Often when we think of business travel, a slightly glamourous image of jet-setting might come to mind. Those who live this lifestyle will tell you in reality it is anything but glamourous. One business meeting room looks pretty much like another wherever you are in the world. And one survey might look pretty much like another, until we understand the impact it might have.
Business travel has some very much more boring, but in fact more crucial aspects. Pre-covid many of us had a daily commute to work. That journey could be a crawl into Gloucester, a short bus journey to Vantage Point or a walk to one of Coleford’s many small business parks. Increased flexibility of working practices from Covid has now got office landlords in urban areas scared that workers will not return to their offices, but will work more from home. This could be good for the other great emergency we face of carbon neutrality.
Rural areas have many more place-based businesses. It is difficult to do manufacturing from home for the 16% of the Forest population that works in that sector. Or construction or the range of necessary tourism services or agriculture and food production. Again important sectors for the Forest and for rural communities across the country. This is why national government are funding a project, of which FEP is a partner, to look at a rural travel solution.
The Businesses Travel Survey
Alongside the Forest Inhabitants Travel Survey, FEP is running a survey for businesses sexily titled the Forest Businesses Travel Survey. This is for businesses of all size based in the District to get a baseline understanding of :
- where their workers travel from (or not if a home-based business)
- factors that may influence the options for travel to work
- company policies around travel locally
It takes only 8 minutes to complete.
With a response from as many of our 4,000 businesses as possible, it will paint a clear picture of the level of dependency on cars as the prime means of transport in rural areas. At a time when sales of new petrol/diesel cars will cease in 2030 and issues around electric vehicles are not completely resolved, this is crucial to ensure that rural areas are not further left behind.