carer’s car
Mileage, at 55p a mile, only where you agreed it first
The time in the car is part of the visit and is charged at the usual hourly rate. The miles are a separate charge, and only where you have agreed the rate in writing. The carer’s insurance needs to cover it.
2pm to 4pm
A gap before your mother’s teatime visit
Not charged
The carer is not working in the gap, and a visit booked for four o’clock is paid from four o’clock. If a long gap makes the day unworkable for them, it is worth asking whether the two visits can sit closer together.
6.30pm
Home at the end of the day
Not charged
The journey home, like the journey in, belongs to the carer rather than to any of the families they saw that day.
Hourly figures are what carers on PrimeCarers charge with our fee included. The travel terms come from the contract between a client and a carer. HMRC's approved mileage rate for a car for the 2026 to 2027 tax year is 55p a mile. Checked 14 September 2026.
The journey in, the drive to the next family and the journey home belong to the carer rather than to any household they visit. The leg that changes is the one with your mother in the passenger seat: her time is charged by the hour as usual, and the miles only where you agreed a rate beforehand.
If this is your first arrangement, the private carers guide sets out how booking a self-employed carer works, and weekend, evening and bank holiday rates covers the charges the contract does set.
Why an agency charges differently
Why travel sits inside an agency's hourly rate and not inside a private carer's
Families who have had an agency package sometimes expect a travel line on a private carer's invoice and find none. The difference comes from how the two arrangements are built.
| A self-employed carer you book directly | A home care agency | |
|---|---|---|
| The hourly price you are quoted | £18 to £25 an hour, the carer's own rate with our fee included | £28 to £35 an hour for the same visit |
| Getting to the first visit of the day | The carer’s own journey, not charged | The care worker’s own commute, not paid |
| Travelling between two visits | The carer’s own time, not charged to either household | Working time the employer pays for, and a cost recovered through its price |
| Driving your relative somewhere | Charged by the hour like any visit, plus mileage where you agreed it | Depends on the agency’s policy, and some will not carry clients at all |
The hourly price you are quoted
- A self-employed carer you book directly
- £18 to £25 an hour, the carer's own rate with our fee included
- A home care agency
- £28 to £35 an hour for the same visit
Getting to the first visit of the day
- A self-employed carer you book directly
- The carer’s own journey, not charged
- A home care agency
- The care worker’s own commute, not paid
Travelling between two visits
- A self-employed carer you book directly
- The carer’s own time, not charged to either household
- A home care agency
- Working time the employer pays for, and a cost recovered through its price
Driving your relative somewhere
- A self-employed carer you book directly
- Charged by the hour like any visit, plus mileage where you agreed it
- A home care agency
- Depends on the agency’s policy, and some will not carry clients at all
Agency figures are what home care agencies charge, not our prices. Checked 14 September 2026.
An agency employs its care workers. Under the government's guidance on calculating the minimum wage, time spent travelling from one work assignment to another counts as working time, and travel between home and work does not. So the drive from your mother's house to the next call is time the agency has to pay for, and that cost sits inside the hourly price you are quoted. A self-employed carer is not employed by anybody. They set one rate for their own time and decide how far they will travel before a booking stops being worth taking. What a private carer costs per hour sets the two side by side by area.
That matters most if you live somewhere rural. A carer facing a fifty minute drive is judging whether the booking is worth their day, and a longer visit gives them a reason to take it without a travel charge.
Putting it in writing
How to agree travel time or mileage before the first visit
If travel is going to be charged, the contract asks for agreement in advance from both of you and a written record of the rate and the circumstances. That is a short message rather than a document.
- 1
Decide what you are agreeing to
Before you raise itMileage for trips with your relative in the car is the usual request. Paying a carer simply to reach you is a different thing, and a carer who needs it may be too far away to be reliable in winter. - 2
Agree the rate a mile
One line55p a mile is a sensible starting point, because it is the rate HMRC approves for a car. A carer may ask for a different figure, and it is for the two of you to settle. - 3
Say which journeys it covers
The part that gets missedWrite down that it applies to journeys with your relative in the car, such as appointments and the shops, and not to the carer getting to the house. - 4
Check the insurance before the first drive
Same conversationA carer driving as part of their work needs business use on their policy, and charging mileage for a trip carrying your relative brings in hire and reward cover too. - 5
Keep it where you can both find it
Before the first visitA message on the platform is a written record and meets what the contract asks for. Keep the same lines with the care plan, so neither of you works from memory later.
Travel is worth raising while you are choosing between carers rather than after you have booked one, because the answer tells you how far away a carer is and how they intend to work. You can search for carers near you and compare their rates, then put the question to the two or three who sound right. Questions to ask a private carer at interview has the wider list, and building a care plan with your carer has somewhere to keep what you agreed.
A charge you did not agree
What to do if travel appears on an invoice you never agreed
Invoices are compiled from what the client and the carer enter on the platform, and the two of you are jointly responsible for checking a booking before it is invoiced. A charge you did not agree to is worth raising as a question rather than a complaint.
Ask what the charge is for
The first message
Quote what the contract says
If it was never discussed
Decide whether to agree it now
If the request is fair
How a wrong charge gets corrected
The mechanics
If the conversation does not settle it, you can ask PrimeCarers to help the two of you communicate, though we are not a party to your agreement with the carer and do not determine the outcome. Handling problems with a carer walks through the steps when a direct conversation has not worked.
Live-in arrangements raise the question differently, because the carer may travel a long way at the start and end of a placement. Do live-in carers get paid for travel? covers that, and the rule is the same.
Questions
Questions families ask about travel time and mileage
No, not unless you have agreed to. The contract between a client and a carer on PrimeCarers says travel charges are not included unless both of you expressly agree them in advance, and that any agreement has to specify the rate and the circumstances and be recorded in writing.
55p a mile is a sensible starting point, because it is the approved mileage rate HMRC sets for a car for the 2026 to 2027 tax year. It covers the first 10,000 business miles in the year, and 25p a mile applies above that. It is not a rate PrimeCarers sets, so agree a figure in writing before the first journey.
Yes, at their ordinary hourly rate. The drive is part of the visit, so an hour in the car and the waiting room is an hour of care, £18 to £25 with our fee included. Mileage, where you have agreed it, is charged on top of the time.
Under the contract, travel is chargeable only where it was expressly agreed in advance and recorded in writing. Invoices are compiled from what the client and the carer enter on the platform, and you are jointly responsible for checking a booking before it is invoiced. Ask the carer what the charge covers, then update the booking between you.
Only where you have agreed it. Some families cover a train fare for a carer who lives a long way away, and some carers price the journey into the weekly rate they advertise instead. Do live-in carers get paid for travel? goes into how this works.
Yes. A carer driving as part of their work needs business use on their car insurance. Once mileage is charged for a journey carrying your relative, that journey is carrying a passenger for payment, which brings in hire and reward cover as well. Ask the carer to confirm both with their insurer before the first drive. Carers, cars and insurance sets out each class of cover.