Nudging employees towards more sustainable mobility choices can add up to big wins for fleets, reckons David Rowan, head of UK fleet and leasing sales at Enterprise Mobility.

David Rowan, head of UK fleet and leasing sales at Enterprise Mobility

While strategies for making fleets more sustainable often focus on big changes affecting large numbers of employees, there is another option. A series of small, incremental tweaks that encourage more sustainable travel choices has the potential to lead to surprisingly big results: lower emissions, reduced risk and greater employee satisfaction, to name just three.

We see many leading organisations introducing systems and processes that gently ‘nudge’ their employees into choosing journeys that are more sustainable. The starting point is to understand the psychology behind mobility decisions – why, where and when people travel. This approach can have profound positive changes to the way a travel policy is designed that reflects the driver experience.

Understanding this detail is essential, especially when supporting the thousands of employees who don’t have company cars and only occasionally travel for business – and who all undertake different journey types. Gathering data and insight on employee business travel journeys, through telematics and other technology, is a good start, combined with qualitative intel about the needs of employees and business culture.

This process helps businesses to assess where small shifts to a lower-emission vehicle, ride sharing with a colleague, or picking up a rental car near to home rather than work could result in cost and emissions savings, as well as greater employee satisfaction. Could meetings spread over several days be consolidated into one? Would employees prefer to use a newer low-emission pool or car club if it was accessible 24/7 on-site? Could a 100km trip be completed in a shared EV, to help reduce emissions and increase confidence?

In this data deep dive, organisations learn that convenience is the number one factor for employees when planning a business trip. Employees are often empowered to make their own arrangements, but to ensure these decisions are compliant, integrate travel policies into the systems that employees use to book their travel.

For example, when employees use a booking app to rent a car, the company can decide to put a low-emission vehicle as the ‘default’ choice. Or the booking tool could first offer bike rental vouchers if active travel is an option for the journey. Booking tools and apps should be designed with the policy in mind, to ‘nudge’ desired travel choices. Easy-to-use technology that encourages employees to plan and book in advance gives employees more time to think through the options and consider trying something new.

Many fleets want more controlled alternatives to using the personal car parked in the driveway, but don’t see how to compete with that level of convenience. This is where network coverage is vital. Are there rental branches close to where people live, as well as where they work? Is there a shared bike or car club service down the road from the office? A well-connected network of integrated travel options makes it easier for people to adopt new habits, positioning them as convenient and accessible.

Once the policy is designed with employee needs at its core, securing employee buy-in to new travel options and booking procedures is essential to a successful behavioural ‘nudge’.

Mobility engagement sessions and educational resources are vital ways to encourage and support long-term positive behaviour change. Showing how something works is more effective than an email telling employees what to do. A demonstration of how to use an on-site car club, highlighting how the vehicles work and immersing employees in the experience, can set the right tone from the start.

For businesses introducing more sustainable travel choices, creating an exceptional driver experience is essential. A travel policy that prioritises convenience, accessibility and user-friendliness not only fosters greater adoption, but also signals that the business values its employees and is committed to their needs.