I find myself spending six to ten hours a week driving between offices and clients in various counties and have tried to make use of that time.   Not because I'm an unrelenting Type A, but rather to make work life easier for me.  When I am away from the office, there are still phone calls to make and return, reports to prepare, and client materials to review.  If I can handle some of that from the road, it makes less "catch up" work when I get back to the office.

Phone calls are the easiest to handle, I can do many while driving (yes, I use a hands-free phone and I don't make or answer calls when in traffic).  Much of my travel is on fairly rural roads or empty routes, like State Road 19 heading north towards Tallahassee, so it is relatively safe to use the phone although in many spots reception is poor or non-existent. 

I don't have a cellular internet card for my laptop and have considered getting one, although I am concerned about having the laptop in the heat of the trunk when I am at meetings.  Some folks I have talked with who are in sales find the laptop very useful for doing their reports and returning e-mail when waiting for their next appointment.  About 75% of those I spoke with use the laptop in fast food establishments and coffee shops, with the remaining 25% working from their car (while parked).  About half of those have special "laptop" desks that fit into the passenger seat and provide storage for files and other materials as well.  A few reported having scanners and fax machines in the car so they could transmit hard copy directly to their offices.

I suppose the ultimate road warrior vehicle would be a van with an office outfit in the back for working or meeting with clients.  On the really large scale, it might be a converted motor home although fuel would be an issue then.  Space availability in the vehicle seems to be inverse to operating cost.  As I get reimbursed a flat rate per mile that has to cover gas, maintenance, and insurance, I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid for work.  At 50 miles per gallon it makes the economics work, but does not provide a lot of space for using a laptop while parked or have room for a laptop desk that would hold files.

One way around all of this would be to stay in the office and use more conference calls and video-conferencing.  While we do make use of a fair amount of both, there are a lot of  events like board meetings when you just have to be there.

How do any of you who are on the road often make use of the time and what ways have you found to do some of your work while "mobile?"