The Department of Transport has released figures from its annual National Travel Survey that reveal that commuting accounted for all journeys across all forms of transport in the UK last year.

The survey showed that distance for both type of travel tend to be longer than the average trip, commuting accounted for 19 percent of the total distance travelled per person last year, with a further 9 percent on business travel.  That compares with 20 percent for visiting friends and the same figure for leisure and other activities.

The Department of Transport statistics showed that the number of commuting trips had decreased by a total of 10 percent since 1997 but the average length of these trips rose by 5 percent.

According to the survey, 57.7 percent of Britons commute to work by car, 10 2 percent walk, 9.6 percent are car passengers and 8.3 percent use public transport.   However 70 percent of all not commuting journeys were made by car.

The statistics also showed that the average company car travelled over twice as far as the average private car.  For company cars, 72 percent of miles accrued were due to commuting or business mileage, compared to just 38 percent for private cars.

The results show that companies are tightening their belt when it comes to the purchase of company cars, as the number of business vehicles on the road slipped from 7 percent to 5 percent in the last year.

The data comes from 8000 households who completed both an interview and a seven-day travel diary.