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

MAKING CAR SHARING AND CAR CLUBS WORKCASE STUDY SUMMARIES12 SOMERSET CAR SHARE SCHEMEGeneral Background12.1 It response to concerns about rising traffic levels, and conscious that it needed to lead byexample, Somerset County Council (SCC) set up a travel plan working group several yearsago. It appointed a member of staff – the interviewee, Craig Lamberton, who was contractedfrom WS Atkins at the time – as a staff travel coordinator about five years ago. Craig’s postbecame funded by the DfT, under the travel plan officer bursary scheme, although his remitwas widened to include facilitating the development of travel plans among organisationsthroughout the County. When the DfT funding ceased, at a time when SCC faced budgetand staff cuts, Craig’s responsibilities were broadened and the time he can devote to travelplanning alone has decreased.12.2 The idea for a county-wide car share scheme was mooted in the summer of 2001, andlaunched in June 2002. It was prompted by an acknowledged need to supplement therelatively sparse public transport that services this predominantly rural county. SCCcommissioned Jambusters, at a cost of around £37,000, to develop and refine software tomeet the project objectives of enabling companies to join a car share scheme, allowing theiremployees to access the car share database, while retaining SCC as the overall schemeadministrator.Operating Structure12.3 Somerset Car Share Scheme is open to any business or organisation in the County,including educational establishments – such as colleges of further education. Members canelect to join an ‘open’ scheme, where their staff can search for sharers from otherorganisations; or a ‘closed’ scheme, where staff search for sharers only from among theirown colleagues. To date, all member organisations have chosen open membership, for theobvious advantage that it broadens the pool of potential sharers.12.4 Craig Lamberton administers the Somerset Car Share Scheme among SCC employees.Other organisations that join the scheme appoint their own administrator, although Craigprovides an overarching level of support and administration at a County level.12.5 Organisations pay an initial joining cost based on the number of staff/students who requireaccess to the database. As SCC commissioned Jambusters to develop software which theIT company can now sell to other organisations, the local authority negotiated reduced feesfor members of its scheme. The Somerset cost structure is summarised in the table below.Number of employeesCost to employer0 to 50 £10051 to 100 £150101 to 150 £200Final V1.1, Dec. 2004 - 76 -