Workers spend 16 weeks going to office

Thousands of commuters now add four months a year to their working lives just by travelling to their jobs, astonishing new figures show today.

Many also spend up to a third of their salary funding the daily commute into London.

Professionals can spend three hours a day - or 15 hours a week - travelling to and from their jobs by car or train, according to the RAC Foundation.

Each year this adds up to 720 hours - or 16.7 working weeks - on top of the average 43-hour week in the office.

The RAC calculates that employees who travel to work each day by car - and who pay to park - spend £3,500 financing their commuting.

It said the figures were the clearest evidence yet that employees should allow workers to operate from home instead of the office, at least some of the week. This would also help slash traffic congestion levels in London.

New research from the RAC suggests that nearly half of all drivers would like to work from home - and that more than half will do so by 2050.

Today the RAC and the Telework Association - a group hoping to promote the work-from-home idea - launched a leaflet offering advice and encouragement to workers and their companies.

They called on the Government to encourage higher levels of " telecommuting" by offering tax-based incentives to businesses.

The RAC's "typical" commuter is a manager who lives in Didcot, Oxfordshire, who drives to the station, spends two hours every day travelling to and from London and an hour on the Tube. He earns £26,000, is left with £20,500 after tax, spends £4,000 a year on rail costs, £2,500 a year on the second family car (bought specially for his journey) to the station and £500 on car parking.

He is left with around £14,000 takehome pay - or just under £5 an hour when his 58-hour week including travel is factored in.

Alan Denbigh, executive director of the Telework Association, said: " Someone in this position might be better off, work fewer hours, be healthier and have a better quality of life by taking a lower-paid job closer to home.

"Or his employer might look at a scheme which allows him to work at least part of his week from home, increasing his productivity and efficiency, saving him money and improving his morale."

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC added: "If each employee worked from home just one day a week we would see a 20 per cent cut in traffic, equivalent to removing the school run."