TRAVEL PLAN COMPANY BACKS CALL FOR WORKPLACE REVOLUTION
“The solution is obvious: smarter working reduces the need to travel, which will reduce congestion.”
The Workplace Travel Plan Company has pledged its support to Work Wise North East, the regional campaign to promote smarter ways of working.
The Workplace Travel Plan Company, which promotes the business benefits of sustainable travel initiatives, is backing the high profile regional campaign as it believes flexible working practices such as home based working can reduce the need for travel and alleviate congestion on the region’s busy roads.
The company is working closely with other campaign partners including One NorthEast, Government Office, BT, TUC and North East Chamber of Commerce to encourage regional employers to take up the Work Wise mantle and implement smarter working practices.
The aim of the Work Wise campaign is to encourage a workplace revolution, empowering 14 million people, half the working population, to have the opportunity of smarter working, such as flexible working, working from home, mobile and remote working, by 2011.
Peter Wignall, managing director of The Workplace Travel Plan Company said:
“The adoption of smarter working, with people regularly working from home, from remote locations or while on the move, reducing the necessity to travel back to central office locations, results in an overall reduction in the need to travel. This will have a huge impact on the level of CO2 emissions and goes some way to minimising the impact of human activity on the environment.
“As a Work Wise partner, our company is fully committed to flexible working practices – my team are all home based and we have invested heavily in technology to improve the efficiency of our operation and reduce the need to travel. Avoiding peak traffic periods also makes our working lives easier.
“The aims of Work Wise North East complement the objectives of our company to improve access to travel alternatives and in doing so help reduce our dependency on the car. The rate of increase in car ownership in the North East is amongst the highest in the county. Nationally, traffic congestion is forecast to grow by 65% by 2010 and the situation isn’t going to get any better.
“Increasingly, leading private and public sector bodies are adopting smarter working practices which assist in both attracting new and retaining existing staff, whilst demonstrating improvements in productivity. The benefits are most obvious when the smarter working practices are pulled together in a strategy, usually called a Travel Plan.
“Employers quickly learn that their employees are willing to adopt agile working and travel alternatives if they provide support and help make it easier, for example by providing facilities for storing bicycles, showers and changing facilities, and making sure that parking is managed on a ‘needs’ basis.
“Reducing the need for travel is a fundamental component of an effective
Travel Plan. The full business benefits will only be achieved if smarter working practices are implemented in parallel said Peter.
Simon Roberson, regional chairman of Work Wise North East said:
“It’s a huge boost to the regional campaign to have the backing of The Workplace Travel Plan Company. They are innovative in their approach and have a tremendous amount of expertise and knowledge on smarter working practices which not only carry transport, environmental and productivity improvements but also assist work-life balance.
“It is obvious that traffic congestion and over-crowding on public transport are high on the public agenda, especially in major urban areas. The road charging proposals introduced by the Eddington Report to reduce traffic congestion completely miss the opportunity to address this issue through smarter working. The solution is obvious - smarter working reduces the need to travel, which will reduce congestion.”
Click on Work Wise North East
May 18, 2007
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“I email out the TPB link in advance; meetings are often shorter than anticipated because the TP builder is so straightforward to use - it helps me guide the client through the travel plan development process”
Clare Strain
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Travel Plan Officer