Are you fed-up of your winter morning commute? Tired of having to get up ten minutes early to de-ice the car? And sick of sitting in stationary stationary traffic or on crammed public transport with all manner of airborne viruses ready knock the stuffing out of you?
If so, it’s high time you looked at ways to avoid the morning commute.
The first winter frosts have finally arrived, the mornings are darker and colder, and getting up each morning is that little bit more difficult – so why not try to avoid the usual morning commute as much as possible?
Work from home
The best way to avoid the morning commute is to avoid going into work at all, so why not look into the possibility of working from home? Even if you do just one day a week away from the office, it can work wonders for your mindset and your productivity. It can also help your employer to cut their overheads – the less time you’re in the office, the less they have to spend on lighting, heating and powering your equipment. And if everyone has a work from home day, leaving the office empty, this can cut running costs considerably.
If you’re worried about asking your boss for flexible working, employers are now legally-bound to consider all requests to work from home, and must give a valid reason for turning down any such requests – you can find out more by reading our blog on The UK’s new flexible working laws.
In order to work from home effectively and efficiently, you’ll need equipment that is comparable to that you use in the office, and all office servers should be reached via a secure VPN connection, and never connect via unsecured, public WiFi networks.
Get a lift to work
If you can’t cut out going to the office, why not try to cut out driving there, and see if you can share a ride with any colleagues who live close by? If a number of staff from your workplace live close to each other, and all have cars, it could be worth all clubbing together to share the driving – if four of you car share, this means you’ll only have to drive to work one in every four weeks.
It seems us Brits are a bit reluctant to car share though, as figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 15.3 million people in England and Wales drive themselves to work each day in cars and vans, while only 1.4 million go to work as passengers in those vehicles. That works out at an occupancy rate of around 1.1 person per vehicle.
So, if there’s no one in the workplace to share a ride with, you could check always out carpooling websites, such as https://www.blablacar.co.uk/ or https://liftshare.com/uk
Walk or cycle to work
If you live a short drive from the office, it might be worth walking or cycling there instead – getting out and about on a cold morning might not seem such an appealing idea right now, but it’s a great way to get some gentle exercise in and get to work with a clear head.
And if you choose to cycle, you might even be able to get a tax break on your bike via https://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/ or your employer.
Have you manage to ditch the daily commute? Or taken to another mode of transport to get to and from work? We’d love you to share your experiences in the comments section, below…
