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

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MAKING CAR SHARING AND CAR CLUBS WORKCASE STUDY SUMMARIESscheme. She ensures that staff members are fully aware not only of the scheme’s existencebut of its latest developments, e.g. increases in the number of car-share parking bays. Aproblem has been the imbalance between the number of users and the number of spaces.‘Politically’ the Travel Plan Co-ordinator has to wait until she has too many people using thespaces before she can put more in, as she cannot be seen to have empty car-sharingspaces. This make it frustrating for existing users, but this is helped enormously by goodcommunication: the Travel Plan Co-ordinator keeps in contact with staff very regularly.6.17 Key to success has been the support of the MEHT Board and Chief Executive. MEHT hadfirst of all to convince its Trust Board that they wanted to join. This was made a lot easierbecause of the conditions of the Planning Application, for which construction will begin inNovember 2004, to close down other sites and at least double the size of BroomfieldHospital (in staff terms). It took a little while to convince the Board but it has led to the startof significant cultural change at MEHT. The Chief Executive publicly supports the TravelPan policies at staff briefings. Car Sharing bays are also strategically placed directly outsidethe building where the Chief Executive and Chairman are located. This is a very powerfulstatement. Once the main decision–makers had been convinced it was ‘full steam ahead’.The first five car-share parking spaces were granted in February 2004 and orders have justbeen placed (September 2004) to take the number of signs up to 35, spread around the site.The Trust has made a commitment to increase the number of car-share parking sharingbays as the number of car sharers increases. The Travel Plan Co-ordinator is of the viewthat 50 bays is an appropriate target to aim for with the current site (i.e. before the plannedsite expansion).6.18 The reward system offered by Travelshare-Essex is a plus point of the scheme. Rewardsinclude discounts in restaurants and beauty salons. The reward system works through themore miles that a member car-shares using Travelshare-Essex then the more discountedproducts and services he / she is eligible for. All members of Travelshare-Essex are noweligible for major discounts on membership of the ETA (Environmental TransportAssociation). However, a weakness is that miles have to be registered with the Travelshare-Essex central office and confirmed by the people sharing in order to be eligible for rewards.MEHT is not aware of how many of its car-sharers register their miles, but suspects it iscomparatively few. However Travelshare-Essex is reviewing the process and software tomake mileage registration much simpler and when this is done MEHT will be activelypromoting the reward scheme within Broomfield.6.19 Problems of shift patterns make it difficult for some people to share, and there is a strongperception amongst staff that their shifts are unique.6.20 The car sharing scheme now works better than it did because staff area parking restrictionsare now more properly enforced. Car share spaces, and better enforcement, have movedon-site congestion away from public parking areas and therefore made it more controllable.Supporting Measures / Alternative Approaches Considered6.21 An emergency ride home scheme is offered for registered members (see above) through alocal taxi company. This is emphasised in the corporate induction, but it has not yet had tobe called on.Final V1.1, Dec. 2004 - 42 -
MAKING CAR SHARING AND CAR CLUBS WORKCASE STUDY SUMMARIESIntegration with Other Schemes6.22 The car sharing scheme is part of a range of green travel plan measures. These include adiscount scheme with First, the main local bus operator, for purchase of weekly, monthly,quarterly or annual season tickets, which can be bought on-site. An interest-free loan isoffered for annual bus season tickets. Also, Essex County Council has paid for someadditional bus services to Broomfield Hospital, while MEHT also works with BAA Stansted,which has been required to provide some additional bus services to meet its own planningapplication conditions. BAA Stansted kindly agreed to run these additional bus services viaBroomfield Hospital. Cycle storage facilities and showers have also been installed. Carsharing and public transport discounts are seen as the main travel planning tools for theBroomfield site: the cost of car parking at Broomfield is currently under discussion and mayincrease and the benefits from car sharing and from bus discounts will therefore becomerelatively more valuable to users. Broomfield Hospital is also prepared to buy-in busservices itself to top up what the local authority can provide, where it sees this as essentialto its travel plan requirements.Marketing and Promotion6.23 Rewards are offered (see above). The scheme is also marketed through leaflets, postersdisplayed throughout the hospital, membership invitations, E-mail alerts and a slot in theCorporate Induction, which also covers other travel-to-work issues. There is also a monthlystaff briefing magazine (‘This Month’) in which there is a regular section from the Travel PlanCo-ordinator. There is a weekly electronic newsletter for staff - ‘Friday Focus’ - which isused regularly to publicise the car sharing scheme and other aspects of the Travel Plan.6.24 Personal visibility of the Travel Plan Co-ordinator is very important: people know who tocontact to ask how to get a car–share parking space. The corporate induction has also beenvery important, and Teresa Prosser has picked a few ‘key’ people that she knew were carsharingand got them to promote the concept. People have also visibly seen that carsharers are benefiting from the scheme.6.25 Marketing initiatives that haven’t worked well are those which have been too ‘formal’. TheTravelshare-Essex formal exhibition in the staff canteen didn’t really work as people did notwant to be ‘exposed’ by being seen to talk to the exhibitors. By contrast, leaving leaflets andposters on walls and attaching leaflets to pay slips have worked, as have periodic repeat‘informal’ promotions.6.26 A big cultural shift has been required as historically, the Broomfield site had no problemswith car parking at all, until the last 3 to 4 years. So traditionally the staff expected to driveto work. More people, more staff and more units (e.g. the Regional Burns Unit coming c. 12years ago) have caused the pressure.6.27 A marketing tool used at the beginning, to awaken interest, was a question asking whetherpeople wanted “a priority car parking space”, without mentioning that this was about carsharing.This provoked a lot of interest, and around 40 people signed up to the scheme as aresult.Final V1.1, Dec. 2004 - 43 -
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