Future Office Commute - Is it about Manage your own commute (MYOC) or it is about Managed Commute?
Manish Raj
Strategic Sales Leader I Expert in Travel, SaaS, Mobility, and Corporate Transportation I Driving Growth & Customer Success I (Views are personal)
Hyderabad, India, witnessed the 7th FM summit on the 31st of May, 2019 organized by TFMC at the picturesque Anvaya Convention Hall. Among various topics discussed from minimum wages to Fire & Disaster management to Safety and Security at IT corridors, one of the topic that kept repeating itself in all discussions and debates, was related to Employee Satisfaction and challenges and solutions with regard to Office commute and last-mile connectivity. Hyderabad Metro Rail has significantly gained prominence due to its connectivity to major IT parks and areas of prominence and some of the Developers providing the last mile connectivity to its users from the closest Metro stations. L&T was lauded for its efficiency in bringing the Metro in motion and in turn L&T went on to appreciate the support provided by major Real Estate developers who supported the initiative.
In all, Office commute remained a significant area of discussion and it still remains a major concern for Companies who engage large workforce - IT or Non-IT, the mode of transportation may vary from Cabs, SUVs, Buses or public transport like Metro Rail. Also, it was reflected that not all major cities have a similar concentration of companies in one significant location, unlike Hyderabad or Gurgaon. Bengaluru, for example, has multiple IT parks and corridors spread across the city, apart from Industrial areas. Automation has become a key aspect in managing such large employee daily commute challenges and apart from just managing Cabs, there are manufacturing companies who engage Buses in their fleet and are depending and looking for such automation that can help them in keeping an eye on their daily transport management and to keep a control on expense, meet the audit guidelines and keeping a hawk-eye on the employee safety and security parameters. Technology is the key now to employee transportation and players like #MoveInSync Technology is leading from the front in bringing automation, with its implementation designed within the unique RCE framework. Mitigating risks, reducing operational cost and improving employee satisfaction. (Did you know that a normal working professional spends 7% of their life in just traveling to work - now that's a lot of time!)
Improve efficiency, bring transparency, automate the process - move away from manual processes, cost savings, women safety, meeting compliance, are not just words but are the buzzwords which are always being discussed, debated and improved upon, by all Facility Management professionals across companies in partnership with Technology companies like Moveinsync and their transport vendors. To give better and improved experience in Office Commute, such companies also go on to offer full-stack providing end to end solutions in Employee transportation.
The other noticeable mode of transport is the mobility solutions that are making its presence felt are the E-bikes, cycles, etc. While the concept is novel and very successful in cities like Shanghai and many global cities, the major challenge in its execution is keeping a track of the asset. It's becoming an eyesore with such bikes left carelessly across the cities by the users without any regard to the vehicle or its upkeep. The batteries and GPS are systematically being removed and the vehicles are left dumped at places that are prone to accidents for other vehicle users. It's to be seen how successful this will be in the future and how much is too much for such vehicles to be left abandoned across the cities and the need to have dump yards for such inventories. A well dressed office goer rushing for work may still be looking at office commute solutions then paddling to work in cities with harsh weather and road conditions.
As the transport industry is now increasingly going Electric, it will be exciting to see how the same mode of transport with different sources of energy in it, is going to electrify the customer needs, reducing carbon footprints and helping in making the cities more clean, green and smart. Electric vehicles are expected to become mainstream in probably a decade, making cities less noisy with cleaner air. With improved public transport facilities, autonomous cars in making, probably personal cars will become thing of the past... Welcome to Tomorrow! Probably it already arrived a few years ago.
@moveinsync @employeetransportation