One in four Brits spends 712 hours a year travelling to and from work

ONE in four Brits spends the equivalent of a month a year getting to and from work.

A study shows a quarter of workers take on a triathlon-like commute, spending 712 hours a year - nearly 30 days - battling traffic and overcrowded trains before pounding the pavements in order to get to and from work.

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That means three hours of travel to get to work each day - and these figures, from 3-in-1 transportation app Ubeeqo, don't even include delays.

Train commuters endure the longest travel time with the average worker spending more than two working weeks (11 days) in transit, compared to an average of 8.8 days for car drivers.

When on foot the average person spends 53 minutes a day pounding the pavements in all weathers – and that’s just those walking. A rising number of people commute by running to work.

Chris Trump of  "Working at a health food brand, we are always trying to outdo each other when it comes to exercise. I find my daily run to and from work a great way to stay ahead! Not only is it often faster than the bus or other public transport modes, but it’s actually quite addictive! I see so many of the same faces each day, it seems to be becoming more and more common.”

More than half of Brits commuting to work (56 per cent) favour the car.  One in ten spends up to two hours a day on the road. Just one in 20 rail users spend more than two hours a day getting to and from work.

Of those who take the bus to work, only one in ten describes it as their favourite way to travel. Fourteen per cent take taxis frequently, six per cent travel by bike and five per cent by Tube or metro.

Four in ten Brits (37 per cent) do not to use public transport to get to work, with their objections including:

• The expense (20 per cent)
• Time consuming routes (20 per cent)
• Inefficiency (eight per cent)
• Being too busy and overcrowded (six per cent)
• Dirty seats (three per cent)

One in five Brits (20 per cent) said they’d rather walk to work than take any other transport method.

One in four used three modes of transport to commute each day using the car, the train and foot, but some use even more modes of transport:

Matt Winton, Marketing Director at  has one of the longest daily commutes, across five different modes of transport.

He said: “I leave my house at 6.30am each day and commute to London Bridge from my little village of Bembridge in the Isle of Wight. I drive to the harbour, get a catamaran boat to Portsmouth, then get the train to London Waterloo, where I get a tube to London Bridge before walking to my office. My commute is 3.5 hours each way, seven hours a day total across five different modes of transport. I think that has to be some sort of record!”

Henrik Jensen, UK Managing Director of , said of the findings, “This data shows we are spending a huge amount of our lives on the way to or from work. However, there are now many options available to people to help them cut down their travel time and spend more on doing what they love.”

“Car users looking for broader options are embracing services like car clubs as an affordable way to have the flexibility of owning a car, without the added cost and which has also been seen to reduce congestion in our cities.”