Making Car Sharing and Car Clubs Work - Case ... - The Civil Service

MAKING CAR SHARING AND CAR CLUBS WORKCASE STUDY SUMMARIESfree parking options. After the move, staff would have to pay £2.50 per day to park. The OldPost Office already had a basement car park but there were insufficient spaces for all thetenants of the 49 SHA flats there as well as the staff of the three new office suites and cafébars. Alternative free, but temporary, parking spaces were available on some Associationownedland earmarked for development some 10 minutes walk from the office.22.6 Since the launch of City Wheels, the staff Essential Car User Allowance has been phasedout (although kept for some long-serving staff), and staff were encouraged to use the newpool cars, through a combination of measures. These included a tightening-up of mileagechecks on staff's own vehicles used on SHA business; increasing the paperwork involved inprivate car use on SHA business; and, finally, not allowing staff parking of their own cars onthe premises. The staff free car park was moved a few blocks away: in contrast, the use ofthe pool cars was free and easy to operate.22.7 City Wheels has five cars: one Suzuki Wagon R, one Berlingo van (useful when carriage ofgoods is needed), two Daewoo Matiz, and one Smart Car. Each vehicle does about 7,000miles per year, although the Smart Car does a little over twice this amount. Damage to carshas not been a problem.Operating Structure22.8 SHA chose an operating structure and systems designed to be as simple and as trouble-freeas possible. A car diary booking system was set up in Microsoft Outlook® and City Wheelsmembers (and staff members using them as pool cars) can book by phone, fax or E-mail: inaddition, staff members can book over SHA’s intranet. Bookings can be made up to 4weeks in advance although City Wheels members tend to book one or two days ahead: caravailability has not usually been a problem. The scheme is run by one admin assistant whoalso manages the SHA fleet (caretakers’ vans and maintenance vehicles). The BackTraksystem, supplied by Overlevel Ltd is used to record and monitor mileage, fuel-consumptionetc. This was chosen following an internet search because it offered an almost paper-freeoperating system, added security in the form of additional immobilisers and because SHAfelt at the time that GPS was too expensive for the size of the car club.22.9 Cars are parked, and keys stored in a key cabinet, in a basement garage beneath the OldPost Office site. The concierge at this development carries out basic checks: tyres, water, oiletc while the office contract cleaners vacuum the interiors and wipe surfaces once a week.Each City Wheels member has a key to the key cabinet plus a BackTrak key and a key fobto operate the garage roller-shutter doors. Individual staff members simply have to booktheir car, and pick up a master set of Backtrak keys from reception for the car key safe in thebasement. BackTrak readings are taken once a month, downloaded into Microsoft Excel®.Payment for use of City Wheels is direct debited monthly.22.10 Staff generally have their own cars, and are still able to receive the standard Inland Revenuemileage allowance (40p per mile) if they use them on SHA business. However, they arediscouraged from using the pool cars for out-of-office training courses (unless SHA wants toadvertise City Wheels) because it takes cars out of available use.Final V1.1, Dec. 2004 - 130 -