More employees starting workday at home to avoid rush hour traffic

An increasing number of workers are starting their workday at home and then driving to work a little later, both the road users’ organization ANWB and employers’ organization AWVN noted. That saves time lost in traffic jams and boosts productivity, Jannes van der Velde of the AWVN told NU.nl.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Van der Velde said. Traffic jams often come at the expense of working time and energy. “Both the employee and the employer benefit from this,” he said. “Shifting the day windows is not that complicated. You can easily start that meeting at 10:00 a.m. instead of 9:00 a.m.”

The ANWB noticed the phenomenon on the road. Traffic congestion during morning rush hour has decreased by 2 percent in the past six months. “That is despite the fact that there are actually more cars and the number of kilometers driven has increased,” Arnoud Broekhuis of the ANWB told the newspaper.

The AWVN attributes this phenomenon to the work-from-home culture that started by necessity during the coronavirus pandemic. “Because of the period in which it was necessary, all systems were also set up for it.” Now, both employers and employees are comfortable with working in this way, and hybrid working is becoming the norm. With hybrid working, employees only go to the office on some days, typically Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Noteworthy is that evening rush hour is as congested as ever. “It has remained traditionally busy, Broekhuis of the ANWB told the newspaper. And there is a new traffic jam moment. “Friday morning has become even quieter than before corona, but the traffic jams are also starting around 11:00 a.m. Recreational traffic starts much earlier.”