News / The Car Club – a way for employers to save money...
The Car Club – a way for employers to save money and the environment
A great new way to save money and reduce carbon emissions is being encouraged by Yorkshire Forward. Car clubs can be used by employers as an alternative to private or pool cars for staff. Workplaces joining car clubs have saved significant amounts of money by disposing of pool cars.
Cars parked locally in a town or city can be hired for as little as one hour, at a moments notice for meetings or site visits, using the phone or internet. All you do then is swipe your smartcard and drive off. At the end of the month you get one bill for your travel costs. No more fuel bills, no servicing, no maintenance, no insurance bills, no tax!
Each new driver must show their driving licence just once for insurance purposes (here’s where it differs from car rental) then they can use the cars as often as they like. Staff may even use the cars outside work as a private member.
So many people have no choice but to drive to work each day, as they may need a vehicle at some time for business purposes. This adds to your costs and causes pollution, congestion and parking problems. A local car club provides a convenient, reliable alternative to staff using their own vehicles and you can eliminate the need to commute to work by car. This frees up expensive parking spaces as well as offering healthier alternatives like cycling, buses or trains. Car club membership can also be a really useful element of a Workplace Travel Plan.
One key challenge of the moment is to reduce carbon emissions and transport must play a role in this, as it contributes 25% (and rising) of UK CO2 emissions. Car clubs have huge potential to reduce environmental impacts; by cutting the mileage of drivers, increasing use of less polluting transport and decreasing the number of cars on the road. By removing the car as default transport choice, members will think first about what option is best for each trip, and thus remove the frequent, short journeys which cause most pollution and congestion - 40% of UK trips are less than 3 miles. Car clubs are not anti car but encourage efficient use of vehicles and equality of access, it is about using resources better, not restricting freedom of choice.
Carplus is a national charity based in Leeds, which promotes the concept of car clubs and offers support and advice on starting them. It has three years funding from Yorkshire Forward to establish a fully integrated network of car clubs across the region. In the early stages information is being offered region wide, in the form of events and meetings, contact Carplus for details.
York is one of the lucky cities in the UK that has a car club available now. The operator, “WhizzGo”, (www.whizzgo.co.uk) launched here in 2006 and is providing services to many city centre residents and workplaces.
Carplus is now looking to help extend the network of car clubs across the whole of North Yorkshire, especially in Harrogate, Scarborough, Northallerton, Selby, and other towns in the county.
The support we receive from Yorkshire Forward enables us to offer any company in the region a range of free advice on how you can encourage your staff to leave their cars at home, and to help you make huge savings on your pool car and staff mobility costs.
For information on car clubs in general or to request a call from one of our staff, please contact us on the number below, or take a look at our website.
www.carplus.org.uk or ccc@carplus.org.uk or call 0113 234 9299 and ask for Jane Kingswood.
For more specific advice, please feel free to download our employers information pack at http://www.carplus.org.uk/Resources/pdf/Car_Clubs_at_Work.pdf
