Travel Plans
Travel Plans are ways of promoting more sustainable travel to
and for work, school or lesiure - they are very flexible, and can
even be produced for use at a personal level of detail. They are
typically a package of measures tailored to meet the needs of an
individual business, site or community with the aim of
promoting cleaner, greener travel choices, in order to improve
access to opportunity and to reduce reliance on the car.
Everyone benefits.
Jump to: Travel Plans for
Individuals>>
Employers
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've finished it?
What is the business case
for a Travel Plan?
My organisation is too
small to have a Travel Plan
Is it compulsory to have a Travel Plan?
It is not usually compulsory to have a travel plan, they 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 -
PPG
13 or Section 106
Agreements.
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.
Most local authorities have a Travel Plan Officer (or
equivalent - designations vary) who will be able to offer you
advice and guidance. For Havant employers, please contact the
Transport Engineer on 023 9244 6210 for an informal discussion
about how you can make your Plan effective and ensure it generates
real and sustainable results.
Free help is available from the Environment and Energy Helpline
on 0800 585794 or www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/travelplans.
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 document, and 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?
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
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 to start with - breaking
the habit is the first and hardest step.
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. There
is also a selection of comprehensive journey planning web sites
elsewhere on
this site >>.
Are travel plans anti-car?
Travel Plans are not anti-car, but they do 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