Why are loads of staff at work asking my advise?

[xpc316e]

Employers can provide all the cycle storage facilities they like, along with showers etc., and few people will ride to work. Start hitting them where it hurts though and guess what happens? My employer now charges me to park after years of free parking, and I must say that it stimulates me into riding in when it is convenient. I would like to see more employers take this sort of stance with respect to parking.

 

[ufkacbln]

I've been cycle commuting to work at an NHS Trust for the last six years or so. I'd happily pay £2.00 pm for my very own secure cycle locker. You lucky bugger!

The Trust is actually very forward looking. Part of the deal was that parking would not be revenue to the Trust, but be used for the benefit of staff and to promote / enable "Travel" initiatives.
They started charging less for off-site than on-site parking, and you also pay according to pay scale. They then set up a Park and Ride system, with the ride paid for from the fees basing this on unused MOD land. The parking fees also subsidise LiftShare, bus and ferry passes and paid for the cycle locker installation.

 

[Psycolist]

A couple of points I dont think have been touched on yet. What do the trust expect to happen to the spaces previously provided for staff parking, ??? I expect they will be openend up for public parking, which if my own hospital visitors experiences of recent weeks are anything to go by, will generate, as a conservative estimate, something around £2,500 per annum for each space. And from my famillies experiences with having to pay for parking for work, £300 per annum is a snip. If my daughter-in law were to drive to her place of work and use a staff bay, she would be charged £20 per week, 52 weeks of the year, Thats in excess of £1000 pa. Thats on top of the wear and tear on the car, petrol and depreciation. I DO think its unfair for the trust to take away this facility, perhaps it would have been fairer to stop allowing new members of staff to have the privelage of free parking, but in the current climate I think that £1 a day for parking is MORE than generous. As I said, they want to try paying visitors rates.

 

[Peowpeowpeowlasers]

My Trust made it disciplinary, Contracts state at you will not park within 1 km of the Trust premises.

Local residents simply complain to the Trust who then takes action against the individual employee.

It really isn't a problem, and always amazes me how people actually do manage without driving in.

I'd be interested to know how a contract can legally specify what an employee does while not on the premises and while not on paid time. I'd say that one needs testing in court.

 

[Cubist]

Two points here. Huddersfield Royal Infirmary has a residents only exclusion zone of about a kilometre with robustly enforced permit holders only bays.

My employers are prevented by some sort of conditions from providing adequate parking, in order specifically to force people out of cars. They have a green travel plan which includes car sharing and cycle to work schemes. All stations have showers and lockers, together with secure ish bike storage. They have been scuppered slightly by some car owners who have managed to force them to offer a salary sacrifice scheme for new cars, which grates on some, as it was argued that they deserve to be allowed to have some free money like us cyclists.... Hey ho!

 

[ufkacbln]

What do you call adequate parking?

If I remember correctly someone did calculations for Inner London and looked at providing parking for every single person working there....... they needed to annexe Berkshire as a car park!

The whole concept of an employer having to provide each employee with a space for their car is never going to happen and why should they?

Can anyone give a good reason why they should be provided with a parking space?

 

[Cubist]

What do you call adequate parking?

If I remember correctly someone did calculations for Inner London and looked at providing parking for every single person working there....... they needed to annexe Berkshire as a car park!

The whole concept of an employer having to provide each employee with a space for their car is never going to happen and why should they?

Can anyone give a good reason why they should be provided with a parking space?

There was a time when most new build stations had ample car parking, but with the increase in support staff mostly on day jobs rather than shift work they no longer cope. Some town centre nicks have no car parks at all.
You should hear people moaning about moving to a station where they have to pay to park nearby, or, heaven forbid, walk, cycle or bus part of the journey! The ones that have had parking space provided are utterly spoilt. Having nowhere to park was a great incentive for me to cycle. I need my car at work half the time now so I don't get the chance to cycle as often as I should like to, and I no longer work in the town centre, but I cycling even half the journey saved me £5 getting on for £8 a day in diesel and car parking.

Your question only relates to London though, and is really only relevant in big cities where there is sufficient public transport infrastructure to get people to work and ho,me again afterwards. A shift worker living in my village would be scuppered by a bus service that only runs between 7am and 9pm.

Some workplaces, for example out of town business parks and so on are more likely to be able to afford to build large car parks, and one new station had enough land around it to provide a space for everyone plus visitors. However, the planners wouldn't allow it on Eco grounds.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I'd be interested to know how a contract can legally specify what an employee does while not on the premises and while not on paid time. I'd say that one needs testing in court.

It has been tested in Employment Tribunals

 

[User16625]

I think the right to park without cost should be a legal right. Any company that charges for parking must provide insurance while the car is unattended on their parking spaces. Its only fair as drivers are always treated like cash machines. No wonder they are so irritable.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

It gets worse for them, anyone that lives within 1k will not be permitted to bring there car to work.

People REALLY drive for less than a mile?

Good grief...

 

[Davidc]

At one employer - with between 30 and 40 staff depending on time of year and health of business - I had the job of breaking the news that 45 of 48 spaces were going to cease to exist because an extension was being built on the land. Worse, the other 3 were going to be disabled and visitors only.

I was very popular (blame the messenger!).

Before the change there had been 2 cycle commuters (me + 1) and no proper bike parking. The owner, after the howls of protest, put in 12 bike lockers, all of which got taken for a £5 key deposit, refused to compensate anyone for having to pay for parking but let people have an interest free advance on pay for their parking, and bought a folder herself. She had worked out that the no parking rule had to apply to her for it to be accepted and for her to remain in one piece.

Most of those who'd been driving less than a mile to work discovered they had legs fitted under their bodies (about 5 people), the rest bought council season tickets at £400 a year (about £500 in 2012 money), and several got into car sharing which also got a £50 reduction on the parking. (I don't know how it worked so don't ask!)

The reduction in the number of cars on the road was probably 20 or more, removing over half the original, so a big benefit in reduced congestion, less pollution, and improved health.

I was "the bloke who took away the car park" until the day I left though. I was told afterwards that "The Extension" was a fiddle, the building was built and then rented out to another company, which also had no parking. To my mind that was still better land use.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I think the right to park without cost should be a legal right.

Assuming you are serious, why?

 

[marzjennings]

Can anyone give a good reason why they should be provided with a parking space?

Not really, but not supplying me with a parking space would be a reason not to work for such a company.

 

[srw]

Not really, but not supplying me with a parking space would be a reason not to work for such a company.

I'd venture to suggest that downtown Houston, Texas, USA, is rather different from downtown London, England, UK.

Here in the real world we have things called buses and trains which very effectively transport millions of people from home to work.

 

[Night Train]

Can anyone give a good reason why they should be provided with a parking space?

The only solid reason that I can think of for an employee parking space is if driving the vehicle, from their home to place of work and then back and forth to other sites, is a part of their job.