Employees can spend hours each week driving to work. How much time is being wasted searching for a parking spot? Ronspot looks at some interesting statistics on employee parking.
By Cathal Chambers. 12-November-2020
Given the COVID-19 situation worldwide, many employees find themselves working from home. People are spending less time commuting to and from work. However, pre COVID, employees in the UK were surveyed on their workday parking experience. These are some of the statistics they found.
4 Days a Year Looking for a Parking Space
UK Parking Statistics
A survey by The British Parking Association found that employees were spending an average 90.5 hours a year looking for a parking space. That is 4 days each year just looking for a spot. In that time, you could drive from Galway City, in Ireland, to Athens in Greece and still have time to visit the Acropolis! Nobody wants to waste time looking for parking. Its stressful and frustrating.
When surveying how employees felt when looking for a parking space, results showed 39% of employees found this stressful. Parking for employees should not be a stressful experience. There are ways to tackle this problem and reduce the time employees spend looking for a parking space.
If the company’s office is in a city-centre, the business will often have limited allocated spaces. Trying to find a spot nearby can be difficult of for employees. Peace of mind for employees could be knowing there is a parking space available on site. One solution could be pre-booking the spot to reduce employee stress. Happy employees are more productive.
How much do employees spend on parking?
We now know just how much time and effort employees spend on parking every year. However, we have not accounted for the cost of parking. Employees face fuel and maintenance costs for their vehicles, but how much money is spent on parking?
A 2017 article by HighwayIndustry.com has some interesting statistics on employee parking. It highlighted that UK employees cough-up an average of €2,533 (£2,288) each year, for parking within 15 minutes of the city centre. That is nearly €49 (£44) per week on parking! It found parking in London to be the most expensive with an average of £218 per week. Therefore, parking can be another hidden cost for employees. Some companies have private parking which employees can use. Too often there are more employees than there are parking spaces, which can cause friction between employees. Managing employee parking is important.
The future of employee parking
Covid-19 has shifted the dynamic of business practices. With some companies allowing their employees to work from home permanently, will the state of the workplace change? The move to a ‘flexible’ workplace could be the future. A flexible workplace allows employees to work in the office a few days a week and work from home the remainder, or vice versa. If you want to know more about this why not visit our blog on ‘The Future of the Workplace – Hybrid Workforce or Hybrid Employees?’
So as the workplace moves for change, will the employee parking situation change with it? We cannot be sure. Working from home will reduce the number of cars in parking spots. Parking should be easier to come by for motorists, but will the price change? Will the time spent on looking for a spot and walking to the office be reduced? As it stands, Covid-19 has redesigned the business workplace immensely.
