How This Tool Works
📋 Purpose
Use this tool to find the best-value way to commute and see the monthly and yearly cost in plain English.
⚙️ How It Works
- 1Enter your postcodes, salary, office days, travel time, and optional car details
- 2We work out train and driving costs using UK data sources
- 3You get yearly and monthly comparisons across travel options
- 4You also get live commute signals like fuel spread, fuel volatility, and carbon delta
We use this to show what share of your pay goes on commuting.
Travel before 09:30 or between 16:00 and 19:00 is usually peak fare.
Enter £0 if you do not pay to park.
We will show how much you could save by avoiding peak fares.
Optional: we use DVLA data to detect fuel type and improve your driving estimate.
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Commute Reality & Savings Planner: Simple Guide
See your true UK commute cost with live and derived signals, including train, season ticket, driving, and salary impact.
📅 Last updated: 2026-03-17
Quick Tips
Jump-start your understanding with these essential tips
Use your actual postcodes, office days, and normal travel time. This gives a more accurate distance and fare type.
Turn on flexible hours, add your registration, or compare season tickets. This shows what change saves the most.
Use the results for real decisions: ticket type, driving vs train, flexible hours, or whether moving closer might help.
Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these steps to get the most from this tool
Add your home and work postcodes, salary, office days, travel time, and parking cost. You can also add your car registration to get fuel type from DVLA.
💡 Pro Tips:
- •Use your normal travel time so peak or off-peak is correct.
- •If you do not pay for parking, enter £0.
We show yearly and monthly cost for pay-as-you-go train, season tickets, and driving. You also see carbon and how much of your salary your commute uses.
💡 Pro Tips:
- •If you travel often, check the annual season ticket first.
- •Use the salary percentage to spot when commuting is getting too expensive.
Pick the option that fits your budget and routine. You can test flexible hours, a different ticket, driving changes, or moving closer.
💡 Pro Tips:
- •Run it again when fuel prices or office days change.
- •For non-London rail, check the final fare before buying a ticket.
Advanced Topics
Deep dives for advanced users
Outside London, we use the standard UK season ticket formula. Inside London, annual Travelcard values are based on published TfL prices.
For London commutes, we estimate the TfL zone from postcode distance and use TfL 2025/26 fare tables. Your travel time decides whether we use peak or off-peak fares.
Postcode and DVLA checks are live. Petrol and diesel prices try live UK government data first, then fall back to benchmark values if needed. Some non-London rail fares are estimates by distance band. Each source is labelled in the results.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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