Switch employee modes of transport

Transport accounts for over a quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions – the majority of which are produced by trips in private cars and taxis.

By using vehicles less for commuting your business can reduce its impact, save money and improve employee well-being.

If you use logistics services, visit our section on supply chains for guidance on using green providers.

Get benefits from reduced driving
Survey employees
Make a workplace travel plan
Get finance and support

Get benefits from reduced driving

Reducing the need for employees to drive to work has a number of business benefits.

For employees working on site, encourage other modes of transport to:

reduce the costs of maintaining parking spaces
relieve pressure on parking spots
decrease maintenance and depreciation of business vehicles
decarbonise your operations
improve employee mental health and well-being

To get these benefits you need to understand the transport needs of your workforce and figure out what non-driving options work best.

Visit our ‘Reduce business travel’ page for advice on employee transport for work purposes.

Survey employees

To work out what’s best for your workforce, survey your employees to better understand their travel choices.

Find out why employees are not walking, cycling, using public transport or car-sharing to work.

This will help you to get an idea of how accessible your workplace is for those interested in different modes of transport. It will also provide a baseline for transport data you can measure against later on.

From there you can gather employee feedback on ways to make improvements.

Make a workplace travel plan

Once you have an idea of what works best for employees, make walking, cycling and using public transport easier for those working on site.

You can start for no or low cost by:

displaying walking, cycling and public transport routes
organising a liftshare system between employees – visit Traveline to plan journeys in the UK
organising ‘challenges’ to reduce driving and engage employees
organising car clubs for commuting and business travel – visit CoMoUK for car club car options
inviting a mechanic to check staff bikes and teach maintenance
running an employee pledge scheme such as Do Nation to encourage your employees to make small lifestyle changes

You may consider setting up a company car scheme. Visit GOV.UK to find out about expenses and benefits.

You can also decrease your impact by reducing business travel and installing charge points for employees’ electric vehicles.

Visit the Sustrans website for more travel plan ideas.

Offer work from home options

It also makes sense to offer work from home where possible. Research by Stanford University has shown that work from home can:

increase productivity and economic growth up to 5%
improve employee retention up to 35%
help recruit a more diverse and inclusive workforce
offer flexible working hours so that employees can use public transport when it is less busy and/or times that better meet their schedule

According to this research the most popular option is a hybrid system where employees can work from home and on site.

Offer a cycle to work scheme

Employers and employees can also benefit financially by offering a cycle to work scheme. These allow an employer to provide bikes to their employees for the purpose of work trips.

Employees can deduct the costs from their before-tax income, and employers can reduce their National Insurance Contributions.

It is estimated that employers can save £25 to £80/month for each bike that’s registered with the scheme.

You can administer a scheme yourself or Cycle to Work scheme providers who can run a scheme for you. Scheme providers will normally: