My thoughts turn to the ‘new year’ in September when school starts again, and everyone gets back to work as summer ends. While I wouldn’t deny anyone a break, the summer lull is a useful time to review employee mobility and check that the travel plan is on track to help your organisation stay ahead of the curve.
So, what are the key considerations before the next season gets underway?
How well do you know your employees’ mobility needs?
The employee mobility offer needs to be more nuanced and personalised as hybrid working has presented many organisations with a new set of working patterns. Do you have a system in place to capture changes to requirements?
A ‘Travel for Work’ survey is one way to find out how your employees approach work journeys, where they travel to and from, and how they prioritise travel planning and transport choices.
How well-managed is your grey fleet?
The summer is a good time to really get under the skin of emerging grey fleet travel issues. Do you know how big mileage reimbursement is in your organisation? Research suggests private vehicle owners are putting off maintenance and repairs. Are you confident your employees’ cars are fit for purpose?
One effective way to address these concerns is by adopting a dedicated car club programme, which offers a transparent and efficient alternative to grey fleet. These allow employees to access vehicles when needed, while providing greater visibility into vehicle usage and ensuring that travel meets safety and environmental standards.
The September ‘new year’ might be a good time to reiterate to employees your policy around mileage reimbursement, maintenance and insurance – and to remind them of other travel choices.
Could your pool cars work better or harder?
Changing working patterns mean the simple ‘grab and go from the office’ model of pool cars may now be ineffective. Journeys often start and end at other locations, including employees’ homes. How useful are vehicles located in the work car park?
Making sure pool cars are closely managed and monitoring their usage is essential to providing a good mobility service for office-based employees, especially to discourage grey fleet. If usage is low, is now a good time to consider a fresh approach?
Greater insight into vehicle utilisation patterns, and expert consultancy, could allow you to shape your pool cars – or seek out alternatives – to more closely match your usage, reducing costs, emissions and grey fleet.
What more can you do to promote travel decarbonisation?
Cutting emissions is at the top of the business agenda and fleet managers have a huge role to play. Younger employees in particular are keen to make low-emission choices when it comes to travel, so it’s important that suitable options are on the table – and communicated effectively. How could you nudge employees towards more sustainable mobility choices?
Employees may not be aware, for example, that privately-owned vehicles are usually older and often maintained less regularly. Getting their buy-in can help ensure a new travel strategy is a success from day one. With rental, there may also be the opportunity to give an electric vehicle a go.
Equally, combining public and active travel with cars could be the lowest-emission choice for a journey, if that option is available. By sharing insights into emissions, and options for reducing the carbon impact of travel, you can start to nudge people into changing their behaviours.
Andy Bland is head of business rental development UK and Ireland for Enterprise Mobility
