Research conducted by academics from the University of Aberdeen has been shortlisted in the Scottish Transport Awards 2007 to be held this evening (Monday, October 29) at the Hilton Hotel, Glasgow.
The Transport to Employment (T2E) scheme is a simple method of accessing work, and reducing the barriers in gaining employment. It provides low cost transport to the workplace, childcare or training, whenever other transport cannot match individuals' needs.
Involvement, through the EC-funded EMIRES project with academics [Professor John Nelson & Dr Steve Wright, then at Newcastle University but now both at the new Centre for Transport Research at the University of Aberdeen and James Cooper, Napier University] specialising in the design and delivery of flexible public transport services led to the development of the Transport to Employment (T2E) scheme which is a novel solution involving shared taxis.
A detailed evaluation of T2E in the Highlands (completed for Highland Council in July this year) was conducted by Professor Nelson & Dr Wright, who have been invited to conduct further evaluation work over the coming six months.
Professor Nelson said: "Lack of transport is recognised as a significant barrier to job seekers finding work in rural areas. This is particularly evident in areas of Highland Scotland where populations are low and tend to be dispersed over wide areas, often a considerable distance from the available job opportunities."
An earlier study conducted in 2003 identified that job seekers hold realistic views about the need to commute, with over half of those from the Sutherland area willing to travel more than 40km to and from work on a daily basis, but only a fifth with access to private transport. The problem is compounded by the generally infrequent and often non-existent public transport provision outside the larger settlements.
As a result, some areas of the Highlands exhibit unemployment levels between two and three times the national average, for example, official NOMIS labour market statistics reveal the wards of Seaboard to the south-east of Tain, Brora, and Sutherland Central have unemployment rates (2001) of 14.8%, 12.7% and 11.8%, compared to the GB average of 5.8% (based on numbers of economically active persons of working age). At the same time employers, especially in the thriving tourism industry, in the coastal towns of Dornoch, Golspie and Brora were having trouble filling job vacancies.
With a supply of active job seekers outside the immediate vicinity, but within 20 miles of these job locations and no appropriate public transport provision, the Economic Development Department within Highland Council decided to look at reducing these transport barriers. Involvement in a European funded project called 'EMIRES' between 2002 and 2004 established partnerships with the key stakeholders in access to employment in the Sutherland region and identified more specifically the gaps in the public transport network for accessing work locations. It became clear that neither alterations to existing services nor introduction of new bus services were suitable as demands were insufficient, often at unsociable hours and too dispersed to justify the cost of a bus contract. A cheaper solution with wider geographic coverage available at any time of day was required.
Involvement, through the EMIRES project with academics specialising in the design and delivery of flexible public transport services led to the development of T2E. Following a successful pilot in East Sutherland the T2E scheme has now been operating in East and Central Sutherland, Easter Ross and Southern Caithness for the last 18 months and has been implemented more recently in Dumfrieshire, on the Isle of Skye and in Northern Ireland.
Funding for the services has been provided by the European Social Fund, Scottish Executive, Working For Families, and Highland Council and there is partner involvement from, amongst others, Jobcentre Plus, Sutherland Enterprise and Highland Opportunity.
Dr Wright added: "The principal goals of the service were to overcome the barriers met by persons who did not have opportunities for learning and employment, to increase childcare initiatives to support access to work, and to improve opportunities for women. This was to be achieved by developing a solution requiring minimum ongoing financial support.
"The scheme was therefore designed to be as sustainable as possible by minimising costs and maximising revenues. Routes were planned which enabled and encouraged co-ordination of trip demands onto the same vehicle and negotiated tariffs with taxi firms achieved a 40% reduction on standard Highland Council tariff rates."
A detailed evaluation by the academics revealed that transport was provided by eight local taxi firms on 20 main routes with an average route distance of 11 miles. During the period of the evaluation 60 users benefited from the T2E service, and there have now been over 100 users of the service in total in the last 18 months.
Professor Nelson continued: "Surveys conducted with over a third of the total number of users revealed ¾ of respondents have had to turn down job opportunities in the past due to a lack of transport and T2E has enabled over 95% of respondents to gain employment which, otherwise, they would have been unable to access. 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."
The T2E service has been shortlisted in the 'Travel to School and Work' category at this evening's event.