Diary of a Sustainable Transport Consultant
Diary of a sustainable transport consultantMathew Eastwood
Self-employed sustainable transport consultant based in Edinburgh.
Monday
I start the week with a pile of paperwork. As a sole trader I'm responsible for every aspect of running my own business, so I'm the IT guy for my website www.eastwoodconsulting.co.uk, the admin assistant, the accountant, the human resources department and, from time to time, I'm also even the tea lady (or gentleman!).
I do three types of work: administrative work, marketing work and paid work. Each is essential in order to run a business and you have to get the balance right. Without paid work you'd very quickly go out of business, but without marketing there would be very little new work and without administrative work you wouldn't be able to invoice clients or pay tax. Admin is my least favorite! After a short break for lunch, I finish off the administrative paperwork and do some preparatory work for a meeting the following day.
Tuesday
On Tuesday I catch an early train to Glasgow. I've worked in sustainable transport for almost six years I've had the opportunity to travel all over Scotland and quite a bit of northern England in the process and have done so without a car. Forward planning, careful management of meeting times and arrangements and the (very) occasional lift from a colleague or client mean that public transport; walking and cycling have served perfectly. Where sometimes it can take a bit longer than travelling by car, the time can usually be spent productively working. In Glasgow I board a train to Paisley and walk the short distance to an industrial site close to Glasgow Airport. The site has good pedestrian provision (I checked using Traveline Scotland and Google Maps the day before). The meeting is to start a Green Fleet Review. Funded by the Scottish Government, the Energy Saving Trust provides public and private sector organisations based in Scotland who operate fleets of more than 20 vehicles less than 3.5 tones with free reviews in order to help them save on operating costs and reduce CO2 emissions - the work is carried out by consultants such as myself. A similar scheme also operates in England and Wales with a threshold of 50 vehicles - check the Energy Saving Trust website for details: http://www.est.org.uk/. We discuss how the client uses fleet vehicles to carry out its work and particular problems they encountered such as particularly high mileage or poor fuel efficiency. They are very keen to reduce fuel consumption so we agree to get started without delay! I grab some lunch and on the journey back to Edinburgh I write up the notes of the meeting. I finish off the working day back at my computer checking emails.
Wednesday
Wednesday is an office day. I spend the morning working on the new Green Fleet Review and the afternoon working on marketing leads. This involves contacting and speaking to potential clients, telling them about my expertise and track record and finding out if there are ways can help them. I generally have one to two months work on the books and will be actively looking for work for subsequent months at the same time as completing current work. This may seem like a very insecure way of working - I certainly felt it was when I first left the public sector. However, even in difficult economic circumstances there is usually work available.
Thursday
On Thursday I meet with another consultancy to discuss some possible subcontracting work. Many engineering or planning based consultancies don't employ someone who specialises in travel planning. Where this is the case they sometimes look to team up with someone with more experience in that area for a particular project. We discuss putting together a bid for a project with a small travel planning element. When bidding for work you have to carefully balance the time required to prepare a proposal with your assessment of how likely you are to win the work and the amount of paid work the project will provide if you are successful. It might take a week to write a detailed proposal and this is a big investment for a small consultancy as it may be time taken away from doing work that actually pays the bills, with no guarantee of success. I spend the rest of the day responding to a few emails and checking over a report.
Friday
I spend Friday morning doing some work for the 2010 Scottish Showcase with several other ACT TravelWise members. It's a free conference organised by Scottish members looking at sustainable transport best practice that will take place in Glasgow on the 29 October this year.
The great thing about consultancy is the variety. One week I'll be looking at the fleet of a company based in Glasgow, the next a travel planning workshop for a church in Aberdeen, a ferry ride for a presentation on the Isle of Bute, a site audit for a new office development in Wick or a smarter choices conference in Newcastle. I'm always meeting new people and developing new working relationships. It keeps the job interesting! You might not think it, but most travel planners are ‘consultants'. When you explain to a site manager how to reduce the number of people travelling to work by car by developing a site-specific travel plan you are consulting! You are using your expert knowledge to improve understanding of a problem and help someone make a decision. After lunch and a trip to the Post Office I spend the afternoon inserting my excel charts into the report and writing the accompanying explanatory text. After a successful working week I'm ready to start my weekend!
