Delivery drivers travelling between December 17-22, the busiest home delivery week of the year, with average distance travelled up by 20%.

Next week will be the busiest home delivery week of the year according to analysis of more than a billion home delivery vehicle kilometres, by telematics and fleet management company Microlise.

Data scientists from the company reviewed anonymised home delivery data from its customers.

The analysis also found that December 17-23 is the busiest home delivery week, with the average distance travelled by home delivery vehicles in this period 20% higher than normal.

In total, Microlise tracks more than 250,000 vehicles worldwide with billions of miles of data captured every year.

Researchers looked at 14 million home delivery journeys taking place over the course of four years with a total driving time in excess of 31 million hours.

Contrary to common sense expectations, the number of “harsh braking” incidents per kilometre, in which brakes are excessively applied, were 11% lower in the busiest week compared with the average.

Microlise’s executive director of product strategy Matt Hague said:  “It’s not really a great surprise to see the week immediately before Christmas is the busiest.

“But a surge in distance travelled by more than a third does highlight just how much strain retailers and delivery companies are under during this busy period.

In 2018, the company will be launching a new product to harness the power of big data and identify trends in real-time to help fleet operators to clearly understand risk on the road.

The new offering will combine vehicle data with information from other sources such as traffic, accident and weather reports, to provide a complete picture of risk on the road and conditions.