Company car drivers appear to spending less time behind the wheel.

A new survey has revealed that 40% now spend less than 10 hours a week behind the wheel and just 10% spend longer than 30 hours a week driving.

The survey of over 500 car company drivers, which was carried out by Skoda, suggested that growing fatigue and traffic queues are changing attitudes to car usage at work.

The survey also found that few business car users take the recommended break from driving every two hours, with only one in seven drivers following the advice.

Worryingly one in six company car drivers never take a break from driving due, they say, to time pressures.

Despite these pressures, only one in seven company car drivers would consider changing jobs if it meant doing fewer business miles, with the majority (56%) accepting high mileage as an integral part of their job.

However, feet managers keen to reduce their growing fuel bills as well as reducing the carbon footprint of their company cars still have a battle on their hands to convince their drivers to get our of their cars.

While company car drivers seem to spending less time at the wheel, they remain divided on adopting alternatives to their car, such as video conferencing and working from home.

Whilst 46% expressed a keen interest in using such alternatives, 45% still said they would rather get behind the wheel.

Martin Burke, head of business sales at Skoda, said: “When it comes to work-related travel, the car remains the business tool of choice.

"Benefits of face-to-face interaction and a break from the office clearly offset the nuisance of traffic congestion for most workers.”