Canada needs productive travel

Commuters could help reduce Canada's productivity gap with the United States by spending some of their daily commuting time on productive work, according to a survey by Intel Canada. The average American works 164 more hours per year than the average Canadian worker, yet still manages to work less than the average 40 hours per week, the survey found. Not surprisingly (for a company that power many of the world's laptops), Intel's report suggests that Canadian workers could narrow that productivity gap by using a laptop while in transit or by using an alternative to commuting. 12% of Canadian workers use public transportation for work, the survey said, and about half of mass transit users spend about 240 hours per year travelling to and from the workplace. However, only 11% of organizations help workers maximize their commuting time by providing them with access to a laptop or enabling commuting alternatives.