GreenFleet

One form of transport that is rapidly becoming more popular is cycling. Transport for London has a variety of initiatives in place to ensure businesses experience the benefits that cycling can bring…  

Cycling for success
Workplace travel plans aim to provide a range of choices for staff and business travel, achieving cost savings, carbon reduction, and a healthier, happier, more productive workforce.  Transport for London offers free expert advice, tailor-made travel plans and ongoing support and encouragement to London’s business via the A New Way to Work programme.
    
“As other organisations will agree, business travel is a significant expense. Through the A New Way to Work programme, we’ve developed a workable and achievable travel plan. Not only have we reduced our business travel costs, but our staff are happier and we are well on our way to meeting our sustainability targets,” said
Mark Parker, director, Aztec Event Services.
    
A wide selection of initiatives are available via A New Way to Work to support cycling in the workplace including; free cycle racks and access to cycle training, cycle maps and competitions, merchandise like repair kits and slap wraps to help get your staff interested, even bike maintenance classes. There’s also a range of funding options available to implement initiatives to support your travel plan such as secure cycle parking, showers and lockers. Help and advice in setting up pool bikes and cycle to work schemes is also available.  
    
Mirroring the 91 per cent increase in cycling on London’s major roads since 2000, pool bikes are increasing in popularity across London. “As more organisations are taking a hard look at their expenditure, business travel and its associated costs are getting more attention. Pool bikes offer an opportunity to reduce travel expenses as well as increasing productive work time.” explains Steve Macey, relationship manager with TfL Smarter Travel Unit, who works with companies to introduce such schemes.
    
While operation of pool bikes can vary from organisation to organisation, in general, pool bikes are maintained and stored by a company, with safety equipment for employees to use is also provided. Pool bikes can be offered to employees for any kind of journey, but are typically used for work related trips, such as local meetings, travel between sites and visiting clients. They allow employees to go from door to door with the maximum efficiency, without having to find parking for a car, sit in a traffic jam, or walk to and wait for public transport.
    
During the Bikes for Businesses project in Southwark, 24 employers were supplied with cycle training, equipment and between one and five pool bikes for six months.  During the project, there were reported savings of as much as £80 per month per bike on taxi and public transport fares. 79 per cent of users reported the greatest benefit of using the pool bikes was saving time, while 38 per cent avoided parking problems and 24 per cent said taking a pool bike meant they avoided the inconvenience of driving.   
 
Bikes for Business was developed by SEA/Renue, on behalf of Southwark Council, with the recommendations used to develop TfL’s A New Way to Work offering.

The challenge
2008 saw the 2nd annual London Workplace Cycle Challenge take place in June. It was a resounding success with a 50 per cent increase on the number of organisations taking part the previous year and a staggering 130 per cent increase in the number of participating individuals.  In total, 2,600 people cycled more than 260,000 miles (that’s more than 10 times around the world!). Included among the organisations taking part were BSkyB, ARUP, John Lewis, Morgan Stanley and Sky News.

“The London Workplace Cycling Challenge was a good way to bring together those who cycle to work at Sky News. It’s a 24 hour operation so most staff work shifts and don’t necessarily see much of their colleagues. The Challenge gave us the opportunity to find out a bit more about our cycling colleagues. It also spurred a few others on to get their bikes out of the shed and to get tips from the more experienced riders,” said Andy Ivy, Sky News.
    
Last year’s organisations found that not only was the Challenge fun to take part in – creating friendly competition between internal departments and local businesses, participation also contributed to wider organisational goals including environment and health strategies. This year’s Challenge will be bigger than ever before, and plans are already well underway.

For more information
To find out more, or register your interest visit www.tfl.gov.uk/cyclechallenge