Travel Plans

Frequently asked questions

Employers

• What is a travel plan?
• Is it compulsory to have a Travel plan?
• How can a travel plan help me as an employer?
• What can I do as an employer?
• Why should I consider a Travel Plan?
• Where do I start?
• Where can I get help with my Travel Plan?
• How much will it cost me to set up a Travel Plan?
• Can I stop thinking about the Travel Plan once I have finished it?
• What is the business case for a Travel Plan?
• My organisation is too small to have a Travel Plan

Individuals

• How can a Travel Plan help me as an individual?
• What can I do as an individual?
• Where do I get information about public transport?
• Are travel plans anti-car?
• I need my car for work

 

Employers

What is a Travel Plan?

Travel plans are ways of promoting more sustainable travel to and for work. They are a package of measures tailored to meet the needs of an individual business, to promote cleaner, greener travel choices and to reduce reliance on the car.

 

Is it compulsory to have a Travel Plan?

It is not usually compulsory to have a travel plan these are usually voluntary but having a travel plan will bring many additional benefits.

Businesses that are developing new sites, changing or expanding a current site may need to produce a Travel Plan in order to comply with planning guidelines PPG13 or section 106.

 

How can a travel plan help me as an employer?

• Reduce demand for on-site parking
• Improve recruitment and retention
• Improve efficiency - less time wasted on late arrivals / deliveries
• Reduce business mileage
• Reduce fleet management costs
• Reduce sickness rates - walkers and cyclists will be healthier
• Help you to gain environmental accreditation ISO14001 or EMAS
• Improve environmental image
• Improve your relationship with the local community

 

What can I do as an employer?

As an employer you have a role to play by introducing and encouraging measures to your staff.

Some suggestions are:

• Providing information about local public transport to staff and visitors
• Offer cheap or interest free loans for public transport season tickets
• Loans for cycle purchase
• Encouraging car share for commuting and business journeys
• Designate the 'best' car park spaces for regular car sharers
• Provide secure, covered cycle parking and, if possible, lockers and showers/changing facilities
• Manage business mileage to reduce time and distance driven
• Offer incentive to use rail rather than a car for appropriate business journeys
• Provide up-to-date information on non-car travel in a manner and at location(s) convenient to your staff
• Offer Teleworking / Homeworking
• Provide pool cars
• Upgrade your fleet to alternative fuel vehicles when next up for renewal
• Offer onsite facilities - creche, leisure, snack bar, dry cleaning service

 

Why should I consider a Travel Plan?

Transport problems in the UK have an effect on everyone:

• Increasing numbers of vehicles on our roads add to congestion and pollution
• Congestion causes delays to traffic - causing late deliveries and staff
• Increasing emissions contribute to global warming
• Reliance on the car and reduced levels of activity has lead to poor health and obesity
• Communities have become noisier and busier
• More traffic means greater risk of road casualties

 

Where do I start?

Before you start implementing any measures you need to:

• Engage senior management support
• Allocate staff time to work on the Travel Plan
• Survey your staff, your site and your business
• Involve your staff along the way
• Identify objectives, targets and measures
• Raise awareness

Only then will you be able to launch your Travel Plan. Once launched someone will need to be responsible for its ongoing promotion and a point of contact.

 

Where can I get help with my Travel Plan?

It may seem a daunting task to set up a Travel Plan but remember that you are not alone.

The local authority has a Travel Plan Officer who will be able to offer you advice and guidance. Contact the Design and Transportation manager on travelplan@fareham.gov.uk.

Free help is available from the Environment and Energy Helpline on 0800 585794 or www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/travelplans (this is an external hyperlink).

This is site specific advice, a free government funded service, to help you develop an effective travel plan for your business, school or organisation. You can get up to five days free advice to help you overcome the problems you face in getting your travel plan up and running.

 

How much will it cost me to set up a Travel Plan?

It is difficult to say how much it will cost, but many of the measures that you implement will eventually help you make savings.

One widely used example is that of the cost of car parking spaces. The total cost of maintaining and or renting a car parking space could be anything between £30 and £3000. Car parking spaces that are no longer required due to an effective travel plan could then be put to a more profitable use.

More effective use of staff time, more effective fleet management, policies on business mileage could produce significant cost savings for your business.

Income from car parking charges could be used for related use - a Travel Plan Co-ordinators's salary, a workbus, cycle parking.

 

Can I stop thinking about the Travel Plan once I have finished it?

No a travel plan is a living thing, your organisation will need to review it regularly in order to keep on making improvements and to ensure that you are meeting the targets that you have set yourself.

You may find that some of the measures you have taken may not have the expected results and you need to find alternatives. On the other hand your situation may change or your organisation may have noted areas for improvements.

You may be so successful that you may wish to set yourself higher targets. You will constantly need to market your Travel Plan in order to remind current staff and inform new employees.

 

What is the business case for a Travel Plan?

A Travel Plan may be seen to be simply an environmental tool but it is likely to have wider benefits.

There may be cost savings from new working practices (flexible hours, 9 day fortnights, teleworking, homeworking), or business travel guidelines. An effective travel plan will help to meet existing requirements for example environmental management, quality assurance. A Travel Plan could be a co-ordinating business tool - looking for savings across the company rather than separate cost centres.

 

My organisation is too small to have a Travel Plan

No organisation is too small to make simple changes eg. the provision of cycle parking, changing facilities, and most basic off all the availability of public transport information.

On a larger scale joining with others, your neighbours or the local business park, will help you to deal with your site problems.

 

Individuals

How can a Travel Plan help me as an individual?

• Travelling to and from work other than as a driver can reduce stress
• Walking (from the bus stop, train station, home) or cycling to work can improve your levels of fitness, health and reduce the risk of heart disease.
• Car sharing or buying season tickets can save you money
• Using the train or bus gives you extra thinking / meeting time, and can be less stressful than driving
• Travelling in with others could help you to meet your work colleagues

 

What can I do as an individual?

Think about your travel choice:-

• Is the journey really necessary?
• Could I combine it with another journey?
• Could I be travelling with someone else?
• Could I walk, catch a bus or train?
• Could I cycle?
• Consider making a change once a week

 

Where do I get information about public transport?

There is a great amount of information available via the internet, telephone lines and local bus and cycle route maps.

 

Are travel plans anti-car?

Travel Plans are not anti-car, they emphasise the travel choices that are available and offer practical measures on how to make them more attractive to everyone. There will be a number of instances when it is more practicable to use a car.

In areas where car ownership is low it is important that alternatives to the car are widely available, in order to assist the local economy, make employment opportunities available, and combat social exclusion for example.

 

I need my car for work

In this instance you may consider the following:

• Planning meetings and journey so that you do not need to use the car everyday
• Converting to an alternative fuel vehicle
• Combining your trips where possible so that you plan visits to sites or clients on one morning or day
• When purchasing a new car consider buying a car with a smaller size engine
• For shorter journeys replace the car with the bus, walk or cycle
• Share with other people who are already travelling