Last month fuelGenie conducted a survey to determine if we as a nation still appreciate our UK roads and driving in general or whether it’s all just a necessity to keep business moving. We also found out some interesting data on how you use the roads.
In answer to our big question ‘what makes you love driving?’ not one person specified that they didn’t enjoy driving anymore. With the joint most popular responses for enjoying driving being ‘changing scenery’ and ‘the vehicle,’ with 33% of the vote each.
This suggests that although we may complain that we’ve got a long drive or that we need to go and meet a customer on the other side of the country, we don’t actually mind the process of driving. As automation and an inevitable move towards driver less vehicles advances, it’s good to know that people still enjoy driving.
It would also seem that the vehicle you use for business is important to you. Having the right comfort, control, reliability and performance makes for a stress free journey. This also suggests that more fleet managers are seeing the personal value in vehicle investment.
Your most popular road with 16.6% of the vote was the A1, which is actually the longest numbered road in the UK, at 410 miles and connects London with Edinburgh. Other popular routes included the A9 connecting Perth and Inverness and the A85/84 connecting Perth and Sterling. The M5 was the only motorway to get a vote, while our favourite answer was “the one that heads to home.”
In fact the motorways aren’t popular at all! Only 8% of people said it was a form of driving they enjoyed, with 50% preferring A-roads and 33% appreciating our country lanes. Interestingly nobody surveyed enjoyed urban or city centre driving. This suggests that although we still enjoy driving, we want to be out of the inner cities and appreciating the scenery while we work.
There was an even split on ‘the best type of journey’ with 82% of people either selecting planned with stops or spontaneous. This is quite interesting as they are the two ends of the spectrum. What this perhaps suggests is that people prefer to be organised during the week for business, but enjoy the freedom or discovery at the weekend.
The reinforcement that people do still love driving was probably most evident in question 5. We asked ‘What most helps you to pass time during a journey?’ and a staggering 41% said that it was just the love of the road itself! Music was the second most popular choice with 33% of the vote. Interestingly audio books were also specifically mentioned as helping to pass the time.
Finally it seems that you all like to be prepared. Half of all respondents said they choose to refuel before any long journey, with the majority of the rest of those questioned only reacting once the petrol gauge called for help!
Overall it seems that the UK obsession with road is still going strong. It may delay our deliveries and make us late for appointments from time to time, but our survey results suggest that people still love the road and driving.
