Calculating Mileage

Mileage is a component in the budget for a home visitation program that needs a little more thought than usual. It's also imperative that home visitors, and program coordinators, get reimbursed for mileage - otherwise it impacts their cost of living.

Depending on the program model, families get different numbers of home visits. Here's the information that can help you put together an accurate estimate for mileage.

1. Number of home visitors
2. Number of families they will visit (calculated per month, per week, or however makes sense per the model)
3. Number of times each family will be visited over the course of the grant
4. Approximate distances involved - this is where your knowledge of the community comes in.
5. Mileage cost - I'm assuming that will be the state rate - hopefully that's explicit in the RFP.

So, for HIPPY that would be:

4 home visitors (or more, but 4 is the minimum for a start up) X 15 families per week X 10 weeks of home visits (in the first, short year) X approximate distances between families (let's say a mile apart on average in my imaginary community) X 55.5 cents per mile according to the Texas Comptroller Website (again, please verify that with the RFP).

4 x 15 families = 60 visit a week
x 10 weeks = 600 visits
x 1 mile = 600 miles
x .555 per mile = $333

for the 30 weeks it would be

4 x 15 x 30 x 1 x .555 = $999

I suggest rounding up some or adding a few weeks for recruiting and finishing up the program year - so maybe $450 for the short first year, and $1,200 for the full cycle in this example.

Yes, a complicating factor is that the first "year" is actually just a few months - so for HIPPY I am suggesting you calculate 10 weeks of home visits for the first "year" and then the regular cycle of 30 visits for the 12-13 program year.

Posted by Carla Weir, carla.weir@unt.edu - from the HIPPY Texas office at the University of North Texas.