Workplace travel plan

Coordinator's guide

Print version: Workplace travel plan: coordinator's guide (PDF, 518 KB, 24 pages)

2. Set-up phase

Table 1: How to establish the foundations of the workplace travel plan

Objectives
Gain confirmation of the workplace's commitment to participate in the programme. Establish a list of relevant stakeholders, and clarify their roles and responsibilities. Develop a project plan, including a timeline covering data collection, action planning and a likely start date for implementation.
Steps
Develop and present a case for undertaking a travel plan, showing the benefits. Gain management commitment to participate in the travel plan. Identify stakeholders and possible working group members and their roles. Define the scope of the travel plan (eg staff commuting, travel during working day). Determine overall aims for the travel plan. Develop a project plan for the workplace travel plan process. Prepare a communications plan for the workplace travel plan.
Important themes
Engaging stakeholders in a collaborative process. Managing the expectations of participants to ensure they are realistic.
Indicative timeframe
As a guide, the set-up phase usually takes from one to three months.
Completion of set-up phase
The set-up phase is complete when the workplace has agreed to participate and a project plan has been developed, objectives are set and an evaluation framework agreed.

2.1 Develop a case for the travel plan and gain management commitment

Management needs to be convinced that the benefits of undertaking a travel plan outweigh the costs. This will probably require a workplace business case and/or presentation that explains the:

expected benefits – quantified, where possible
resource requirements – staff time and direct costs
scope of the travel plan
timeline and tasks.

2.2 Identify stakeholders and working group members

For a workplace travel plan, staff and management are key stakeholders. Externally, the regional council (public transport) and local council (bus stops, cycling and walking facilities) are organisations that you are likely to want to involve in your travel plan. Depending on your workplace, there may be additional stakeholders, eg the property owner/manager and neighbours, or other building occupiers.

The working group should comprise representatives from each stakeholder group, eg staff, management, regional council and local council, as appropriate. The specific roles of the travel plan coordinator and champion should be filled. The travel plan champion should be someone in management who can lobby for the travel plan within the management team.

Note: The whole working group will not be required for every meeting. For example, in the action planning phase, council representatives shouldn't be required to attend every meeting. There is likely to be a core group of members who drive the travel plan's development and meet more regularly.

2.3 Define the scope of the travel plan

Consulting with your management team and colleagues may have given you a sense of how wide ranging the scope of your travel plan should be. How far you choose to take the plan will depend largely on the:

specific transport issues and needs in your work environment
resources and time available to take action
level of participation from staff and management.

Accordingly, your travel plan may focus on some or all of the following areas:

travel to and from work
travel within the working day (eg meetings, intra-office travel, personal trips)
the vehicle fleet
travel policies (eg company cars, parks, compressed working weeks or working from home).

Your workplace may decide to implement changes over a period of years, rather than months. In large workplaces, there may only be opportunities to implement travel plan actions within a limited number of departments or sites.

2.4 Establish overall aims

At this stage, you should be able to establish broad aims for your travel plan, eg:

increase share of environmentally friendly commuter trips
reduce work-related travel costs.

It's important to note that preconceived views on the content of the travel plan should not be developed at this point, but should be informed by analysing the data collected during the travel plan process. However, defining aims at this point, even if they change significantly later, will help to establish the scope of the travel plan and communicate why your workplace is developing a plan.

2.5 Develop the project plan

You'll need a project plan for developing and implementing your workplace travel plan. This may be a relatively simple spreadsheet or something more complex, depending on the complexity of your travel plan, and the skills and technology available in your workplace.

A project plan will typically include:

timelines for the whole project, as well as each phase
key dates for milestones
key sign-off times
people required for each task.

2.6 Prepare a communications plan

Prepare a communications plan containing strategies to:

publicise the travel plan to staff (what a travel plan is and why the workplace is creating one)
encourage participation (to complete surveys, and join in workshops and events)
publicise the travel plan to external stakeholders.

Identify the milestones in your travel plan – these are the best opportunities for marketing and raising awareness. Milestones might include:

introducing the idea of a plan to staff
undertaking focus groups
undertaking the staff travel survey
launching the plan
updating on progress
introducing new travel actions.

< previous | next >

Last updated: 9 July 2008