Case studies - Corporate - Bentley

There are currently 4,500 employees on Bentley's site in Crewe, with 2,000 car park spaces available. The company wanted to help staff reduce their commuting expenses, at the same time as reducing the load on parking spaces, by providing an easy way for staff to find suitable car-share partners who they may not know because they work in different areas of the factory. They started their own car-share scheme in 2004, but rapidly realised that a complete system was required.

Bentley car-share manager, Mark Taylor, has been very proactive. He has reserved parking spaces for car-sharers, promotes the scheme constantly with posters and runs competitions. He also contacted all the staff who had 2-litre petrol or diesel engine cars and were driving 40 miles or more to work, calculated their fuel costs and then informed them of the savings they could make by car-sharing.

With such initiatives, Bentley currently has over 800 members, a journey match rate of 56%, and a car park which used to operate beyond capacity now has free spaces (despite the company recruiting more employees).

Mark said:

“We chose liftshare for its simplicity of use and friendly approach. The scheme has proven a great success as an integral part of our Green Travel Plan - which has now been recognised as one of the top 15 Green Travel plans in the country.”