Support your staff to commute on motorcycles and scooters.

Support your staff to commute on motorcycles.  Any employer can do it.  For many existing and potential motorcyclists there are factors that make riding to work less viable.  Bosses cannot address some of those obstacles.  But they can do something about many.  

support staff to choose motorcycles

Why Do It?

Why would an employer need or want to support their staff to switch from cars to motorcycles? You may well ask.

Actually, you can, as an employer, reap many benefits from supporting this modal shift.

Environmental responsibility 

Top of the list of corporate responsibilities in this day and age is the environment.  Every company has must manage its impact on the environment. From Greenhouse Gas emissions, to air quality, to land use, there are challenges and opportunities for all.  Enable your staff to make green choices when it comes to transport.  Motorcycles are one of those green transport choices that often get overlooked.

Road congestion

Keeping the road network moving is vital to all business.  Congestion increases logistics costs, slows the supply chain, costs you money and impacts your staff.  Help your staff to be a congestion busting solution.  Modal shift from cars to motorcycles is shown to reduce congestion.  What would a 40% reduction in road congestion do to your bottom line?  That would be the reward if just 10% of the UK workforce switched from cars to motorcycles.

Alternative to active travel

We all know that active travel, cycling and walking, is pushed as the best solution. Ask yourself: how many of my staff live close enough for this to be viable?  Do you want to restrict your labour pool to just those living in a five mile radius?  With public transport issues in the new social distancing environment, motorcycles and scooters provide a transmission safe, cheap and flexible alternative to the car.

Parking

Is parking space is a major headache for you?  Up to six motorcycles can be parked in the space of just one car.  Ease your parking headaches by helping more staff to switch to motorcycles or scooters.  It could also save you money if Workplace Parking Levies are on the horizon for you.  The UK’s first Workplace Parking Levy in Nottingham exempts motorcycle spaces from the charge.  Other WPLs are likely to follow this precedent.

How can an employer support this

As an employer you may not ride a motorcycle yourself.  So how do you know what action you need to take to support those staff members who want to ride in to work?

Survey your staff

Funnily enough, the experts in your organisation are likely to be those who ride.  So why not ask them?

A simple survey of your staff can quickly reveal how many of your staff either do or would consider riding to work.  If there are more prepared to consider it than currently do ride to work, you can be sure that there are some things you could be changing.

Remove barriers

Parking is the most likely subject that will be raised by those who don’t feel able to ride to work.  Again, ask your staff what parking facilities would work for them.  From location, to security rails, flat surfaces and avoiding soft tarmac that side stands sink into in summer, the requirements are really fairly straight forward.  In addition, your staff may ask for lockers to store helmets or drying rooms for waterproofs (we all know it does occasionally rain here in the UK).

Consider whether charging points are needed for electric scooters.  After all if you want to encourage zero emission transport, the lack of charging points may be an issue.  Many more electric motorcycles are coming on the market.

Some issues can be more subtle.  There may be an element of subconscious mistrust and discrimination.  Motorcycling does have a reputation that is not always justified.  I, for example, can tell many tales of comments I received when walking into my place of work in leathers, and carrying a crash helmet, for the first time.

Promote motorcycling

Play your part in changing attitudes to motorcycling.  It will make a big difference.  Why not get in touch with a local training school and arrange discounted rates for Compulsory Basic Training? Or you could also arrange motorcycle taster sessions as a team building exercise.  In addition you could support the Motorcycle Action Group‘s Ride To Work Day each year by organising a breakfast event for your riding staff, or set up a company motorcycle club.

 

You can encourage motorcycling in many creative ways.  So, if you employ staff, if you are a small business or a multi-national corporation, why not take some time to consider how you can help more of your staff to become motorcycle commuters?

Look at our simple fact sheet on the Resources page.

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