Services

Spotlight on SRITC Services - how to support a social enterprise

As a social enterprise, SRITC has developed two services with will be of interest if you are looking to engage with rural organisations and people and secondly plan on running an event in a rural location.  The first is called Gather Greenly and is a service that we provide to village halls and rural venues such as hotels or to organisations running events, when it comes to transportation. Secondly, Rural and Island Stakeholder Engagement we offer our services to engage directly with rural communities, organisations, business and indeed transport service providers. To find out more information please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or scroll down.

Gather Greenly 

Often travel to event locations can be a challenge or finding local accommodation locally that doesn't require the use of the car, so many then opt to take or hire a car to attend the event.  Gather Greenly is designed to help minimise car use, improve the customer experience whilst also providing a sustainable, support local ethos.  Gather Greenly can be seen as a concierge travel service where SRITC work with the organiser or location e.g. village hall to provide attendees with choices in travel which are tailored to their needs. This in turn helps support local businesses and communities.  Two Case Studies are outlined below.  Gather Greenly is tailored to your needs and as SRITC is a social enterprise, is not only affordable but helps support Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.

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SRITC Gathering

The Gathering is an annual conference hosted by SRITC. It brings transport consultants, operators, community organisations and local government together to discuss the challenges and innovations in the rural transport space. In 2023, we hosted our conference in Boat a Garten for 80 in-person attendees. It was our first in-person event since the pandemic. To make it dynamic and a celebration of the end of COVID-19, we arranged for events at four different locations stretching from Boat a Garten to Granton on Spey. As a transport conference, we also wanted attendees to travel sustainably. This is what led to the development of Gather Greenly. We arrange buses from Stagecoach to transport attendees from the train station to local accommodation and conference locations.

We also created a carshare group chat with attendees who were open to car sharing. This helped connect attendees ahead of the event, and many attendees posted photos of their journeys and experiences at the conference on the group page. It also resulted in shared journeys to the event from attendees who originally thought about using their cars.

Scottish Rural and Island Parliament (SRIP)

SRIP is a nationwide event organized by Scottish Rural Action (SRA) to unite community stakeholders on policy issues affecting rural areas. In November 2023, the event convened in Fort William, drawing over 400 attendees.

SRITC assisted SRA by managing transportation to, from, and during the event. We facilitated car-sharing for over 70 attendees through a dedicated group chat, connecting individuals based on their transport needs identified in our survey.

Additionally, we coordinated inter-conference transport with five buses provided by Shiel Buses and Stagecoach, serving ten locations. This involved seamless coordination with drivers, attendees, and venues to ensure timely and efficient transportation for all participants.

Rural and Island Stakeholder Engagement

SRITC has a proven track record in bringing together a wide variety of rural stakeholders for engagement in relevant projects or consultations.  During 2022, online and interactive workshops took placed to review the National Transport Strategy (NTS2) for the Scottish Government.  The methodology and an outline of those involved can be found in our report (add link).  In addition, we have brought together a growing ecosystem around the theme of young people in transport.  We are able to offer:

  • Rural and Island stakeholder mapping
  • Rural and Island desktop research
  • Design and deliver of workshop/s (online and in person) 
  • Facilitation of workshops (online and in person)
  • Validate rural transport trends 
  • Provide insights into the social value contribution of the event