Increased congestion on the roads means that the average UK driver spends a minimum of 70 days a year sitting behind the wheel of their car on company business.
The figure amounts to almost a third of their working year, something which is costing UK businesses millions of pounds a year in wasted productivity.
However, despite spending so long in their vehicles, it would appear that UK drivers still love their cars. In fact women love their cars so much that they rank them higher than profit share bonus scheme, holiday allowance, flexi working time, healthcare provision and even a pension scheme!
The survey also revealed that despite spending so long in their vehicles, the majority of drivers would still never use public transport.
In total three quarters of respondents said they would never dream of taking a bus on a business trip and over a third said catching a train would be out of the question also. The train is only used occasionally by just of half of those surveyed.
When asked to explain their reasons the majority of people simply said that they weren’t encouraged to use public transport by their employer. Others stated that it just wasn’t convenient enough, was too expensive and the possibility of delays put them off.
Well that’s exactly the reason why employers do not encourage the use of public transport as it would cost them too much and while company car drivers are prepared to pay over the top in tax for this ‘perk’, employers will be keeping tight lipped.
Jackie Violet