Workplace car share schemes
Marks & Spencer Financial Services, Chester
Located on a business park on the outskirts of Chester, M&SFS faced a challenge when they became unable to guarantee a parking space for each employee. In late 1997 a travel plan was introduced, with a car share matching service at the centre of the plan. An important element in the popularity of the car share scheme is thought to be the generous incentives on offer, whereby staff are rewarded with a £20 M&S voucher upon joining, followed by a choice of road tax/ car service or petrol voucher after 6 months and a £50 M&S voucher after an additional year of sharing. These incentives, together with the 100 dedicated priority car share spaces (and a guaranteed ride home should the lift not materialise) have resulted in a total of 31% of staff car sharing on one or more days per week, exceeding the company target of 30%.
Pfizer, Kent
Pfizer’s multi-faceted transport plan was adopted by the company in 1999. Since then, impressive progress has been made, resulting in a modal shift of 12% from single-occupancy vehicle use and car sharing up by 15% in the same period. A unique aspect of the travel plan is Pfizer’s parking ‘cash out’ system. This operates by crediting £2 per day to those who do not bring a vehicle on to the site. The scheme also extends to car sharers and motorbike users and is credited to salaries at the end of each month.
Car sharing is further encouraged by way of an intranet-based journey matching service. The programme ‘scores’ potential matches to indicate the likely success of the share. Pfizer has appointed an administrator to help with any car share enquiries and has produced an ‘It takes two to make a difference’ leaflet in support of the scheme. In the future, Pfizer would like to see a high occupancy vehicle lane between Ramsgate and Sandwich and will continue to develop more ambitious targets for traffic reduction.
Regional Schemes
Carshare Devon
Carsharedevon.com is a countywide car share matching website, run by Devon County Council. Any employer or individual can register on the site and in the first six months a total of 1,000 people had done so. Local resident Peter has been impressed with the site ‘ I signed up in the first week and quickly found others within a five mile radius of home. It wasn’t long before there were 4 of us sharing…the financial savings are amazing…£1,200 a year!’ The Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital was the first to join as an employer group ‘We bring the service directly to the attention of our staff with leaflets, via payslips and with a direct link to Car sharedevon.com on the front page of our Intranet’, says Bob Adams, car parking and security manager at the NHS Trust.
