Family driving hits new highs during the summer as two thirds (68%) of parents find car journeys to holiday destinations their most enjoyable family car trip. This is followed by taking the family to days out (66%) and seeing relatives (58%), reveals new research from Allianz Your Cover.
With the weekly family driving routine of supermarket trips, school runs and lifts to extra curricular activities stacking up to 12 and a half days1 each year, it is no wonder the summer spell is a welcome change for parents’ routines. The daily driving grind spins up a total of over 1,291 miles2 over the course of the year, the same distance as a trip to Prague and back3.
In addition to car journeys themselves, parents spend an hour preparing ahead of every family car journey from planning routes and stops along the way, to safety checks and setting up the satellite navigation system, locking up the house and getting their children into the car.
But it is not all fun and games on the UK’s roads as parent dislikes include ‘are we there yet?’ questions (26%) and being distracted by their children (22%). Only one in 10 (12%) parents wouldn’t change a thing about regularly driving with the family.
According to Allianz Your Cover, British families’ main reasons for enjoying car journeys together are:
- Spending time together as a family without modern day distractions, such as television (48%)
- Catching up with each other in the car (34%)
- Listening to updates from the children (28%)
- Singing along to music together (27%)
- Driving past exciting sights (22%)
Jon Lott, of Allianz Your Cover Insurance said: “The summer holiday gives families the opportunity to spend quality time together in the car, outside of the day-to-day grind, so it is great to see that these journeys are treasured by parents.
“Driving to holiday destinations and going on day trips are the favorite journeys for families to take together and our research finds that one in five parents enjoy playing car games and also having honest conversations with their family during these trips.”
The Allianz Your Cover Insurance research also reveals:
- Mums say cheaper petrol would make family journeys better (32%), whereas Dads prefer less traffic to help the family get from A to B faster (34%)
- Passing their driving test is the most memorable driving moment for parents (63%), followed by buying their first car (36%) and driving their baby home for the first time (28%).
www.YourCoverInsurance.co.uk
About Your Cover
Your Cover is a new breed of insurance product, offering cover that customers select to precisely match their own lifestyle and circumstances. Using an easy to use ‘Quote and Buy’ website, Your Cover makes it simple to design, obtain a quote and manage your insurance online.
The result of two years’ research involving thousands of insurance buyers, Your Cover is a product from Allianz Insurance plc, which is a part of the global Allianz Group.
About the research
The research was commissioned by Allianz Your Cover and undertaken by One Poll amongst 1,000 parents of 0-16 year olds who regularly drive their family around.
1 The average family spends 2.31 hours each week on the supermarket run (x 52 = 120.12), 2.33 hours on the school run (x38 = 88.54) and 2.39 hours taking children to extra curricular activities (x 38 = 90.82) Which totals 299.48 divided by 24 = 12.5 days. (School term time according to Birmingham City Council http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=136)
2 Supermarket run 9.28 miles (x52 = 482.56) school run 10.76 (x38 = 408.88) extra curricular lifts 10.52 (x38 = 399.76) in total = 1291.41 miles in total
3 Distance is 1291.41 miles. Distance to Prague is 643 miles so a return trip would be 1286 miles (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=136)
