Productivity could be draining away from British business because employees travel by car rather than train on business trips, new research claims.
A study by Napier University’s Transport Research Institute, commissioned by Virgin Trains, identified and compared the costs involved in travelling by train and car.
The study assessed the value of the time employees spend working during train journeys and argued that this is lost time when they travel by car.
Researchers sampled 90 individual door-to-door journeys on three of Virgin Trains’ key routes and analysed journey times, fares/motoring costs and, crucially, what travellers do with their time.
The costs and benefits varied according to the journey and the type of traveller but it found, for example, that a lawyer travelling from Manchester to London that charges £145 per hour could more than offset the travel costs incurred through the time spent working on the train. The study also took into account non-professional business travellers, based on salary data, and found significant savings were likely.
Tony Collins, Virgin Trains chief executive, said: “Employees clock up 27 billion business miles each year on the roads. This research shows an example of a business saving £129 on a single train journey compared to a car journey. If just a small fraction of those business miles were travelled by train, businesses could save billions of pounds a year.”
Professor Howard Kirby, who led the research team, said: “This study shows that productivity on a train can 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.
“This is an important policy area for government too – something they should be considering when evaluating rail schemes, such data having not been available before.”
Collins added: “This research is a wake up call for many businesses, who may ask employees to travel by car rather than train without assessing the real costs. No doubt this research is just the tip of the iceberg, but we wanted to highlight the issue and help people consider travel options more carefully.
“Criticism of train fares has always lacked an understanding of comparative costs, and this research lays bare the factors involved.”
“Businesses who choose the car as the sole mode of transport could cost themselves a fortune in lost productivity.
“We’re not saying ‘never use the car’, but we are urging businesses to think about it based on a better understanding of all the costs to their business – in terms of both immediate expenses and lost employee productivity.”
