South Africa’s petrol prices have skyrocketed over the past few years, making it increasingly expensive for employees to get to work.
The average motorist is now spending roughly R78.20 on petrol to commute to their places of employment every day, depending on their car’s fuel efficiency and the distance they have to travel.
The hidden cost of work
South Africans are currently paying up to R22.34 per litre for petrol 95 following March’s modest fuel price adjustments.
TopAuto used this figure to calculate how much a typical motorist is spending on petrol each day, based on how far they travel.
To do so, we assumed an average fuel consumption of 7.0l/100km, as this is a general figure that represents the majority of cars on the road.
Most hatchbacks and small crossovers are slightly more efficient than this with a reading between 6.0-7.0l/100km, while larger SUVs and bakkies consume closer to 8.0l/100km.
The following table shows how much fuel a car typically goes through in a day depending on the distance covered:
| Distance to work | Fuel consumed | Petrol cost one-way | Petrol cost both-ways |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5km | 0.35 litres | R7.82 | R15.64 |
| 10km | 0.7 litres | R15.64 | R31.28 |
| 15km | 1.05 litres | R23.46 | R46.92 |
| 20km | 1.40 litres | R31.28 | R62.56 |
| 25km | 1.75 litres | R39.10 | R78.20 |
| 30km | 2.10 litres | R46.91 | R93.82 |
| 35km | 2.45 litres | R54.73 | R109.46 |
| 40km | 2.80 litres | R62.55 | R125.10 |
| 45km | 3.15 litres | R70.37 | R140.74 |
| 50km | 3.50 litres | R78.19 | R156.38 |
For those who are lucky enough to live very close to their place of work, the fuel cost is rather modest at just R7.82 one-way, or up to R15.64 for a return trip.
Admittedly, this sum is on the optimistic side, as combustion engines tend to be rather inefficient over short journeys.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, anyone who travels 50km to get to work, as might be the case with someone driving from Pretoria to Johannesburg, or Stellenbosch to Cape Town, will spend R156.38 per day just to get to the office.
Over the course of a month, this equates to a fuel bill of between R484.84 and R4,847.78, excluding the trips a person makes over the weekend.
Most commuters obviously fall somewhere between these two extremes, as Discovery Bank previously revealed that its Discovery Insure clients drive approximately 1,690km per month.
Assuming a 31-day month, this means a typical motorist travels 54km per day, meaning that a 25km commute is the most accurate figure for South African employees.
Of course, there are several other factors that can affect how far a person drives each day, and what this costs.
Gauteng road users no longer have to pay e-tolls, but other commuters may have to pass through a toll booth everyday, adding a substantial cost to their weekly routine.
Certain toll gates, such as Chapman’s Peak Drive in Cape Town or those managed by Sanral, offer a discount to frequent users to mitigate this expense, but even so, it is still an additional cost that adds to a person’s monthly travel bill.
Households with children will also need to drop them at school five days per week, which if they are lucky, will be on the route to the parents’ workplace. However, other drivers will need to make a fairly substantial detour to take their kids to school.
It’s also worth pointing out that South African cities are incredibly congested by global standards, meaning that households are losing dozens of hours a year sitting in traffic, on top of the fuel they are burning to do so.
Cape Town, in particular, is the eighth-most congested city in the world, with commuters losing an average of 94 hours per year staring at the car in front of them.
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