How to reduce the costs of your business travel.

How to reduce the costs of your business travel.

What your business can do Here is a list of ideas to reduce your business travel costs. Don t forget that achieving more sustainable business travel can also help support any environmental accreditation you may have e.g ISO14001 and can support your aims and objectives. Upload online travel information for travel between your offices Providing a travel page on your intranet and webpage can help identify travel options not only to your site, but other sites that your staff travel to. On the pages it is recommended that you: List facilities at each site cycle parking, pool bikes, pool cars, video conferencing facilities etc. Identify main public transport routes between your offices Link to walking and cycling journey planers (walkit.com and cyclestreets.net) Add a link to the public transport journey planner (networkwestmidlands.com) Add a link to the Network West Midland Journey Planning Apps: networkwestmidlands.com/apps/phone_app.aspx

Ensure meeting invites include travel options Meeting invites should include a PDF of travel options to the site, with a map showing the closest public transport links or a link to the travel information page on your website. Links to journey planners and on site facilities such as cycle parking, should also be listed. Rethink your travel reimbursement payments It is important that employees are not making a profit using their own car for business travel. The DfT recommends that mileage paid is related to engine size. You may also want to consider encouraging car sharing to reduce costs by paying an extra 5p a mile and paying a mileage rate for cycling to meetings. Cycle mileage rates up to 20p per mile are tax exempt. Further information can be found at DfT s Essential Guide to Travel Planning. You may also like to consider removing the use of company cars as part of an employment package and replace with alternative benefit packages such as travel allowances or season tickets.

Create a business travel sign off sheet This will make sure that employees only claim for their own vehicles as a last resort, where there is no suitable alternative. The idea should be to incorporate this into an existing process, ideally before travel is made. The employee will be required to justify why walking, cycling, public transport use, car sharing, taking a pool car or teleconferencing/video conferencing were not possible and this should be signed off by a manager before the trip is made and expenses claimed. For an example, please email business@centro.org.uk Purchase bulk buy tickets Buy 100 nnetwork day tickets for a reduced price. These tickets offer flexibility to staff through unlimited travel on all modes across the West Midlands and avoid the need for expense claims. Contact business@centro.org.uk for more information Raise awareness of facilities available Why not hold a lunchtime session on business travel to remind colleagues of the options available? You could demonstrate your video or teleconferencing facilities, how to book a pool bike, the online information available and ask for ideas on how they would be encouraged to use more sustainable business travel.

Purchase low emission vehicles Low emission vehicles whilst generally more expensive will save you money over the life time ownership in terms of fuel and maintenance costs. Installation of vehicle charging points at your workplace (and/or at employees homes) can help to ease range anxiety when using electric vehicles. In any calculations, when purchasing new vehicles always try to take into account the full lifetime costs (including maintenance and fuel costs) to see if a low emission vehicle would be more suitable. Run Eco Driver Training sessions for staff When optimising a fleet s efficiency, it is essential to ensure that the role of the driver is not underestimated in ensuring that the vehicles are operated to their full potential. No matter how safe and fuel efficient the vehicles operated are, they will all perform poorly with an inefficient driver behind the wheel. Training your employees to become safer, more efficient drivers saves up to 15% on fuel costs and reduces the risk of accidents significantly. For further information you can contact the following: Energy Savings Trust www.energysavingstrust.org.uk ROSPA www.rospa.com AA www.theaa.com

Run Cycle Awareness Training for drivers Why not consider running 2 Wheels Aware courses aimed at professional drivers as part of their work? This accredited course is designed to equip drivers with the skills to deal with today s roads and to safely share them with vulnerable road users. The course includes a theory session and a practical on-road cycle taster session. Monitor your business travel Actually being able to measure your business travel is essential if you want to reduce how much you undertake. An external benchmark accreditation such as the Carbon Trust Standard that monitors business travel in order to receive accreditation can be a major business driver for improvements, see the following link for more details: http://www.carbontrust.com/clientservices/footprinting/footprintcertification/carbon-trust-standard. Alternatively, if you want a more holistic approach, an Environmental Management System (ISO 14001 or EMAS) that considers significant environmental impacts could also help you. This link shows a handy guide on EMSs: http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/ wrap/wrap%20ems%20guide%20 June%202013.pdf Further information For further information on any of the above contact the Business and Employer team on: business@centro.org.uk or call: 0121 214 7409 JAN15005