Transforming Corporate Travel and Commuting

Executive Summary

The last 2 years have seen society experience unprecedented challenges and changes, the effects of which will inevitably
last for a long time. However, some of the challenges we faced pre-pandemic are now coming back into focus. Across
towns and cities, congestion and poor air quality remain significant issues and these are just part of wider societal
challenges of addressing climate change and decarbonisation.

Transport is the largest source of carbon emissions in the UK and decarbonising transport poses an incredible challenge.
Whilst the government has set significant long-term ambitions, for example phasing out the sale of new internal combustion
engine vehicles by 2035, the Urban Mobility Partnership was founded to develop short term solutions which can help
address the aforementioned issues and make a real difference.

Through ours and our members work, we have identified corporate travel and commuting as two areas where behavioural
and policy changes can have a significant impact on reducing congestion and improving air quality. Even during the
height of the pandemic in 2020, around 20% of all journeys made in the UK were made for either business travel or
commuting with many of these journeys being completed as single occupancy private car trips. These vehicles are on
average 8.5 years old and some of the most polluting vehicles on the road. Yet many organisations both in the public and
private sector use this as one of their most common forms of conducting corporate travel, reimbursing their employees
45p/mile to drive these vehicles (grey fleet) and do little to encourage their employees to change their commuting habits
to more sustainable forms of travel. The potential immediate benefits of changing business and organisational practices
away from utilising grey fleet and in turn encouraging more sustainable commuting practices would quickly reduce the
number of single occupancy private cars on UK roads every day.

There are a variety of issues with continuing to make use of grey fleet for corporate travel including environmental issues,
the cost inefficiency, as well as outlining how people can change the way they commute to and from their place of
work and this paper outlines the steps organisations can take to address this. There is also a significant role for central
government in changing policies which could help to alter the current mindset around corporate travel and commuting.

This paper provides both practical implementation advice, with supporting case studies of organisations who have
successfully changed their and their employees’ habits, and policy proposals outlining what is required from national and
local government in order to support organisations and businesses deliver on their ambitions.