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Thursday, 5 th June Jon Foley Steer Davies Gleave 28-32 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD

INFLUENCING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS A review of a recent Transport for London customer focused travel planning pilot project. Thursday, 5 th June Jon Foley Steer Davies Gleave 28-32 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD +44 (0)20 7919 8500 www.steerdaviesgleave.com. HELLO BONJOUR

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Thursday, 5 th June Jon Foley Steer Davies Gleave 28-32 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD

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  1. INFLUENCING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS A review of a recent Transport for London customer focused travel planning pilot project Thursday, 5th June Jon Foley Steer Davies Gleave 28-32 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD +44 (0)20 7919 8500 www.steerdaviesgleave.com

  2. HELLO BONJOUR BONJOURNO BUENOS TARDES HALLO BUENA SERA

  3. INFLUENCING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERSA review of a recent Transport for London customer focused travel planning pilot project Thursday, 5th June Jon Foley Steer Davies Gleave 28-32 Upper Ground London, SE1 9PD +44 (0)20 7919 8500 www.steerdaviesgleave.com

  4. What I am going to cover • Purpose of Transport for London project • Context – Shopping travel • Approach adopted • Lessons learnt • Conclusion

  5. About Steer Davies Gleave • Our Company is the largest independent transport consultancy in Europe and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – we employ over 350 consultants in 12 offices around the world; • We offer the full range of transport planning services to clients from the public and private sector; • We have been market leaders in travel planning for more than 10yrs.

  6. Purpose of Transport for London’s pilot project • Transport for London (TfL) keen to understand more about the potential role of travel planning at ‘destination based’ locations (i.e. more visitors than staff); • Steer Davies Gleave was commissioned in December 2007 to explore travel planning with the following key types of destinations identified by TfL: • Retail • Universities • Sports Stadia • TfL also looking at leisure centres, parks and natural spaces, rail stations and tourist attractions; • Working with 3 stores in London we prepared a pilot customer based travel plan for each following which a ‘lessons learnt’ paper is being prepared; • Project due to complete in early July 2008.

  7. Background – Transport for London Travel Plan Support • TfL already active on ‘smarter travel’ initiatives such as travel planning; • The ‘A New Way to Work’ scheme includes a number of well advanced and innovative elements: • iTrace: A standardised approach to travel plan development and monitoring; • Corporate: Up to £20,000 support for a large organisations (250+ employees) to include consultancy advice to develop an iTrace compliant travel plan and money for a ‘quick win’ measure; • Enterprise: Small/Medium sized organisations - Support in developing a travel plan for smaller organisations; • Other initiatives: Take a Stand and Challenge Funding. • Working with visitor/destination based locations through travel planning pilot project seen as possibly the ‘next generation’.

  8. Context - Why are TfL undertaking the project? • Traffic growth and resulting congestion impact on the environment, the economy and health; • TfL currently invests in transport infrastructure to improve transport in the city however and sees value in supplementing that by engaging directly with individuals (in this case ‘the customer’) through smarter travel initiatives Shopping personal travel factsheet – July 2007. National Statistics, DfT

  9. Context – Trends in shopping travel • UK land use policy previous encouraged out-of-town development; • Distanced travelled are increasing – average trip length for non food shopping in London is 3.7 miles; • We all do it! - Shopping accounts for 1/5th of all trips in the UK of which 50% are for non-food purposes; • Despite move to 24/7 trading hours c25% of shopping trips are made between 9am and 10am while only 4% are made between 8am and 9am; • ‘I need to carry things so can’t cycle, walk or even use public transport’ - but 50% of shopping journeys are for window shopping; • In 2004 half of all households ordered goods by phone, post or internet.

  10. Context – Consumer behaviour • Studies in one UK city recently found that 42% of shoppers lived within half a mile and 86% lived within two miles of central shopping zones; • Retailers overestimated the importance of car-borne trade by 100%; they estimated 41% of customers arrived by car whereas only 22% had done so; • Research has shown that customers who walk to the shops spend £91 compared to £63 by bus and £64 by car; and • For some products, greater spend by public transport users than private car users e.g clothes and footwear.

  11. Context – why might retailers be interested in travel planning? • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Carbon Footprint both key policy issues at present; • Recent research found that for 16% of customers in the London area ‘the environment’ was a consideration when shopping; • Through consultation with customers the store is seen to take an interest in their customers, involving them, thus improving reputation; • It may attract customers that do not use a store because they perceive its difficult to access - transport can be a significant barrier to sectors of the community; • Encouraging those that can use non-car modes can make parking available to those for whom the car is the only sensible option; and • It can set store a part from others by adding a competitive edge – it also makes good business sense.

  12. ABOUT TRANSPORT FOR LONDONS ‘CUSTOMER FOCUSED’ PILOT TRAVEL PLANNING PROJECT

  13. TfL’s pilot project: The overall concept • Stage 1: Provision of ‘free’ travel panning consultancy advice; • Stage 2: Identification and implementation of ‘quick win’; • Stage 3: Store left to implement and monitor travel plan.

  14. Context – Retail sites • We undertook development of customer travel plans with the following organisations: • IKEA Croydon: A large home furnishing superstore with 1,650 space car park within a retail park in south London, adjacent to a Tramlink station; • The Chimes Shopping Centre, Uxbridge: A town centre shopping centre with 80 stores, and a 1,600 space car park, located in north west London, immediately adjacent to Uxbridge underground station – the terminus of the Metropolitan and Piccadilly Lines; and • John Lewis, Kingston-upon-Thames: A department store located in Kingston town centre, West London, with a 700 space car park, bus links and surface rail nearby.

  15. How did we tackle travel planning at each store? • Initial meeting with retailer where support consolidated (store and TfL sign pledge form); • Site assessment and travel survey (including Focus Group if required); • Travel plan prepared (including objectives, targets and measures); • ‘Quick Win’ agreed between the store and TfL; • Store commences implementation of travel plan.

  16. How was customer travel behaviour information captured • Surveys undertaken on 2 days (weekday, weekend); • Three methods of engagement: • Face to face snapshot • Face to face in-depth questionnaire • On-line in-depth survey (marketed via postcard handed out in store during survey) • Most effective method of engagement was snapshot survey while on-line survey provided very few responses; • Prize draw incentive used (£250 plus free coffee!).

  17. RESULTS OF TRAVEL SURVEY WORK WITH PILOT SITES

  18. Travel survey - level of response • IKEA Croydon (1,242 responses) • Snapshot: 962 • In depth: 246 • John Lewis (1,512 responses) • Snapshot: 1,181 • In-depth: 294 • The Chimes (1,356 responses) • Snapshot: 1,018 • In-depth: 331 • On-line survey responses poor

  19. Customers main mode of travel – Results from the three sites

  20. Distance travelled by customers to retail sites

  21. Walking Promotion of Walkit.com Walking events in cooperation with local Borough Council Cycling Improved cycle parking and information Promotion of borough cycle training to customers Installation of lockers/cloak room Public Transport Consideration of real time information in store Improved PT information on internet site Car Sharing Formal car share promotion (via matching websites) amongst customers unpopular Informal promotion (e.g initiatives promotion the idea of bringing a friend/neighbour more practical) Other Joint working with retail park occupiers or business improvement districts to solve wider transport issues Consideration of alternatives such as river boat access where applicable Internet shopping/home delivery What actions are proposed in the travel plans?

  22. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT SO FAR?

  23. Lessons learnt – where retail may differ from other sectors • The nature of decision-making - is more flexible (and consequently less predictable) than for workplaces. For example, unlike travel to work, some decisions for travel to visitor-focussed destinations will be weather-dependent for a proportion of users, spur of moment; • More groups will be travelling together – this influences their travel behaviour and is also an issue when it comes to collecting travel survey information – 1 questionnaire or 2?; • The ‘type’ of shopping is an influence on behaviour – longer distance journeys to shops selling bulkier goods more challenging than shorter journeys to other retailers.

  24. Lessons Learnt: Engaging the retailers – prospects are good • Retailers are largely ‘on-board’ with need to influence travel behaviour of shoppers - greater emphasis on community and environmental benefits rather than direct cost savings; • The large retailers approached were already aware of or undertaking travel planning initiatives for staff; • BUT……. • Avoid the Christmas period when trying to engage retailers; • Don’t over complicate things with form filling if at all possible.

  25. Lessons Learnt – Collecting information on customer shopping behaviour…. • Face to face surveys most effective means of collecting information – where audience captive; • Surveying customers is resource intensive: • Large number of surveyors required (8 – 10) to guarantee good level of response • Snapshot survey most effective survey method (up to 14 questions) • Worked without need for incentives; • Allowed key data to be obtained; • In-depth face to face better for capturing ‘attitudes’; • Online survey not very effective (even with incentive): • Stores unwilling or unable to use store card data to undertake online survey; • Two day minimum (weekday/weekend) survey required; • More cost effective survey techniques (eg. handheld data capture devices) may be beneficial going forward.

  26. Lessons Learnt – Measures that might influence travel behaviour • Retailers very willing to consider a wide range of initiatives; • Improvements to website; • Display travel information (including in-store real time information); • Working with borough or other organisations on awareness raising events; • Installing improved cycling facilities; • Promotion of internet shopping and home delivery. • But: • Formal car sharing (e.g via a database) not seen as a practical measure (or associated incentives such as preferential parking); • Parking management a challenge and often priced at a rate to attract custom thus difficult to influence; • Some more bespoke information may take longer to implement at a local store level as organisations have more generic literature.

  27. Lessons Learnt – Management and Coordination • Different types of internal coordination: • The Chimes - national travel plan coordinator, with local assistance from centre management team; • John Lewis – initial engagement through HQ, then handed over to store management team; • IKEA – environmental specialist in each store • All models have worked equally well with a high level of commitment and buy-in from each store; • It should not be done in isolation from staff travel at the store.

  28. Summary - if you want to deliver travel planning to the retail sector some of the pre-conditions required….. • Strong community or environmental ethos already in place – reinforce by linking to carbon footprint reduction; • Enthusiasm from the organisation at a corporate/senior level (dependent on organisations management structure); • An enthusiastic individual or management group to drive delivery; • An organisation with ‘relaxed’ attitudes toward parking management; • Freedom to undertake consultation with customers on the premises or established communication channels already in place (eg. store cards); • Travel issues present (e.g congestion in area) during key shopping times; and • Range of transport alternatives already available.

  29. Conclusions • Too early to tell if pilot projects have been successful in influencing travel behaviour; • Early indications are though that the retail sector has an appetite for engaging with others on travel and transport issues; • If appropriately designed and targeted customer focused travel planning does have the potential.

  30. THANK YOUMERCIGRACIASGRAZIEDANKEDANK U Jon Foley, Steer Davies GleaveE-mail: jon.foley@sdgworld.netTel: +44 (0) 20 7910 5736

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