Is your Commute Worth the Pain? The True Cost of Getting to Work

Totaljobs shows the average worker is set to spend a whopping £135,000 on their commute by the time they retire.

Following these findings, Instant Offices investigates which cities around the world are the best and worst for commuting and whether a rise in flexible and remote working can finally tip the balance for UK workers.

According to the Department for Transport, London by far has the longest commute with the average worker spending 46 minutes per trip or a roundtrip of 92 minutes each day from the workplace. With so much time spent simply travelling to and from work – around 400 days for the average person – it’s no surprise that the topic of how to reduce commuting time is so popular.

One study by Focus considered various factors, including journey times and cost of travel cards, to rank the best and worst cities for commuting in the world. Unsurprisingly, London tops the list, with Miami USA a close second.

Nice in France took the top spot as the best city for commuting. Travel cards in Nice cost more than four times less than they do in London, and average travel time is around 22 minutes a trip, or just 44 minutes each day compared to over 80 for London.

Regionally, Leicester, Bristol and Edinburgh topped the rankings as the easiest commutes in the UK, with London, Birmingham and Manchester coming in last.

There is a large body of research into the negative impact of long commuting times on employee physical and mental health. One report by the Royal Society for Public Health shows the following:

• More than half of commuters say travel increases stress levels.
• Two in five commuters say it decreases the amount of time they are physically active.
• Over one-third of commuters sleep less.

In addition to the impact on mental wellbeing, excessively long commutes over a long period can also reduce employee happiness and negatively impact health due to lower physical activity. Research from Forest Holidays also reveals office workers spend as much as 75% of the waking hours sitting down.

There is also a loss of productivity to consider among talent. If one employee given up to two hours of their day back, ten hours of potential productivity could be released back into the workplace each week, which equates to a potential 40 hours a month.

Lucinda Pullinger, Global Head of HR at The Instant Group commented,

“To cut down on stress as well as commuting times and costs, more companies in the UK are introducing flexible and remote working options for employees. An increase in co-working and flexible office space, access to new technology and faster internet speeds have also changed the way we work, and by 2020, a predicted report by HSO shows 50% of the UK workforce will be working remotely.”