An average Indian spent 59 minutes to commute one way to work in 2023: Report

Indian employees may be working fewer days from office thanks to hybrid work arrangements, but they are spending more time commuting than in pre-pandemic days as the distance to the workplace and the traffic on road have increased, says a new report.

An average Indian spent 59 minutes to travel 20 kms one way to work last year in key metro cities, compared with 51 minutes to cover 17 kms before the pandemic, said the report, '2023 On Wheels: How India Moved In Sync', by office commute platform MoveInSync.

Indian employees spent 8% of their time (almost two hours) traveling to and fro on days when they worked from the office. They were on the road for 15% more time than in pre-Covid times.


At 64 minutes and 25 kms, the average commute time and distance were the most in the National Capital Region. In Bengaluru, employees travelled an average 17 kms in 54 minutes, compared with 15 kms in 49 minutes before Covid.

While the number of vehicles on Indian roads has gone up, increasing the time required to negotiate the traffic, the data also suggest that Indians are gradually moving further away from their offices, resulting in longer travelling distances.

In 2023, the average travel distance between the home and the office increased 17.6% from the pre-Covid times, according to the findings of MoveInSync, which it said were based on an analysis of the travel time data of 30 million trips taken by employees of 300 companies using its platform.

Meanwhile, employees are using hybrid work to their advantage, resulting in a reduction in the frequency of their travel to offices.

The average Indian employee worked only 2.8 days per week from office last year. This number was the highest in the NCR, where they worked 3.4 days per week from office, and the lowest in Kolkata at 2.6 days.

"We are observing a consistent trend of employees traveling for longer hours and longer distances as time progresses," said Deepesh Agarwal, cofounder and chief executive of MoveInSync. "However, the number could have been much worse if corporates in India had not adopted hybrid work models and without the development of rapid transport systems like metro rail. While these factors have reduced congestion, an increase of 30% vehicular density has led to the increased travel time."

Amid changes to the city landscape and the challenges to commuting, companies are tweaking the arrangements for work and commute for employees.

At data management and storage company NetApp India, employees can opt for either the nodal service that refers to pick-up and drop between the closest point from the employee's residence and the office, or a shift-based model that accommodates various time zones, said Krishna Bettan, its director, workplace experience.

Commute time from home to office is seen as a big challenge, and perhaps a key cause of resistance to 100% work from office, said Maneesh Menda, head of human resources, international hubs, at UK banking and insurance holding company NatWest Group. "Most of the Tier 1 cities in India have large-scale infrastructure upgrade projects underway, which have in turn resulted in a significant increase in commute time and cost through these phases of development and change. Those who work from home are able to focus a lot more on work-life balance given the ability to save on logistics and commute time," said Menda.

Organisations are now open to allowing employees to work out of office locations close to employees' place of residence rather than their home/base office, which is possible for larger organisations that have multiple office locations, said Mansee Singhal, partner and rewards consulting leader at Mercer India. "However, this has to be considered within the realm of business needs."

As per its report, Wednesdays stood out as the most preferred day to work from the office, while Mondays were the least preferred.

MoveInSync is backed by investors including Nexus Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Athera.