Matisse Smarter-Working
Smarter Commuting - Business Travel Reduction |
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Business Travel Reduction - Introduction Business travel, that according to the World Travel and Tourism council accounts for 20% of global travel, clearly consumes business and environmental resources - in terms of time, emissions and cost, not to mention stress. However, many businesses only focus on the cost when signing off travel claim forms. Yet, the travel claim form is only the tip of the iceberg.
According to the NBTN's (National Business Travel Network) essential guide to travel planning there are many hidden costs associated with the time spent travelling on business or commuting to work. Parking is a prime example, with many firms spending tens or even hundreds of thousand pounds each year. Few realise that each car parking space can cost £400 per year and much, much more in many of our heavily congested SE region city centres.
The Role of Conferencing
A typical busy professional will attend in excess of fifty meetings a month. At a typical cost of £1645 for a one hour, six person 'out of town' meeting, no wonder the (lost opportunity) costs soon add up, as does the stress of getting to the meeting on time and then worrying about what is piling up on your desk for when you return. There are solutions available that mean on an increasing number of occasions, you do not need to travel in order to connect with your clients, remote-staff, stakeholders or suppliers.. Audio, web and video-conferencing are examples of technology enabled communication, training and meeting media. With costs now as low as 15p per minute per participant for the simplest solutions (including from our Smart Commute Week sponsors Ozone Conferencing) these are much less time consuming, more environmentally and cost friendly ways of doing business. You can also click on this link for best practice guidance when planning and running a webcast style conference Support also from WWF
Behavioural change is also high on the agenda of the World Wild Life Fund (WWF) who are using the 'one in five' theme for their high profile business travel reduction initiative. New research conducted by WWF challenges the assumption that airport expansion is essential for business productivity, and lends support to WWF-UK's campaign for companies to cut one in five business flights. Click here to learn more about the WWF campaign or to view or download the WWF report
National Business Travel Network (NBTN)
So how do you change behaviour? NBTN in their essential travel guide lead with the need to change entrenched cultures that reward business travel mileage by high car-miles reimbursement meaning it becomes a perk or an incentive to travel by car.
Smarter thinking organisations now focus on lower polluting vehicles, incentivising car sharing with passengers allowed to claim mileage, pool cars and even use car clubs with their the opportunity to hire by the hour to get staff from a rail or bus station to their end destination. Public transport where it offers a comparable cost and journey duration is also increasingly recognised as offering the opportunity for staff to complete useful work whilst en-route to and from their destination. The final tip from NBTN is to choose a sustainable location for the business in the first place further reducing the need to travel!
The Benefits of a Workplace Travel Plan Business Travel should be an intregal part of a travel plan and often provides a rich source of justifications for the business case. A workplace travel plan can offer significant benefits to an organisation, its employees and the local community. By encouraging staff to use environmentally sustainable forms of travel, it is possible to relieve local parking and congestion problems, improve public transport connections and improve the health of employees.
The most effective Travel Plans are those that have been produced for specific users with known operational requirements and travel patterns. Consultants can visit your organisation to undertake an audit of existing facilities and transport provision to determine the suitability of different measures that may encourage travel change.
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