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A study of over 2000 UK respondents plus research conducted by Professor Frank Furedi reveals that one third of people listed ‘queuing’ as their biggest bug-bear.

Conducted on behalf of delivery company myHermes.co.uk, the research found that queuing skews people’s perception of time, resulting in what has been called the ‘empty time’ effect, which makes the time people are wasting in queues feel longer than it actually is.

The average amount of time spent in a queue is 17 minutes, and one fifth of people would leave the queue after 20 minutes if they still hadn’t been able to offload their parcel.

The research found that householders spend on average three working days each year waiting at home for deliveries to arrive but also that 76% of respondents knew their neighbours by their first name and most people spoken to were happy to take packages for their neighbours.

Matt, 36, an electrician, notes the benefits of the personal contact, “...people appreciate the sense of community that taking in packages helps to foster...It’s quite a nice way of keeping in touch with people”.

Whilst most people have had enough of the old British queue, 64% of respondents were still excited by receiving a parcel rather than tweets, facebook gifts and emails.

Introducing their new service myHermes.co.uk hope that the 30% of respondents who said they would spend time saved queuing on leisure activities such as shopping, followed by browsing the internet or reading a magazine will feel the benefits. However, clearly not as much as the 10% of people who would use their saved time having sex!

May 13, 2009