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Nation in waiting as Brits spend half a year of their lives in limbo

28 August 2007

Brits are rejecting the national stereotype of 'polite queuers' as the frustration of wasting 4,560 hours during the average lifetime* waiting for an ever-increasing list of services sends them to distraction.

The new 'Waiting: Boring' Report from breakdown specialist Green Flag reveals a third of people (34%) spend over an hour waiting around in a typical week, with supermarket and shop queues being one of the biggest thieves of precious hours and minutes. Most Brits (86%) say they have spent time queuing in supermarkets or shops in the past three months.

Waiting for deliveries is also a major cause of dead time; 50% of people spent time waiting around for a delivery to arrive. Millions will recognise the additional frustration caused by lengthy delays and inflexible delivery time slots of entire mornings or afternoons.

Tedious traffic and phone moans
For a third of 'time-poor' people (31%), frustration levels explode as a result of being kept on hold on a call, the most annoying type of waiting. Queuing in traffic jams is the second most irritating waiting situation, with one in five people (19%) rating this as their biggest frustration.

Britain's top five most frustrating 'waiting: boring' situations are:

  1. Being on hold on a phone call
  2. Traffic jams
  3. Queuing at supermarkets or shops
  4. Waiting for a delivery to arrive
  5. Waiting for service in a bar, restaurant or shop

Time-poor and stressed out
The research shows that waiting is taking its toll on our nerves. Nearly one in five Brits (17%) are so near boiling point they just get angry when waiting rather than being able to pass the time calmly. Men are twice as likely to boil over when left to wait than women.

However, a third of people make the best of the situation and take the positive approach, using the time to their advantage by making mental 'to do' lists to plan their day. Nearly one in two people (46%) pass the time by catching up on the day's news by reading a paper or burying their head in a book to stave off the boredom.

Psychotherapist, Christine Webber commented: "Many of us nowadays lead exceptionally busy lives and there has to be a lot of planning in order to get through each day. So when things don't go entirely as we'd envisaged, we can quickly feel angry and frustrated.

Relaxed people will accept the wait fairly graciously but others will get angry and frustrated. This is all to do with not being able to control the situation.

Quite often we can use our waiting time in a positive way. Doing a Sudoku when your train is delayed is good for the brain and takes your mind off the wait. Or when you're waiting in for the groceries, you can play with your children, or wash the windows. Mostly, we don't have to waste time - with a bit of effort and thought we can make that spare time work for us."

British patience is an outdated custom
The British public may still curse queue-jumpers, but overall they are less tolerant of waiting than they were five years ago. In fact, nearly two thirds (59%) are more frustrated by waiting for things today than they were then. The reasons for this include more hectic lifestyles (24%) and generally the view that they are kept waiting for longer amounts of time and for more things (35%).

Resigned acceptance
However, it seems being kept waiting has become an accepted occurrence for today's generation. Two thirds of 18-24 year olds say they expected to be kept waiting for over half of the time they lost, compared with just one in two (49%) over 55s.

Abi Clark, spokesperson for Green Flag, said: "Being kept waiting can be boring and frustrating, especially when it eats up the valuable time in our busy lives. Too much of our precious time is being spent waiting in the course of everyday activities, such as queuing to buy a loaf of bread or waiting for service in a restaurant.

Unfortunately some waiting time is unavoidable, but we can take some steps to minimise the risk of being caught out. For example, one in ten people (10%) have spent time waiting for friends and family to help after their car has broken down, but having a breakdown cover policy can help ensure a recovery vehicle arrives within forty minutes to ensure the wait is as short and painless as possible."

For further information about our breakdown cover please log onto: www.greenflag.com

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Sources

*Research commissioned by YouGov for RBS Insurance amongst 2,242 respondents between 5th to 9th July 2007. The survey was carried out online and has been weighted to be representative of the GB population. Respondents were asked about the waiting they had experienced within the past three months. The average person spends 1.11 hours a week waiting. This is the equivalent of 189 days in an average expected lifetime (life expectancy for men in the United Kingdom is 76.6 and is 81.0 for women. The mean life expectancy for men and women is 78.8 years. Source: ONS, 2007)

** There are 44.2 million adults in Great Britain (ONS, 2007) 50% of this is 22.1million

Media calls

For further information contact:

Sophie Lilley or Vicky Perry at Lansons Communications on 020 7294 3657 / 7566 9708 or email sophiel@lansons.com or vickyp@lansons.com

Abi Clark at RBS Insurance on 020 8313 5830 / 07974 161650 or email abi.clark@churchill.com

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