Just 3% of all car and van journeys in Great Britain were for business purposes in 2013, accounting for 9% of all distance travelled, a survey suggests.

On average, the 2013 National Travel Survey (NTS) found that each person made 30 business trips, travelling 620 miles, last year.

Both the number of business trips made and the distance travelled on these journeys were lower in 2013 than the comparative figures for 1995/97, when they were 38 and 736 respectively.

The decline in both these figures occurred after 2007; around the time that the financial crisis began.

For the purposes of the survey, business trips are defined as those made in the course of work, provided that the purpose of the trip is for the traveller to reach a destination.

They do not include commercial travel, such as trips to deliver goods, or to convey a vehicle or passenger – these types of trips are not covered by the NTS.

However, the Fleet200 survey of the UK’s 200 largest fleets, conducted by Sewells on behalf of Fleet News, does include commercial travel, yet still paints a similar picture of declining mileage.

The largest company car mileage fall, recorded by Fleet200, was in the Bluelight/NHS Trusts sector – down 16,300 miles to 100,000 miles at replacement on average.

The data also reveals that average annual company car business mileage was lowest in the Insurance/Accountancy/Banking/Finance/Other sector (12,000 miles) and highest across Bluelight/NHS Trusts fleets (28,333 miles).

Across the 10 business segments average company car business mileage was 19,791 miles.

Cost management, carbon footprint reduction, risk management, business efficiency and effectiveness, and time management all impact on business travel.

For example, Barclays Bank employees are being asked to ensure their car journeys are business-critical.

As a result, the bank has recorded double-digit annual mileage reduction as employees across the organisation have to justify their journey.

Caroline Sandall, fleet manager at Barclays Bank, said: “Mileage will continue to reduce. When economic times were tough in 2008/9, drivers adopted new habits and dealt with many more people on a remote basis, particularly by video and teleconferencing.

“Mileage has crept up a little since then, but it has not reached the levels of years gone by.”

The NTS, which looks at all household travel, whether personal or business, is part of a continuous survey of journeys in Great Britain that began in July 1988, following ad hoc surveys since the mid-1960s.

The survey is primarily designed to track long-term development of trends, with data collected via two main sources.

Firstly, face-to face-interviews are carried out to collect information on the households, all individual members within the household and all vehicles which they have access to.

Each household member is asked to record details of all their trips over a seven-day period in a travel diary, allowing travel patterns to be linked with individual characteristics.

The NTS covers travel by people in all age groups, including children.

During 2013, 6,830 households in England participated in the survey by providing information via interview and completing a seven-day travel diary.

It reveals that a company-owned car travelled more than twice as far annually as a privately owned car – an average of 18,600 miles and 7,500 miles respectively.

It also reveals that commuting distances increased between 1995/97 and 2013.

In 2013, the average commuting distance was 8.8 miles. This is 0.6 miles further than the average for 1995/97, but is slightly lower than the peak of 9.1 miles in 2010.

The duration of the average commuting trip has also increased in that time, from 24 minutes to 29 minutes. 

Residents in the east of England commuted farther than those in any other English region, on average commuting 1,672 miles per person per year – 377 miles farther than the average for England.

They also travelled farther for business compared with any other region, travelling 807 miles per person per year on average – 207 miles farther than the average for England as a whole.