TRAVEL MANAGEMENT
Clearing the road ahead
Given the economic and environmental pressures which local authorities are facing at the moment, some will need to reconsider their approach towards their use of public transport, reports Richard Mackillican
more council workers to use a bicycle where they can.
Richard Hebditch L
ocal authorities have a unique opportunity to not only cut back
on unnecessary spending but to also to reduce their carbon emissions. And how do they do this? By encouraging their staff to increase their use of public transport.
Campaign for Better Transport director Richard Hebditch believes there are opportunities for councils to use more public transport.
“Despite there being some barriers to this, such as HMRC rules around what employees can claim back, there is definitely scope for improvement on the situation as it is.”
Local authorities have a responsibility to promote the use of public transport in their areas and by simply using it themselves, they set a great example, whilst also helping to put money back into the local economy and public transport services.
Given that some services are moving back into the community, this increased need for transport can be used either to benefit public transport services or simply to encourage
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“Public transport providers could benefit from more local authority use of their services and if you consider the patterns of where people need to get to,” says Richard, “then public transport offers a pretty good alternative in most situations, particularly for longer distance travel.”
Because local authority work can often involve attending training and conferences at different venues around the country, an increase in use by councils could also provide a boost for national rail and coach services.
“If council officials are attending conferences, then they should definitely consider travelling by train as it can be both more cost efficient and more environmentally friendly than travelling by car.
“Event organisers need to take into consideration where the venue of the event will be and its proximity to local transport hubs such as bus and rail stations.
“If you are providing a seminar, conference or any event then you need to think about how easy it is to get to by public transport.”
As with any other kind of local government activity, there is a cost to travelling. If the procurement of travel tickets can be aggregated there is more scope for cost reduction.
This means that rather than paying council workers fuel allowances or individual tickets, a saving can be made because travel operators will be able to
offer group booking discounts which could be very useful, given the current drive to reduce local government spending.
“I think there are lots of opportunities for efficiencies to be made, simply by thinking a bit more deeply about what kind of travel demands your organisation has and how best to deal with that demand.”
Richard believes there are lots of other things councils can do such as “the rather generous allowances which are sometimes available to councillors to use their cars to attend functions and there are some great examples of councils working to deal with these issues.”
Councils can also encourage their employees to consider using public transport to get to work through methods such as reducing the amount of car parking space which is made available to employees.
“I think that the main issue is around getting people to think a bit differently about the ways in which they travel. Take employee car parking for example. Instead of treating car parking as some kind of entitlement staff should really consider whether they need to take a car or whether there it is possible to either take public transport or perhaps cycle to work.
“The signals which management are sending out are also important, because sometimes people feel that they might need to use their cars as part of their work. Travel demands need to be thoroughly considered in advance wherever possible.”
Sep/Oct 10
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