Will congestion charging boost teleworking?
Published: 11 Feb 2003 13:10 GMT
There are signs that London's impending congestion charge, being keenly watched by other cities that would like to bring in similar schemes, could alter the way we do business. Some high-tech companies -- who admittedly have a vested interest -- are claiming that the use of teleworking technology and audio and videoconferencing services is already on the up.
Genesys Conferencing, for example, reckons demand for its services nearly doubled in the third quarter of 2002 compared to the same period last year and attributes that in part to the ever-increasing pain and expense of commuting into London.
Nigel Dunn, the company's vice president for North Europe, said: "In the last couple of years, business in the South-East has had to contend with the strikes on the London Underground, the firemen's dispute and ongoing rail difficulties."
"Apart from the added costs for individual car drivers, no one really knows how the congestion charge will affect traffic levels in London. Transport for London only has broad projections of the number of people who will abandon their cars for public transport."
But he claims the growth in demand for conferencing and declining peak time traffic in London already points to changes in commuting and work patterns. According to Transport for London data, an average of 122,000 cars came into London at peak times in 2001, an 11 percent fall on 2000's average of 137,000.
Dunn said: "The global audio and Web conferencing market grew annually at 20 to 25 percent through the 1990s but current growth rates for automated audio conferencing indicate that something deeper, such as the replacement of business travel, is taking place."
He added: "Aside of increasing operating costs, the congestion charge is adding to the daily travel difficulties which London and the South-East are facing. It will be a further spur to UK companies which are considering different ways of travelling to work or, perhaps more fundamentally, reassessing their daily working arrangements."
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