ACT Awards
Travel Planner of the Year Award 2007 sponsored by Steer Davies Gleave
The ACT Travel Planner of the Year Award were presented at the Summer Conference and AGM which was held in Liverpool on July 3rd.
The award, which is in its 5th year, recognises the achievements of an individual travel planner, and was this year won by Jayne Cornelius from SWWITCH.
Jayne is an enormously enthusiastic Travel Planner who has been working in the field for many years.The judges had a very difficult decision to make as we received 56 nominations, which overtook our record of 52 nominations from last year. This shows how much the Travel Planning field is growing in both number and quality.
Tim Forrester from WESTRANS and Mike Cooper from Birmingham City Council were Highly Commended.
Commuter Initiative Awards 2007 sponsored by Vodafone
The ACT Commuter Initiative Awards were set up 8 years ago to recognise originality and innovation in the field of travel planning, and reward organisations for exceptional strides made to tackle transport issues.
Travel Planner of the Year Award 2006: sponsored by JMP
The ACT Travel Planner of the Year Award rewards the individual who has contributed most to the field, and is presented at the Summer Conference
View winners
Award Winners
ACT Commuter Initiative Award Winners 2007
Public Sector:
Winner The Arts Institute of Bournemouth:
An excellent all round plan that has achieved results, from 2002 to 2006 car use has dropped from 64% to 47%. Senior Management support is channelled through a Travel and Transport steering group, which sets principles and targets, which are measured by bi-annual surveys.
The range of measures in place have succeeded in increasing cycling and walking, public transport use, and car sharing.
These gains are locked in by a Car Park Management strategy, which includes reduced parking provision, and permit charges linked to salary.
Highly Commended:
Buckinghamshire County Council.
The Bucks Travel Choice travel plan is one of the best recognised and most successful travel plans in the field. Since 2000 it has reduced SOV from 71% to 44%.
The formation of a working group that included HR and Facilities means the travel plan has become part of the organisation’s working practices.
An excellent branding and promotional strategy back up a range of measures to encourage modal shift.
Private Sector:
Winner Northern Rock
The NR nomination is an excellent example that a travel plan does not sit on a shelf gathering dust but is a fluid document, they review it each year to reflect new partnerships and initiatives, and above all it includes policies and schemes that their staff request, who are surveyed at least every two years by an electronic questionnaire.
The travel plan has been adopted as part of their business model and all new staff are informed of travel options on their induction to the company.
This has had results, 54% travel by public transport up from 34% in 1999.
Highly Commended:
Ikea
The policy of giving every member of the 9000 Ikea staff a free folding bicycle not only gives staff the tools to get to work by bike, it also sends a clear signal of how seriously the company is taking the issue of sustainable transport, and it also had the knock-on effect of gaining national media coverage.
The full travel plan is currently under review to build on this successful initiative.
Marketing
Winner MerseyTravel
ACT particularly liked the detailed and professional approach adopted by MerseyTravel when launching a new marketing approach to their TravelWise campaign in 2006. This campaign has been developed for consistency and ease of use by the different partners in the Merseyside Local Transport Plan and shows potential for certain elements being adopted nationwide.
Beginning with extensive market research to gain understanding of the target audience and research into how attitudes and ideas are acquired, and how they can be changed or altered.
The campaign contains seven key motivational factors with personal advantage primary in all communications.
The marketing strategy uses mode-based campaigns that are then communicated via a range of media advertising and through travel plans using the organisation’s internal communication networks.
Early feedback shows that this strategy has so far been effective.
Highly Commended:
Telford and Wrekin Council:
ACT thought the SmartCATZ (Car-free Active Travel Zone) scheme initiated by Telford & Wrekin Council to encourage young people to walk or cycle to school wherever possible is both innovative and effective.
The market research that included the target audience of school children in choosing the promotional items was excellent and from the survey the campaign appears to have achieved great results.
Innovation:
Winner Oybike
ACT thought the OYBike network of self-service bicycle rental stations which were installed within Park Royal trading estate and at the key tube and rail transport interchange points, was a marvellously innovative way to improve the access to private company premises with a door to door solution for commuters, employees and visitors.
The scheme is run through corporate subscriptions that enable a rental station to be fitted to company premises as a tax-deductible benefit.
Highly Commended:
Bellwether
Bellwether are a consultancy that use mobile working solutions including Vodafone 3G cards to run their company completely without an office. This saves them £50K a year and eliminates all commuting travel, while employees can keep in touch with each other throughout the working day by video or telephone conferencing. ACT thought that if many other employers could emulate this innovative approach to encourage mobile working for staff that do not need to be in the office everyday, it could make a major impact on peak time congestion.
Travel Planner of the Year Award Winner 2006
This year we had a record 56 nominations, this excellent response shows how far travel planning has come, and bodes well for the future of the field.
All of the nominees were of an exceptionally high standard and the ACT board directors had a hard time choosing a winner.
This year we chose to recognise one winner and three highly commended.
Winner 2006: Trudi Fisher – B&Q Travel Plans Advisor
Judges Comments:
Passion!
Has a wide range of initiatives and has been very successful and had a real impact. Examples include getting Olympic cyclists to promote the initiatives, electric bike trials, running club, promotes travel plans to B&Q and the wider community, and much more.
Lives the belief outside her day job.
Comments from the record 13 nominations she received were the following:
“Trudi works tirelessly throughout the year encouraging us to ‘leave the car at home’.”
“Trudi works with such commitment and enthusiasm.”
“Trudi is not only a preacher; she practices what she preaches.”
Highly Commended 2006
Mark Taylor – Bentley Motors, Travel Plan Coordinator
Judges Comments:
Mark gets results!! 10% cycling, 8% walking. SOV’s down by 20%
With a car park that was stuffed a couple of years ago he has now freed up spaces despite the fact there are more employees than before, all of this was achieved at a company that offers a new car to employees every 6 months.
Highly Commended 2006: Dawn Wise – Wellcome Trust, Head of Security & Green Travel Co-ordinator
Judges Comments:
Received excellent nominations. She’s new to the role and has adopted it very well with innovative ideas, enthusiasm and passion, l and she has met the Travel Plan targets.
Comments from her nominations:
“Dawn as one of the most enthusiastic and effective travel plan coordinators that we know”
Highly Commended 2006
Sarah Dewar – Mersey Travel, Merseyside Travelwise Co-ordinator
Judges Comments:
Enthusiasm, ability to get things done, dogged determination.
Has overseen the growth of Mersey travel from a one woman show to manage a team of five. Has effectively handled a complex situation of multiple stakeholders of five local authorities and PTE all of whom have different ideas and desires.
Special Team Award for Services to Travel Planning
Smarter Choices research team
Dr Sally Cairns, Dr Lynn Sloman, Carey Newson, Dr Jillian Anable, Alistair Kirkbride, Professor Phil Goodwin
Since the Smarter Choices report was published, the team has actively promoted the research findings. Their work has made a major contribution to mainstreaming of travel planning.
Commuter Initiative Award Winners 2006 (click here to see full judges comments)
Public Sector- Winner
Epsom & St Helier University NHS Trust
Highly Commended
Wiltshire Police Authority
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust
University of East Anglia
Private Sector - Winner
The Royal Bank of Scotland
Highly Commended
Nationwide
Ipsen Biofarm Ltd.
Marketing - Winner
AstraZeneca
Highly Commended
Harrow Council
East Sussex County Council
Innovation - Winner
The Highways Agency
Highly Commended
West London Transport Strategy Group
Liftshare
Mersey Dee Alliance
