Business people are almost incapable of switching off and just enjoying the journey while travelling it seems.  Only 6.2% of executives switch their company phone off out of hours, according to research unveiled today at the Business Travel Market.

The study was conducted by Business Travel Market (BTM) and the Association of Travel Executives (ACTE) and questioned representatives from large multi-national companies on how mobile technology development is being adopted by business travellers.

Just 30% of respondents said they made themselves available because they wanted to and 40% were available because their client or employee expected them to be.

The survey was carried out after the ash cloud crisis and came up with these results:

85% said mobile technology was helpful in an emergency

48% use it to source alternative travel options

66% use it to keep abreast of general news updates

73% use email and web applications to keep in contact with their family and company

70% of those surveyed using mobile applications for checking the times of flights and trains

over 40% use this technology to check in for flights

only 11% of those surveyed have booked a train or flight through mobile applications.

Paul Robin, Business Travel Market’s event director, said: “The growth of mobile technology has empowered the end user to find out information from almost any location. Travellers can now be more informed and therefore more decisive at the touch of button or slide of a screen.

“Smart phones and blackberries have proven to be indispensable to the business traveller and recent situations have really highlighted they can be in an emergency. It would be good to see more companies take note of their versatile uses.”

While there are obvious positives in the improvement of technology as noted above, I can’t help thinking that the first results showing that business people will leave their work mobiles on out of hours because clients expect them to mean that the balance between work and social life is uneven as people are unable to switch off mentally while the phone is still on.