Article
Travel on scripted TV and film: travel days, travel time and mileage
The short answer. Neither long form agreement pays for getting from home to base. On scripted TV your deal memo picks one of two options: nothing for travel within 30 road miles of the production base, or nothing within the M25, with time beyond that paid at the overtime rate. On film your rate includes the first 30 road miles each way, and travel beyond that is paid at your agreed rate in 30 minute steps, capped at £45 an hour. On both, travel days do not count towards a run of sixth and seventh days.
Travel on a commercial is measured from a fixed address in central London, for London-based production companies, and paid at single time once the day is long enough. Long form measures from the production's own base, in road miles, and the two long form agreements do not measure it the same way as each other.
What follows is from the Pact and Bectu agreement for scripted TV, effective 1 January 2023, and the Pact and Bectu terms for major motion pictures, as amended on 5 April 2021.
What do base and location mean?
On scripted TV, the production base is usually where the production office is, unless your deal memo names somewhere else, and a producer can name one UK production base for each worker. The unit base is usually where catering, facilities vehicles and unit parking are for that day's shooting. A resident location is a place of work more than 50 road miles from the production base, which you cannot be expected to travel to and from each day.
On film, unless defined otherwise, the production base is where the production does the majority of its work, and producers can name a different base for pre-production, production and post production. They can also call you to any recognised studio: West London, Shepperton, Pinewood, Leavesden, Elstree, Ealing, Twickenham, Gillette, Longcross and 3 Mills, a list the agreement says will be updated as new studios open. A non-resident location is one you can be expected to travel to and from base each day, a resident location is more than 50 road miles from base, and an overseas location is outside the UK.
What travel is paid on scripted TV?
Nothing is paid, in time or cost, for travel between home and the production base. Beyond that, the producer must elect one of two options on your deal memo, for the whole engagement:
| Option | Not paid | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 30 mile radius | Within 30 road miles of base | Time beyond 30 miles; cost beyond 25 |
| Within the M25 | Within the M25 | Time and cost beyond the M25 |
The M25 option is for a production base inside the M25. On the 30 mile option, time counts from 30 road miles but the producer pays the cost from 25; the agreement prints it that way. Paid travel time is at the overtime rate in 15 minute steps, or it forms part of the working day. Overseas, the base of operations counts as the production base and the 30 mile option is deemed to apply.
Three more cases:
- Via the unit base. Where you have to travel to the location via the unit base, travel beyond 15 minutes each way between the two is part of the working day, and is deducted from it. If it is not deducted, the excess is paid at the overtime rate, in 15 minute steps.
- Resident locations. Travel more than 20 road miles or 30 minutes from where you are put up is paid at the overtime rate, or forms part of the working day, and the producer pays the cost beyond that point.
- Rest days away. If you choose to go home on a rest day from a resident location or from abroad, the time and cost are not paid. If you are asked to travel for the production on a rest day, the producer is to agree a payment.
Travel times assume normal road traffic and weather. Excess travel is one of the penalties paid at the overtime rate, so the £35 floor and £70 ceiling in the TV overtime rules apply to it.
Mileage for your own vehicle, where the producer approves it in advance, is reimbursed in line with HMRC guidelines. It is not paid where the producer provides reasonably accessible transport, where a car allowance is already part of your deal, or where you are driving a hired vehicle. Per diems on resident and overseas locations are agreed by the producer and set out in the deal memo.
For air travel, the producer books the flights, on scheduled services or charters meeting UK Civil Aviation Authority standards, and should take account of time changes and the length of the journey when scheduling work afterwards. Excess baggage is yours to pay for, unless it is pre-approved tools of the trade or agreed in advance.
What travel is paid on film?
Nothing is paid for travel between home and base, or home and a recognised studio. Beyond that:
- The first 30 road miles. Your rate includes up to 30 road miles of travel at the start of the day and 30 at the end, to and from a filming location, with no further payment. The same applies to and from the hotel on a resident or overseas location.
- Beyond 30 road miles, either way, from the base or studio, travel is paid at your agreed rate in 30 minute steps, pro rata, capped at £45 an hour, or £22.50 per 30 minutes. Travel time and distance are as stated in the location manager's official movement order.
- Mileage is paid at the HMRC rate for travel you are required to do from the production base to a non-resident or resident location, and between recognised studios in a single day, unless transport is provided.
- No uplifts. Travel time is paid at your contractual daily or hourly rate, with no uplift or premium, even on a sixth day, a seventh day or a bank holiday.
Off-set prep crews, electrical rigging crews included, are treated differently: their travel between base and any location is part of the normal working day and is not paid separately. Any overtime on location has to be approved in advance, and where that overtime is travel it is capped at £45 an hour, in 30 minute steps.
Rest days on a resident or overseas location are not paid unless worked, which has to be approved in advance. Travelling home on a rest day is not paid unless the producer told you to.
The agreement does not define "agreed rate" for paid travel time. It sits alongside the rule that travel time is paid at your contractual daily or hourly rate, and the terms do not say more.
What is a travel day worth?
On scripted TV, the agreement pays excess travel time. It says nothing about what a day spent travelling pays.
On film, if the producer has you travel to a location on a day outside your contracted working week, you are paid your contractual flat daily rate, whatever the time zones and whatever the day.
On both, travel days do not count towards sixth and seventh consecutive days. On film, a day of travel under a movement order also does not reset the count, and is not paid as a sixth or seventh day.
How is this different from commercials?
Under the APA terms, travel time on a working day is always single time, the first hour each way is deducted, and nothing is payable unless travel and work together reach eleven hours. A travel day is your basic hourly rate with a five hour minimum, and mileage is 50p a mile outside the M25, measured from W1F 9SE. Travel days and travel time and mileage have the detail.
What does TimeMachine do?
Since version 2026.11 the app has a long form mode, in beta, built from these agreements. It prices a travel day for you: on film at your flat daily rate, and on scripted TV at your daily rate at single time, flagged as an assumption because the agreement does not price the day. Neither takes a sixth, seventh or bank holiday uplift, and neither counts towards the run.
For travel time and mileage, the app applies none of the thresholds above. In the app's words, travel time is normally absorbed into the working day, so you enter it only where it is being paid separately: as minutes, billed at your hourly rate, or as a cash figure. Mileage goes in as miles at the job's rate, or as a cash figure. Nothing is added unless you enter it, and nothing you enter is taken off.
That has consequences worth knowing:
- On scripted TV, the agreement pays excess travel at the overtime rate. Minutes in the app bill at your hourly rate, single time. To bill the overtime rate, enter the figure as cash.
- On film, the app does not apply the £45 an hour cap to travel minutes.
- The app does not leave out travel for off-set prep and rigging crews on film. It bills what you enter.
- The job's mileage rate starts at 50p a mile unless you have set a different default. The agreements refer to HMRC rates and do not state a figure, so set the job's rate to what your production pays.
- Per diems are not yet part of a long form job.
It is a beta because a few readings of the agreements are still unconfirmed. The app flags them wherever they affect your money, so check your figures against your payslip, and send anything that looks wrong to the feedback address below. Nothing about the beta appears on your invoices or timesheets.
Are these agreements still current?
The scripted TV agreement took effect on 1 January 2023 for a minimum of three years, to 1 January 2026, after which either side can end it on six months' written notice. We have not been able to confirm its status since 1 January 2026, and TimeMachine's scripted TV mode is built on the 2023 agreement.
The film figures, including the £45 travel cap, date from the 5 April 2021 amendment, and we have not been able to confirm whether a later amendment has changed them. The recognised studios list is the one in that amendment. Your deal memo or contract is the document that says which terms your production is using.
TimeMachine is an independent tool for UK film and television crew. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Advertising Producers Association (APA), Pact or Bectu. It references the publicly available APA Recommended Crew Terms and the Pact and Bectu agreements as a reference only. TimeMachine's long form mode is in beta. This article is general information, not legal or financial advice.