Commuting or business mileage for subcontractors

[Sky]

I'm self employed and do work as sub contractor doing flooring work for private homeowners. I own my own van along with owning all my own tools and equipment needed for my work. So basically I leave my home every morning and head straight over to the location of the current flooring project/job location. However, these job locations are never in the same place. I spend 2-3 days at a customers home, and then I'm moving on to a new customers home to start a new flooring project. Miles from home to any job site obviously can vary quite a bit. Sometimes I may only have to go 20 miles and other times it may be up to 50 or more miles. It just depends on where the customers live. So even though I'm constantly moving to new job locations , the drive from my home (not a qualified home office) to any job location, regardless of varying miles, is still considered a commuting drive and I cannot count these miles as business miles. Correct? All information I find on commuting mileage is generally regarding people who have a fixed business location they are traveling from home to. But since I don't have a fixed business location, I'm a little confused on the rules that would apply to my situation. Also, there are mornings when I don't drive directly to the job location. Sometimes I'm leaving home and having to first travel to a flooring supplier to purchase and pick up the materials needed when starting a new project and then I head to the job location afterwards . This can sometimes double the amount of miles I'm traveling compared to if I had left home and went straight to the job location. Would leaving home and picking up such materials prior to heading to the job location be counted as business miles? Or is this still considered as part of my commute miles. Thanks for any help.

[rjs]

You are correct that the trip between your home and a job location (in either direction) is commuting and is not deductible as a business expense. However, when you stop to pick up materials, the mileage from home to the supplier is commuting, but the mileage from the supplier to the job site is business mileage and is deductible as a business expense.