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The telephone while driving has been wreaking havoc for years and this is even more true among professionals, who do not hesitate to transform their car into a second office. Road traffic today represents the leading cause of death among professionals.
The insurer MMA surveyed active people to find out their driving behavior during their business trips and the results are rather alarming. According to this study, 25% of professionals surveyed today consider their car as a second office, while there have never been so many distractions for motorists, starting with the smartphone.
Telephone use has continued to increase since the launch of this study ten years ago. In 2024, 80% of professionals surveyed say they receive phone calls while driving when they work and 74% say they make them, figures up by 7 and 14 points respectively since 2015. Even worse, 57% of workers read text messages ( +4 pts) and 48% send (+6 pts) while rolling. All other uses, from checking emails to using social networks, are also progressing compared to 2015, even if they are carried out to a lesser extent.
Concerning speed, a majority of professionals (seven out of ten working people) say they drive above the limits during business trips and 15% of them admit to having already driven while having consumed more than two glasses of alcohol. Drowsy driving also concerns them, since 80% of them have already driven while being tired on a professional journey (+2 pts since 2015). 60% claim to regularly drive for more than two hours without taking a break and 33% admit to having already dozed off at least once while driving.
In 2022, 485 people died on the roads during a business trip, including 345 during a home-work journey according to the National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory (ONISR), which makes the road the leading cause fatal accident for active workers. Unfortunately, less than a quarter of workers (24%) have already followed road risk awareness training, an initiative still ignored by many companies. Concerning the right to disconnect, only 38% of workers declare that their company extends it to their business trips.
This study was carried out online by Ifop for MMA, from April 8 to 22, 2024, with a sample of 1,023 people traveling for business at least once a month.