Cardiff, Wales / Cambridge, MA — September 1, 2026 — The first week back to school brings more than a return to the morning rush. New analysis from car insurer Admiral and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics and AI company for safer mobility, finds that UK drivers are more distracted and more likely to speed during the school run in the first week back compared with the rest of September.

Admiral partnered with CMT to examine phone screen interaction and speeding using aggregated, anonymised telematics data from insurance programmes across the UK. The analysis compares the first week of school with the rest of the weekdays in September across 2023 to 2025. The first week back is a uniquely risky window: routines are new, traffic patterns shift overnight, and children — many walking or cycling to school for the first time — are suddenly back on the roads in large numbers. The biggest changes emerge around drop-off and pick-up.

At 8:00 a.m., phone screen interaction is 7.2% higher during the first week back, with UK drivers spending 34.8 seconds per hour interacting with their phones compared to 32.4 seconds during the rest of September. By 3:00 p.m., screen interaction is still 6.7% higher. Even a few extra seconds looking at a phone can mean less time to react to a pedestrian crossing the road or another vehicle entering an intersection.

Drivers are also more likely to speed during the school run. At 8:00 a.m., the percentage of trips where drivers travel at least 9.3 mph above the speed limit jumps 14.6% compared with the rest of September. At 3:00 p.m., it is 8.6% higher.

All of this is happening as roads get busier. CMT’s data shows that during the first week of school, weekday driving volume at drop-off is more than 35% higher than in August, before schools reopen, while pick-up traffic increases nearly 18%. That puts more vehicles on the road at the same time distraction and speeding are rising, as families settle into new routines and more children travel to and from school.

“As a car insurer, we see the consequences of a moment’s distraction every day. It’s always important to pay attention while driving, but the first week back to school after the summer holidays presents its own challenges,” said James Armstrong, Motor Claims Director at Admiral. “Families are settling into new routines, roads are suddenly busier, and it’s easy for attention to slip. The encouraging thing about this analysis is that the risks it identifies are ones every driver can do something about — leaving a few extra minutes, switching the phone to do-not-disturb, and taking extra care near schools.” 

“Children walking and biking to school are among the most vulnerable people on the road, and they’re there at the exact hours when driving risk climbs,” said Sam Madden, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at CMT. “Our analysis shows that the first week back to school in the UK compounds the danger: more vehicles, more phone distraction, and more speeding, all concentrated around drop-off and pick-up. These patterns are precise and predictable — which means drivers can act on them. Putting the phone away for the school run is one of the simplest ways to protect the kids on the street.”

The analysis draws on insights from 152 million trips across the UK on weekdays in August and September 2023 to 2025. Phone distraction is measured as screen interaction seconds per hour, defined as tapping on a phone while driving above 9 mph. Speeding is measured as the percentage of trips with at least one speeding event, defined as driving 9.3 mph or more above the speed limit for at least 90 metres.

To measure changes in distraction and speeding, CMT compared the first full week of September with the remaining weekdays in September. For traffic volume, CMT compared the average number of trips during the first full week of September with weekdays in August.

The analysis uses aggregated, anonymised, opt-in mobile telematics data to evaluate changes in driving behaviour and contains no personally identifiable information.

Admiral and CMT urge drivers to set phones to do-not-disturb before the school run, leave extra time to avoid multitasking, and stay especially alert near schools during that first week back — when students are still adjusting to routine and drivers are most likely to be distracted.

Methodology

To calculate the change in driving behavior during the first week back to school, CMT measured phone screen interaction seconds per hour at 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for the first full week of September in 2023, 2024, and 2025. CMT then averaged those three annual rates to create the first-week rate for each hour. CMT then calculated the distraction rate for the same two hours on the remaining September weekdays in each of the three years, and averaged those three annual rates to create the comparison rate. The reported change at each hour is the percentage difference between its first-week rate and its comparison rate.

The speeding findings at 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. were calculated the same way, based on the percentage of trips with a speeding event. Driving volume during those hours was calculated using the same year-by-year approach, but compared against weekdays in August to capture the return of school traffic after the summer break. Each reference to 8:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. represents the full clock hour.

About Cambridge Mobile Telematics

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is the world’s largest telematics and AI company for safer mobility. Its mission is to make the world’s roads and drivers safer. The company’s AI-driven platform, DriveWell Fusion®, proactively identifies and reduces driving risk, leading to fewer crashes and injuries. To date, CMT’s technology has helped prevent over 126,000 crashes worldwide. CMT enables partners to measure risk, detect crashes, provide life-saving assistance, and streamline claims. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, CMT operates globally with offices in Budapest, Hungary; Chennai, India; Seattle, Washington; Tokyo, Japan; and Zagreb, Croatia. Learn more at www.cmt.ai.

About Admiral

Admiral (a trading name of EUI Ltd and part of Admiral Group plc) is a UK based insurance company, founded in 1993 to specialise in car insurance. In 2005, it launched MultiCar, a product designed to help people with two or more cars get a better deal and in 2013, it launched its telematics product which helps safe drivers receive discounts based on their driving style. Admiral also offers other insurance products including home insurance, travel insurance, pet insurance, van insurance and MultiCover, enabling customers to insure their cars and home on one policy. Admiral was voted the UK’s Best Car Insurance Provider at the 2024/25 Personal Finance Awards and the Admiral Group employs over 13,000 people in the UK and in December 2025 had around 8 million UK customers.