Case Studies
County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust
The County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust have developed successful Travel Plans for all its major sites. With a dedicated Travel Plan Coordinator that works to implement the various initiatives, the Trust is seeing signs of change. Just one of the initiatives that the Trust is currently promoting is that of car sharing between sites along with seeking to reduce the number of taxi journeys.
Recently, the Trust successfully negotiated an almost 60% discount on the cost of annual bus passes with Arriva North East, offering a saving of over £500 a year for people who use the bus to travel to work. The pass also allows staff to travel outside of peak times and at weekends for no extra cost.
Through these initiatives, staff are continually being encourage to walk, cycle, car share and use public transport for their journey to work. Walking and cycling are especially encouraged due to their notable health benefits. The next survey, planned in 2008, will show the modal shift that has been achieved. The trust would like to see a 10% reduction in single occupancy car use by this time.
The Annual Travel Awareness Events at the major sites are a good opportunity to meet and talk with both staff and members of the public about sustainable transport, and proves to be a useful vehicle for getting across the message regarding Travel Plans. The provision of information at the events is welcomed and competitions are regularly offered along with a free breakfast for those staff that walk or cycle to work on the day of the event.
A successful Transport Protocol for Patient Discharge has been developed and has already made a positive impact through the reduction of unnecessary taxi and private ambulance journeys made by patients on returning home from their stay in hospital.
3M
As part of their Travel Plan, 3M has provided staff with everything necessary to make sustainable journeys; for example, showers, clothes dryers, high quality changing facilities with locker rooms, and cycle parking. Indeed, there are a number of staff that regularly cycle to work.
Additionally the 3M car sharing scheme has grown, encouraging more employees to travel in a sustainable manor. Due to shift patterns and complex working hours for some staff, it may be considered that car sharing would not be successful. However, this is not the case. 3M has found that some staff have been car sharing for 25 years! Many employees have made informal arrangements to share their vehicles, reducing the cost of travelling and benefiting the environment. From the staff travel survey, completed in 2006, the company found that 30% of staff would be prepared to car share if they had help to find a potential car share partner. This led to the creation of the ‘3M Car Sharing Scheme’. A large map was provided, and staff were encouraged to sign up to the scheme, putting a pin in the map identifying their home destination. Clusters of people were then identified and linked up.
Every 3 years 3M holds an Environmental, Health and Safety Event. The event in 2006 was held over three days in September and proved to be a great success. Groups of staff were given two hours away from their normal duties to look round the various exhibitions in the marquee. Approximately 400 3M staff attended the various stands, along with local residents and visitors from other businesses in the area
Members from the Travel Plan Team were invited to attend the event to remind staff of the benefits of sustainable forms of travel. Employees were encouraged to pick up information, ask questions or generally chat about travel issues. Staff were also given the opportunity to calculate the annual running costs of their car. The majority of people were highly surprised at the outcome!
B&Q Durham
Pupils have had a spring in their step on the journey to their Durham City schools during October 2006. Children from Belmont Infant and Belmont Church of England Junior schools received a flower bulb for taking part in a joint scheme with B&Q Durham encouraging more youngsters to walk to school as part of International Walk to School Month.
The flower bulbs, donated by B&Q Durham were planted in the school grounds. When they bloom each year they will provide a reminder of the health and environmental benefits of leaving the car behind on the school run.
Pupils and parents walked from B&Q Durham to school each morning as part of International Walk to School Month, October 2006, promoted by Durham County Council’s Travel Plan Team. Each day they were joined by two staff members from the store.
The high profile campaign led to the establishment of a formal Walking Bus in January 2007 with two staff members (along with other parents) acting as the volunteers. This initiative supports the school’s Travel Plan and it is the first Walking Bus in County Durham to be sponsored by a company.
In addition to supporting the local school’s Travel Plan, B&Q Durham have also been encouraging sustainable travel as part of their Workplace Travel Plan. B&Q Durham have an active Travel Plan and are keen to promote the health benefits of sustainable travel to staff. B&Q Durham are keen to show their commitment to the local community and the environment through their Travel Plan.
The company has purchased 8 bicycles that staff are free to use for their commute to and from work. The uptake of the scheme has been encouraging with several staff members returning the bikes to the pool and purchasing their own cycles.
Service Direct
Service Direct, as the contracting arm of Durham County Council is a major employer in the area employing some 200 staff with a labour force of approximately 1,000 to provide various services including building maintenance to County Council establishments, vehicle fleet management and highway and street lighting maintenance to the County’s road network.
In addition to promoting sustainable travel for the journey to and from work, Service Direct’s Travel Plan has, due to the nature of their work, a focus on business operations.
When the organisation moved to their new premises on Meadowfield Industrial Estate, approximately 4 miles from the centre of Durham, in January 2007 a Travel Plan was needed as part of the planning condition. Seeing this as an opportunity rather than a paper work exercise, Service Direct compiled a broad range of measures, with the main focus on the fleet operations, for its 350 vehicles, and improving the efficiency of services. With material suppliers and plant hire firms making on average 141 deliveries per week, the organisation came to realise that the movement of materials could be run more efficiently in order to reduce the number of journeys made, thus saving time, money and vehicle emissions.
The three different stores have been amalgamated into one centralised operation under the control of one purchasing department. This, combined with the implementation of a ‘One Stop Shop’ (where suppliers hold an agreed stock of materials and deliver once a week on an agreed day) will result in a rationalisation of stock held, reducing the number of duplicated items and minimising the number of deliveries received.
Currently the majority of Service Direct’s vehicles use a 5% blend of bio diesel. There is currently ongoing discussion concerning whether this should be increased to a 20% blend. The organisation is waiting for the results of other pilot studies before actively pursuing this. All vehicles over 7.5 tonne comply with Euro emissions level 4 and have a CRT trap fitted to exhaust systems.
As part of the organisation’s endeavour to reduce emissions from its own fleet of vehicles, all drivers have to attend a ‘Driver Assessment’ training course. The course content includes instruction and practical examples of the way in which to drive without hard revving of the engine, and harsh breaking. To complement this, the organisation has implemented a Well Driven Scheme. Additionally, it hopes to rationalise the routes taken to a specific site when some staff members are being picked up by others on the way, in order to reduce the lengths of journeys made.
