Travelwise Choices Champion: Datacom Travelwise Choices Champion: Datacom

Datacom continues to lead on sustainable travel

Three-time Award winner, Datacom took home the On Board Award in AT’s latest 2018 Travelwise Choices Awards for increased use of public transport within the company.

Over the course of just three years, Datacom has gone from having just a quarter of its 1,500 Auckland staff travelling to work by sustainable modes to nearly half of those surveyed currently.

In 2017, Datacom won the most prestigious award in AT’s Travelwise Choices awards for leading the way with its ‘positive commuting bonus’ - a cash incentive for any staff member giving up their car park within a specific time frame.

Datacom converted all staff parking to a "user pays" regime with costs introduced incrementally over an 18 month period and saw continued attrition in terms of the number of managed carparks provided to staff.

These initiatives achieved tangible results. When Datacom re-surveyed its staff, they found that compared to the 2016 baseline, single-occupancy vehicle journeys among those surveyed halved from 52 per cent to 26 per cent, and public transport use nearly doubled from 24 per cent to 46 per cent.

Datacom has continued to implement initiatives to increase the uptake of alternatives to single occupancy vehicle journeys, in addition to the incentives which were recognised in last year's awards.

With great end-of-trip facilities, company e-bikes and discounts at bike retailers, Datacom makes active travel a viable transport option for its staff.

The company also introduced the Parkable app for its remaining managed carparks, further supporting the reduction in parking requirements, as staff are able to book pool/released car parks for occasional use rather than retain a permanent managed car park.

Datacom’s first staff travel survey was undertaken in 2016. At that time, 51.2 per cent of staff surveyed were travelling alone by car and only 24.1 per cent using public transport.

This year Datacom is already off to a great start – ramping up efforts towards getting staff onto the company’s e-bikes.

Their efforts have certainly paid off in their most recent survey (completed in November 2018), with 55.5 per cent of those surveyed commuting by public transport and nearly 10 per cent by active modes (running, walking and cycling). Only 18.9 per cent are now travelling alone by car – a staggering 32.3 per cent decrease over just three years.

Following on from its most recent survey, AT partnered with Datacom to host a series of Travel Roadshows, to help remind staff about their travel options and alerting them to journey changes after the rollout of the Central New Network public transport routes.

E-bike trials were offered the next week to help encourage staff experience and adopt more active travel behaviour.

“Thank you so much for arranging this amazing event.
I just moved to NZ about 20 days back to join Datacom and this was just the perfect way to learn about eBikes.
Apart from using it for the office commute, it was so enjoyable that it seemed like a great way to explore the city.” - Ravi Baht, Datacom employee