
A good quality travel plan should be specific to an individual site; however, the principles of creating an effective travel plan are the same, whatever the location or nature of your company or organisation.
These include:
- an assessment of existing travel patterns using staff travel surveys
- business characteristics, for example size, location and number of people employed, hours of operation etc
- development of an action plan with agreed targets
- implementation of agreed measures
- monitoring and review of results.
An action plan may include a wide range of initiatives such as;
- walking and cycling challenges, or sustainable travel themed events and promotions
- a commitment to improving cycling and pedestrian facilities such as secure cycle parking, safe site access
- a dedicated bus service
- a car park management using a parking permit scheme, or priority allocation for essential users or car sharers
- a car club scheme as a pool car replacement
- provision of pool bikes
- a car sharing scheme
- use of alternative fuelled vehicles for business travel such as electric vehicles
- a review of staff travel benefits and introduction of new benefits eg bus or rail season tickets; salary sacrifice schemes for the purchase of tax-free cycles (see below); discount schemes for sustainable travel users.
- provision of travel information and campaigns via company intranet, posters etc
- introduction of flexible working practices such as compressed hours, home working
- changes to working practices such as videoconferencing etc
- providing a salary sacrifice scheme for staff to allow them to buy a tax-free bike. Employees can buy a bike and accessories (up to an agreed limit) and pay for it direct out of their salary (before tax is applied) over a period of 12 months, representing significant discounts on the purchase cost. For more information see scheme providers Cyclescheme or Halfords Cycle2Work scheme