Working from home saved Americans $91 bn in commuting costs: Report

Washington: Americans have likely saved millions of hours and billions of dollars in car commuting amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new UpWork study cited by Bloomberg on Thursday.

Adam Ozimek, an economist at the freelancing platform, found that Americans have collectively saved $91 billion in car commuting — or individually saved $2,000 since mid-March.

The study noted that in 2018, the average person spent 54.2 minutes commuting by car each day — or nine-and-a-half full days per year.

It surveyed 1,000 people working from home due to the pandemic and found similar results. On average, respondents have saved 51 minutes per day, or four full days, of commuting since March.

Ozimek then calculated direct costs and time value and found that Americans have collectively saved 32.9 million hours of car commuting per day amid the pandemic — along with roughly $758 million per day.

Those savings only validate the decision that many companies have already made to continue remote work more permanently.