Business lobby group Ibec has started a six-month study of the impact and cost of congestion in the State.
The project will measure the extent of congestion and will make recommendations to Government and State agencies to counter the problem. The report is due to be completed early next year.
It is the latest in a series of biennial congestion surveys by Ibec, but will have a wider scope. Its 2006 survey found that 59 per cent of businesses outside Dublin faced rising delivery costs and disrupted staff schedules due to congestion.
Paul Sweetman, Ibec transport executive, said average hourly speed at peak times through Dublin have fallen to just 16.5km/h and the perception among international industrialists was that the efficiency of Ireland's distribution is very poor. "We are lagging behind Poland and Korea in that regard," he said.
"Transport costs are quickly rising up the list of top 10 business costs and the problem is getting worse." Mr Sweetman said existing research shows that a typical truck forced to stop 10 times over a congested 10km will use 140 per cent more fuel than when travelling uninterrupted over the same distance.
The Ibec project will also offer one of the first assessments of the impact of recent large-scale infrastructure projects such as the Port Tunnel and Luas.
According to Ibec, nine out of 10 businesses are losing either money and/or valuable staff working time due to chronic traffic congestion and the report will aim to quantify how much of both is being lost.
"We are looking at time delay costs, operating costs (including fuel and maintenance) and the environmental impact of excessive pollution from passenger vehicles, trucks and buses stalled in traffic," Mr Sweetman said.
Ibec says that although the number of vehicles in Ireland has increased by 104 per cent in the last 16 years to 2.2 million vehicles, Ireland remains below the EU average for car ownership. Some 78 per cent of all vehicles are private cars.
