Stuck in traffic? Survey reveals 13 per cent of workers have missed a job interview due to bad traffic

Have you?

Work, it’s a necessary evil, but sometimes the pain starts before you even get to the office. Yes, the commute is probably the worst part of every employee’s day, depending on how far they have to travel, and what mode of transport they use to do it.

• 43.2 per cent of Brits would report a colleague who was late to work
• It takes workers 34 mins on average to feel calm again after arriving late to work
• Bad traffic costs the UK economy £203m per week

To find out just how much we’re affected by our commute, motorcycle insurance company Devitt carried out a survey of 2,000 commuters, and made some interesting, if somewhat depressing, discoveries.

The first thing they found out was that, on average, employees lose 29.6 minutes of work per week due to bad traffic on their commute. That obviously affects productivity and efficiency, and has a knock-on effect to the economy as a whole. In fact, Devitt calculated that bad traffic costs the UK economy a shocking £203,846,153 per week!*

Being late for work can make us feel flustered and immediately puts most of us on the back foot; and on average, it takes us a good 34.2 minutes before we feel calm and in control again after getting in to the office significantly after our usual start time.

However, Devitt also found that 32.3 per cent of us try to sneak into work without being noticed if we’re late – it saves having to tell the boss the ins and outs of how the train couldn’t run because the wrong type of leaves were on the track  – while a snooty 43.2 per cent of people would actually report a colleague who continually arrived late for work.

Fair enough if it’s actually their own fault, perhaps, but the Great British transport system is notoriously unpredictable. However, more seriously, almost 13 per cent of people have missed a job interview because of bad traffic, which obviously doesn’t make the best first impression. And over a quarter of us (27.8 per cent) experience ‘biker envy’ when motorcyclists cruise past us in traffic jams.

Bob from Kent who has insured his motorbike through Devitt for over 40 years, said: “There’s no better way to get around London than on a motorcycle, especially when the weather’s nice.

“Not only is it enjoyable and quick, but you avoid the congestion charge, parking availability has improved dramatically in recent years and the views are better than those on the underground!”

Devitt have also created a ‘Biker map of Britain’, an interactive infographic that details statistics from bikers from across the UK.

Each area has been broken down by postcode to reveal information such as the average insurance motorcycle premiums, breakdown of age and gender, top rider professions alongside top motorbike models by each area. It really shows that it shouldn’t be that expensive to get your motor runnin’.

*(by using the average hourly pay rate of British employees, the total working population figures and the average number of minutes late to work because of traffic).