How To Create A Workplace Travel Plan

Introduction

Work-related travel is a major expense for all businesses and an area where there is potential to make significant savings. As well as obvious expenses – like the costs of fuel and fleet maintenance, there are also hidden costs – like staff travelling time and providing parking spaces.

A workplace travel plan can encourage your staff to use alternatives to travelling alone in their cars. This can help save your business and your workers time and money, improve productivity and reduce your environmental impact.

This guide will show you how to design and introduce a workplace travel plan which will reduce the overall need for travel. You will also find advice on how to support more sustainable transport options – like walking, cycling, public transport, car sharing and car clubs.

The business benefits of creating a travel plan

Creating a workplace travel plan will have many benefits for your business and for your staff. In particular, it will save your business money and reduce the impact it has on the environment – for example, by reducing CO2 emissions.

By managing work-related travel and promoting sustainable alternatives through a travel plan, you will also demonstrate corporate responsibility and improve staff retention.

For your business a workplace travel plan can:

  • Save money on the cost of providing and maintaining parking spaces
  • Solve problems caused by demand for parking
  • Cut mileage claims and other business travel costs
  • Reduce staff downtime spent travelling on business
  • Reduce the costs of running a fleet
  • Solve delivery and customer access problems caused by traffic congestion on and around your site
  • Improve your image with both customers and neighbours
  • Improve staff health and reduce absenteeism
  • Help recruit and keep staff by making journeys to work easier and cheaper, and improving your image as a responsible employer
  • Help meet shareholder demand for corporate social responsibility improvements, including meeting environmental targets, (eg the ISO 14001 standard)- see our guide on corporate social responsibility

For your staff a travel plan can:

  • Reduce the cost of travel to work, or remove the need to own a car
  • Reduce journey times to work
  • Provide a better work-life balance through flexible working and less need to travel on business
  • Provide benefits to a wider range of people by shifting from travel perks based on seniority to incentives for sustainable travel available to all staff, including those without a car
  • Ensure parking for those with most need of a vehicle
  • Help provide less stressful options for travel to work
  • Give opportunities to build healthy exercise into daily life

Workplace travel plans can also contribute to a planning application for a new site or for new accommodation on the current site. Local authorities increasingly need a travel plan as a legal condition for giving planning permission.

Read more: nibusinessinfo.co.uk