1. Steve Wright s.d.wright@abdn.ac.uk
T2E – Transport to Employment Reducing lack of transport as a barrier to gaining employment in rural communities
Steve Wright

2. T2E - In a nutshell Objectives
Improve transport access to employment in East Sutherland, Easter Ross and Southern Caithness
Develop solution requiring minimum ongoing financial support
Evaluate sustainability of the routes provided and assess the wider benefits of the service to society

3. T2E - In a nutshell Startup funding provided by
European Social Fund
Scottish Executive
Working For Families
Highland Council
Service planning - Taxi Studies Group at Napier University
Booking Office services - ‘T2E Ltd’ established
Transport provided by numerous local taxi firms
Evaluation - TORG at Newcastle University

4. Contents Why East Sutherland area ? EMIRES project
Operational aspects of the T2E scheme
Service design + management
Booking office provision
Transport provision
Evaluation
Level of use
Stakeholder satisfaction (Users / Employers / Taxi operators)
Assessment of costs/benefits and sustainability
Conclusions and what’s next

5. East Sutherland area
Sutherland is the least densely populated county in the UK
Regional economy: main industries include tourism, call and contact centres; construction; agriculture.

6. East Sutherland area
POPULATION
Approx 8,000
Dornoch 1200
Golspie 1400
Brora 1100
Lairg 900
Bonar Bridge / Ardgay 400
Tain 3,500
Alness 5,000
Invergordon 4,000
DISTANCES
Inverness – Dornoch miles
Tain - Dornoch miles
Golspie - Dornoch miles
Lairg – Dornoch miles
Bonar Bridge – Dornoch 14 miles
Golspie – Lairg miles
Golspie - Brora miles
Brora – Helmsdale miles
Generally, the main employment opportunities are located in or near the coastal towns of Dornoch, Golspie and Tain, which are popular tourist destinations and main centres of activity.

7. Location of unemployed
Source: NOMIS official labour market statistics (

8. Joseph Rowntree Foundation study (JRF, 2003 - Wired For Work
Joseph Rowntree Foundation study (JRF, Wired For Work? ICT and Job Seeking in Rural Areas)
190 face to face interviews and 6 focus groups conducted between 2001 and 2003
job seekers hold realistic views about the need to commute
51% from the Sutherland area willing to travel more than 40 km to and from work on a daily basis
61% of job seekers in Sutherland held a driving licence
private transport ownership amongst job seekers very low (21%)
So jobseekers willing to travel but don’t have own transport

9. Joseph Rowntree Foundation study (JRF, 2003 - Wired For Work
Joseph Rowntree Foundation study (JRF, Wired For Work? ICT and Job Seeking in Rural Areas)
ICT plays a growing role in job search activities
remote rural communities are much more likely to use the Internet to look for work
Job search sites return vacancies but without own car can’t get to them – frustrating and gives perception they are not useful so job seekers stop using them
jobseekers willing to use internet to find vacancies but also want to know if they can access them by PT
EMIRES Project

10. EU EMIRES project
Matching job search and transport information in a rural area
(demonstration site East Sutherland)
Jobcentre Plus nationwide vacancy database
National Public Transport database
Sutherland PT database (inc. DRT and post-bus services)
Log of searches with no PT availability (postcode sector to sector)
Mapping gaps in provision
bespoke journey planning software
EMIRES website front end

11. Job locations and labour supply
EMIRES highlighted job vacancies remain unfilled in coastal towns of Dornoch, Golspie and Tain
Generally low skilled jobs in tourist industry or call centres
Supply of active job seekers outside immediate vicinity but within 20 miles
higher land values in the coastal towns prevent the job seeking labour force from moving closer
Creates a need for travel BUT gaps in public transport provision restricting access to employment
It is from this project that the T2E concept developed
initial user needs were identified,
initial partnerships established,
service design ideas nurtured.

12. General people movements required to match job supply and demand

13. Existing public transport services in East Sutherland
Train
Intercity Bus
Local Bus
Scool Bus
Dial-a-Ride
Post Bus
Taxis
Generally do not provide appropriate level of service to match job seekers to vacancies

14. T2E service characteristics
small numbers of travellers
often demanding travel at same time from and to dispersed locations
sometimes unsociable hours of work
new bus services inappropriate
use of several small vehicles as and when needed
Taxis !
sustainable
acceptable
legal
devise method of utilising local taxi firms

15. Design Requirements (1)
Sustainable – minimise costs and maximise revenues
Plan routes which enable and encourage coordination of trip demands onto same vehicle
consider known trip demands in time and space
consider potential of route to satisfy future demands
consider potential of route to attract existing employees
Negotiated tariffs with taxi firms
Achieved 40% reduction on standard tariff rates £1 per mile
Same rate regardless of passengers carried
No retainer
Model for achieving sustainability is based on 3 users sharing ride with an average trip length of 10 miles
Cost
10 miles x £1 per mile =£10
Revenue
35p per mile x 10 miles x 3 passengers = £10.50

16. Design Requirements (2)
Acceptable
job seekers
Job seekers travel free for first 4 months
After this pay equivalent of a bus fare (35p per mile – capped at £3.50)
Job Seekers pay T2E monthly in arrears. Billed only for trips made.
flexible routes – access to childcare desired en-route to work
taxi firms
Taxi drivers don’t handle bookings or fares – T2E booking office deal with this.
Low technology requirements
Provided weekly route itinerary by fax + . Sent monthly billing forms to sign for payment direct from Highland Council.
Employers
Flexibility to change work rotas in knowledge staff can still get to work

17. Design Requirements (3)
Legal
Must abide by regulations on shared use of private hire vehicles
Section 11 of the Transport Act 1985 makes provision for the carriage at separate fares in licensed taxis and private hire vehicles of passengers who have booked their journeys in advance.
Allows changes to route at short notice

18. Design Requirements (4)
Numerous local private hire taxi firms (often small and without proper office – mobile)
Needed mechanism to co-ordinate routes and allocate demands to most suitable taxi
Needed single number for job seekers to ring to receive information and to make bookings
Needed standard way of billing and making payments
Need for a centralised booking office
Central service planning / route development
Co-ordinated booking and scheduling of trips
Co-ordinated billing and payments
Information and Promotion
Initially Napier University
Now ‘T2E Ltd’
(private company with charitable status)

19. Booking Office Provision (1)
The T2E booking office
dedicated phone-line – the T2E Hotline – charged at local rates
staffed by from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., 5 days per week
calls made outside these hours are diverted to an answering service, which is also operational when the T2E Hotline number is engaged.
separate emergency number available between 0600 and 2200 hours, 7 days per week.
T2E web-site offers on-line booking for registered users (

20. Booking Office Provision (2)
Individual clients can be introduced to the scheme in a number of ways:
Direct Contact - including contact initiated through published media, the T2E website, the Highland Council website and service points.
Referred Contact - potential users placed in contact with the scheme by the Jobcentre Plus, Working for Families or by employers providing information at the point of interview or first contact between employer and potential employee
Personal Contact - whereby potential users are introduced to the scheme by existing user recommendations

21. Booking Office Provision (3)

22. Transport Provision (1)
8 taxi firms
20 routes provided
Average route distance 11 miles
Agreed tariff of £1 per mile
No retainer
No add-ons for multiple passengers

23. Transport Provision (2) Routes provided (June 2006 - March2007)

24. Contents Evaluation Level of use Stakeholder satisfaction
Why East Sutherland area ?
EMIRES project
Operational aspects of the T2E scheme
Service design + management
Booking office provision
Transport provision
Evaluation
Level of use
Stakeholder satisfaction
(Users / Employers / Taxi operators)
Assessment of costs/benefits and sustainability
Conclusions and what’s next

25. Evaluation summary
The methodology employed in the evaluation consisted of
a detailed analysis of the booking and invoicing data collected for the 10 month period from June 2006 – March 2007
combination of surveys to gauge the levels of effectiveness, acceptability and reliability of the service. Consisting of;
structured questionnaires with users
structured questionnaires with providers (of employment and transport) and
semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders

26. Evaluation results- use of service
Generally the T2E services meet with the principle funding criteria which were
to overcome the barriers met by young people who do not have opportunities for learning and employment,
childcare initiatives to support access to work, and
to improve opportunities for women
No of users now exceeds 100.
A constant churn of users dropping out of the service and being replaced by new users is evident.

27. Routes provided (June 2006 - March2007)

28. Route details

29. Av. route costs and revenues over time

30. User Surveys
Surveys conducted with over a third of the total number of users revealed:
70 % claimed that public transport was available to their place of work but at unsuitable times while 30 % claimed that there was no public transport at all to their place of work
¾ of respondents have had to turn down job opportunities in the past due to a lack of transport
T2E has enabled over 95% of respondents to gain employment which, otherwise, they would have been unable to access.
45 % were employed before T2E, 33 % were unemployed and 22 % were in full-time education
More than half of the T2E users who had been unemployed prior to using T2E were long-term unemployed (>24months)
All respondents reported that they were happy with the destinations offered by T2E and that their T2E journey operated at a suitable time for them
Only 1 user commented that the service was too expensive
All respondents said they would recommend the service to others and, in fact, almost half of the respondents have already recommended T2E to someone who now uses the service

31. Former Users
Over 60% of former users felt the service was very reliable and had no problems. The remainder thought the service was somewhat reliable or had no strong opinion.
The following reasons were given for stopping use of the service:
3 moved job
2 moved house
2 bought a car
1 changed personal circumstances
1 family illness prevented user going to work
2 work was seasonal
1 decided to live on premises
1 user commented that service was too expensive, but also stated this was not their main reason for stopping use

32. Taxi operator surveys
The Taxi operators who responded both agreed or strongly agreed that the T2E service provided a steady income and greater stability.
Both had provided more working hours to members of staff and one had employed more drivers as a direct result of increased work provided by T2E.
taxi firms reported that T2E provided double the income they would otherwise have received for the times they were involved in T2E journeys – a 20% increase in income but at the sacrifice of 10% of revenue from other sources (although some of this is picked up at other times of day)
the T2E service has been a welcome addition to the taxi trade – especially during winter months

33. Employers surveys
half the respondents stated it was easier to fill vacancies as a direct result of T2E.
66% believed that the flexibility of the service had eased the burden of sorting out work rosters
Over 85% of respondents thought that the T2E service operated at times which fit with shift patterns and working hours
Over 70% thought that as a result of T2E there was a greater likelihood of them appointing someone from the local area
Employers, generally, agreed that their businesses have benefited from T2E on many levels, specifically: improved staff attendance; easier management of staff rotas; greater likelihood of appointing staff from the local area. However, the majority of employers are reluctant to contribute to the costs of the service, even though the introduction of it has resulted in a reduction in their own expenses.

34. Stakeholders interviews
The involvement of the stakeholder organisations and the roles of the individuals interviewed within these organisations included providing financial backing, steering group membership, involvement in designing service delivery, contact point and referral agent for job seekers, liaising with employers, negotiating with taxi operators and promotion of project.
All respondents felt, with conviction, the service has been effective at improving access to employment?
flexibility of the service was highlighted as a major advantage in regard to accessing childcare
All stakeholders aware of the costs to users thought they were acceptable and every stakeholder was of the opinion that T2E provides a service that job seekers could not receive anywhere else.

35. Survey summary
In general, the service is viewed very positively by its users and employers / stakeholders
The cost/revenue evaluation suggests that overall, on the established routes, just over 20% of costs are being recovered, requiring 80% support.
It is important to realise that the value of a route can not be determined solely by its level of subsidy.

36. SROI Analysis need for an alternative form of cost / benefit analysis
accounts for the social and economic benefits to individual users
not simply assessing the sustainability of the service based on the balance sheet of supplier costs and revenues generated.
apply assessment technique known as Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis
gain some measure of these social benefits and economic benefits to individuals

37. SROI analysis
SROI captures the economic value of social benefits by translating social objectives into financial measures of benefit.
Measured benefits arising from T2E include those to individual clients and to the State.
A monetary value is established in relation to the social benefits of increased employment to the client (based upon net increased income, i.e. client’s wages minus lost welfare benefits and increased taxes).
The monetary value to the State is assessed in terms of the reduction in welfare payments offset against increased tax contribution.
Comparing this value of benefits to the investment made produces an SROI ratio.

38. SROI analysis – indicators used

39. Drop-off and Add-on
Clients who have stopped using the T2E service (drop-off rate 75%) have not necessarily stopped working;
some have bought a car to travel to work,
others have moved home in order to be closer to their place of work.
T2E has helped them get started in employment until they felt established and financially stable enough to make the commitment to either purchase a car or move closer to work.
For these instances, the benefits of T2E in terms of increased income, tax revenue and reduced benefits payments continue without the cost of supplying transport.
Requires introduction of an ‘add-on’ factor which allows the analysis to more closely reflect the lasting benefits of the service to society.
user survey responses indicate that approximately one third of the users who stop using the T2E service (75% of all users) continue in the same employment
which results in an add-on rate of 25%.

40. SROI calculations

41. SROI Results
values of total annual benefit adjusted –using discount rate of 3.5%- to produce the Net Present Value (NPV) of benefits
‘value added’ measures the value that the project has created through its activities (the difference between the NPV of benefits and the NPV of investment)
‘SROI ratio’ measures the value of the benefits relative to the costs of achieving those benefits (the ratio between the NPV of benefits to the NPV of investment)
SROI ratio of 3.2 means that for every £1 of investment, £3.20 worth of social benefits is generated.
Any value of SROI ratio above 1 is generally attractive from an investment viewpoint.

42. Can the service be described as Sustainable?

43. Contents Why East Sutherland area ? EMIRES project
Operational aspects of the T2E scheme
Service design + management
Booking office provision
Transport provision
Evaluation
Level of use
Stakeholder satisfaction (Users / Employers / Taxi operators)
Assessment of costs/benefits and sustainability
Conclusions and what’s next

44. Stakeholder views
All stakeholders thought the T2E service offered good or very good value for money to the users
those that committed a financial or human resource towards the operation of the service felt they received very good value return for their input.
Stakeholders thought that T2E improved community cohesion as it “put money into local pockets” but it was commented that the whole community does not benefit from the service as its use is restricted to particular groups.
Stakeholders were very keen that the added value social benefits of the service was considered in value for money assessments.
Additionally stakeholders also commented on the harder to quantify benefits to individuals of improved quality of life gained from increased opportunities, self esteem gained from securing employment, increased spending power and related freedoms and felt these were also attributable to the T2E service.

45. Stakeholder views
the service should continue to receive subsidy from government/local authority funds as it is providing a necessary service to the public in the absence of any alternative public transport
all stakeholders envisaged continuing their involvement with T2E in the future subject to their organisations receiving continued funding themselves
changes stakeholders would like to see
a relaxation of eligibility criteria to open the service up to more groups of the population
to use the same model to provide access to health care/social sectors.
employers to become more involved and to take some responsibility for changes to shifts and to contribute towards costs of the service

46. Transferability
few barriers to transferability were foreseen as the model for delivery is not location specific as it uses a central booking office and subcontractors to deliver the service
stakeholders felt that T2E could operate effectively in most other areas of the Highlands and specifically Fort William, Wester Ross, Lochaber and the Islands.
however, introduction of the service in certain areas, especially the west coast, should proceed with caution due to the long distances involved in travel and a lack of transport providers in some of the more remote areas
other rural areas and semi-rural areas of the UK were also seen as potentially suitable for delivery of the service
the willingness of key partner engagement was seen as essential and the involvement of an individual ‘champion’ is viewed as very important to the success of schemes like T2E.

47. Current plans T2E Northern Ireland running since July2007
On-going operation of T2E in East Sutherland/Easter Ross/Southern Caithness
investigate revisions to routes provided to increase occupancy rates
Application to Big Lottery for funding beyond 2008
T2E Northern Ireland running since July2007

48. Next Steps
Based on the evaluation of the T2E service in East Sutherland/Easter Ross/Southern Caithness a rule base has been developed for establishing the application of T2E services elsewhere
Identify the need for the service
An identifiable number of job vacancies which are difficult to fill
Identify types of job and job seeker
A sizable number of job seekers >3 miles but less than 20 miles from these job vacancies
Ideally, sufficient job vacancies will be clustered in an area or along a corridor which define the destination and route. The establishment of core routes between areas of high unemployment and areas with large numbers of unfilled jobs or large numbers of employers is important if multiple occupancy T2E routes are to be generated
A lack of alternative transport provision in the area – especially public transport operating between the locations with job seekers and the locations of job vacancies
Establish the supply for the service (must be sufficient taxi firms based locally)
Maximise benefits - It is important to provide journeys to work (via childcare when necessary) for new job seekers rather than for those already in work
Provides other advice on
Setting of Fares
Establishing multiple occupancy routes
Maximum length of route
Consultation with Employers
Partnership working
Develop this advice and create a tool which automates as much of the process as possible
GIS based tool which presents spatial data on
demographics,
employment, job densities + job vacancies,
public transport
Investigate capabilities of accessibility modelling tools for this purpose

49. Acknowledgement http://www.t2e.org.uk
It was unanimous amongst stakeholders that the drive and enthusiasm of James Cooper has been paramount in the success of the service in Sutherland and Easter Ross.
The added value of the service to individuals is encapsulated by the following stakeholder quote…..
“It cannot be stressed enough that this service changes people lives, lifts them out of poverty by enabling them to go to work. It is especially important to consider the [accessibility] factors of living in a rural area with bad transport infrastructure. T2E enables people to remain in the area they choose to live in by breaking down this barrier to work.”