Case studies - Heathrow Airport

Heathrow Airport had an in-house car-share scheme for several years before deciding to take advantage of the expertise and benefits provided with a liftshare scheme.
In summer 2009, Car-share Heathrow Airport was re-vamped and re-launched. Available to all Heathrow workers, regardless of shift pattern, the scheme is accessible to the 72,000 employees of over 100 companies that operate within the airport.

The re-launch took place on National liftshare Day, with a road show in Terminal 5. Over 130 employees joined within just a few hours on that day alone. To spread the word, promotions included branded tray liners and napkins for staff canteens, posters, leaflets, exhibition material, PCs for live registration, plasma screen displays and information in on-airport publications, staff car parks and on staff buses from car parks.

Since the re-launch Heathrow has undertaken regular promotional activities including events which have helped registrations to continue to grow month on month.

As a unique client we have worked with Heathrow to develop tools and services which have been designed to overcome the challenges of encouraging behavioural change within such a large and diverse group of organisations.  Including our call centre functionality which allows staff to call and register with the scheme if they are unable to access the internet and automated upload of registration data collected from events using paper forms.

The main benefits for Heathrow employees joining the scheme are financial savings, use of priority parking bays in BAA-managed car parks and a guaranteed ride home scheme. For the airport, it is also important to them that the scheme improves air quality and reduces congestion around the site.

Now in its second year, Heathrow's car-sharing scheme has grown from strength to strength, with over 6,000 members representing almost 8% of their total workforce. The scheme currently sees around 200 new members joining every month, largely due to regular field marketing exercises that BAA support.

Theo Panayi, Heathrow's Transport Strategy Manager, said:
“We are delighted that we choose to use liftshare, not only has their system saved us time but we have gained invaluable on-going support from the liftshare team.  This support also includes IT development as liftshare has produced new tools for us, which help us to manage the largest car-sharing scheme in Europe.”