Commercial drivers find few things more irritating than being stuck in a traffic jam.

Delays caused by traffic congestion can lead to missed appointments, customer complaints, job pressure and general stress for mobile workers.

But, looking at the bigger picture, congestion represents a cost to the UK economy.

In fact, a new study conducted by Webfleet estimates this cost could stand at a whopping £767 million for businesses operating commercial vehicles across the UK’s 25 most congested cities and towns.*

Unsurprisingly, the biggest hit is felt in London, where an approximate £237 million is lost to congestion each year due to the large amount of commercial vehicles operating in the city, followed by Manchester (£157,729,390) and Birmingham (£81,364,800).

However, Belfast is the city where the impact is felt most by the individual drivers, with each wasting an average of 24 working days waiting in traffic. Manchester is second on the list once again (21 days), with Edinburgh third (20 days).

Effectively this means finding ways to minimise the time mobile workers spend on the road through initiatives such as smarter planning, routing and scheduling. For example, telematics technology can use traffic data to inform planning, helping to ensure jobs are carried out in the optimal order and schedules can be adapted to account for the changing situation on the road.

For more information, read the news story accompanying the traffic research.