Case studies - Corporate - Invesco

As the largest employer in Henley, it was crucial for Invesco to take the lead on implementing a car-sharing scheme as part of their travel plan. And as an ISO14001-accredited company, their environmental performance is also very important; the scheme is a major part of that, having led to a substantial saving on CO₂ emissions detailed via the scheme's stats pages.

From a business point of view, Invesco's car-share scheme works very well for everyone. Staff are incentivised to use it, so they feel rewarded for being involved. And the company now makes much better use of space – for instance, being able to sell off part of the site previously used as an overflow car park. It also helps the business to satisfy local authority guidelines on travel planning.

An enthusiastic car-share manager (CSM) is one of the keys to a successful scheme. Invesco constantly has posters up around the building and they have an intranet site dedicated to car sharing, while the CSM holds road shows and runs competitions. He also promotes the statistics to staff on a regular basis and ensures that all new starters are informed of the scheme during their induction and encouraged to join within their first week. “This seems to be working and we have had five new members registered within the last 30 days.”

Overall the figures show that Invesco have reduced the number of cars coming on site by about 12% in less than three years, and hugely increased the proportion of those journeys that are multiple-occupancy. They currently have just over one staff vehicle parked to every two staff working on site. Meanwhile, staff turnover has also dropped as they found that people were much more willing to join and stay by having a car-share scheme. Most admin / call centre staff applying were from the nearest big town, Reading, and working on similar shift patterns in similar roles means a lot of the staff who car-share benefit socially as well as financially.

Nick Donaldson told us:

“The liftshare service has been integral to Invesco, and has provided staff with a user-friendly and effective tool to help them find car-share buddies.

“From a monitoring perspective, it has been so useful to have the statistics collated and prepared so we can report back to the business on the success of the scheme. Our environmental performance is crucial to us, and the information provided by liftshare on CO₂ emissions savings is excellent to report to the Invesco board and the BSI who audit the system.

“As well as the software itself, liftshare also provide great support in all aspects of the scheme. They have helped us with developing marketing materials, communicating the scheme in the right way, and speaking to other companies with similar schemes to share hints and tips and best practice.”