British companies are wasting millions of hours of staff time because employees choose to travel by car rather than by train on business trips, according to research.
A team at Napier University’s Transport Research Institute concluded that businesses are wasting billions of pounds after analysing 90 individual door-to-door train journeys. It found UK workers were racking up 27 billion business miles each year on the roads.
The research claims that businesses save up to 70% on a single train journey compared to a car journey, having factored in journey times, train fares versus motoring costs, and how productive employees could be while travelling.
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Professor Howard Kirby, who led the research at Napier University, said the study showed that productivity on a train could save employers significant amounts.
“While our results focus on key routes for Virgin Trains, the principles can be applied to any journey on which a person can work,” he said. “This is an important policy area for government too – something it should be considering when evaluating rail schemes, this data has not been available before.”
