Traffic congestion number one concern for company car drivers

Company car drivers are more concerned about the increasing congestion on UK roads than any other issue, according to RAC’s Report on Motoring 2015.

Among its findings the annual study shows that more than one in 10 company car drivers now rate traffic problems as their biggest frustration about driving in the UK.

The report found that 65 percent of company car drivers believe the problem has in fact become worse in the past year and more than three quarters agree that much stronger steps are required to reduce congestion.

Department for Transport figures show that traffic in the UK continues to increase, with a 2.3 percent rise in the year ending June 2015. To help combat congestion, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin announced last week that long stretches of the country’s busiest roadworks are to be banned within a year and work will instead be limited to short bursts, lasting two miles, under Government plans to cut congestion and make life easier for drivers. 

The report also shows that heavy traffic is currently having an impact on the traditional working day, with 46 percent of company car drivers saying that they alter their working hours to avoid congestion issues.

Other top anxieties for company drivers are concerns over other motorists talking on mobile phones when driving (10 percent), and the cost of fuel, which is an issue for nine percent of those who replied.

Jenny Powley, Sales Director Corporate Business of RAC Business, said: “A good road network is vital for the UK’s economic development and problems such as congestion could undermine the fragile economic recovery we are currently experiencing.

“We are seeing drivers altering their working hours to avoid traffic problems, which is fine if you have flexible working patterns and can do that. But most people are committed to set working days and times, and they will be losing vital hours due to congestion, which will inevitably impact on productivity.”

The Government is currently in the process of announcing a raft of new roadworks nationwide to ease congestion across the road network as part of a £15.2bn scheme. Any new roadworks will have to conform to the new system of shorter-length sections of highway.