The recession is encouraging more company car drivers to take calls when behind the wheel, according to a survey by ING Car Lease.

The survey found that while 61% of company car drivers questioned felt under greater pressure to take or make calls while driving, 39% of respondents admitted to having previously texted or emailed while behind the wheel.

If that figure is an accurate representation of all company car drivers in the UK, then as many as 1,755,000 drivers could be texting or emailing behind the wheel.

Tests previously undertaken at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) have shown that drivers who text while driving had their reaction times slowed by a third.

“These findings really are a cause for concern and are far worse than I thought they would be,” explained Diarmuid Fahy, head of risk at ING Car Lease.

“It is clear that the recession has had an impact on driver safety even indirectly by adding greater pressure to drivers to perform a number of tasks at once. “

The research also revealed that 16% of respondents were unaware if their company had a policy on the use of mobile phones while driving.