Accessibility and inclusivity: What can we do better?
London, 4th September London: Episode 17 of the Autotrader podcast Women in the driving seat, hosted by Editorial Director, award-winning motoring journalist Erin Baker is released today. The series aims to rip up the rule book on the female-empowerment narrative by sharing personal as well as professional experiences, examining the space where both collide, and the challenges, fears and successes happen.
This episode covers all things inclusion and support, discussing how we can challenge the status quo in car showrooms and how the Motability scheme was designed to bridge a gap in society for those with disabilities.
All episodes in the series feature a Podcast Pit Stop – a quick fire round covering the professional and personal including; Brand new car or beat up banger? Marketing or PR? Town or country?
Join Erin as she puts two awesome allies in the driving seat.
Podcast preview
Lisa Thomas
“Motability scheme was founded about 50 years ago to really address a failure in the market. The reality is despite best intentions the car market is unaffordable and not as accessible as it might be in the mainstream car market. So the scheme was founded to meet the needs of disabled people.”
"At the end of the lease (3-5 years), cars come back to us and we sell them on the open market and any profit we make form that is then reinvested into customers and the features of the scheme.”
“We have 35,000 wheelchair accessible [vehicles], and overall, the accessible vehicle programme is about 100,000 vehicles. If you were to look at it against other lease companies, that would be the 6th largest lease company in the UK.”
“ I think it’s fair to say that obviously our scheme is designed for disabled customers and we are very focused on making sure the right people are in those cars, or being driven by people who are close to them and are legitimately caring for them.”
“That level of misuse is really really low. It’s no different to that of any other business or any scenario. I guess the bit unfair is that then eclipses for the vast majority of people who have a great experience on the scheme and we enable them to live normal, regular lives access society.
Liz Warner
“Different kind is a retailer, we’re online, we’ve now got a shop, and the majority of out business is corporate gifting with purpose. It came out of comic relief.”
“We have a bakery and sell the most amazing cheese biscuits that go in our hampers from a bakery in Bristol that employs people with Down’s Syndrome and Autism. They’re all about employability.”
“We’re trying to say if you’re going to shop, or gift, or do corporate gifting, why give money to the usual suspects when you could give a really nice candle in a beautiful box made by young people with health issues.
“I love driving, and I am a customer. I’ve had one really good buying experience in my whole life, and it’s the only time I’ve been sold a car by a woman. The showroom was amazingly family friendly, I’d got 3 children, two of which have learning differences. They provided entertainment and amusement and snacks while I went on a test drive, it was brilliant.”
“My other experiences, I feel generally like I’m talked down to. I’ve spoken to friends and they’ve said ‘I feel like garages aren’t for me. I feel talked down to and I feel like I’m slightly mansplained every time I go to the garage. I might not have the knowledge but I’m made to feel a bit stupid and I don’t know if I’m being ripped off.”
“If there was a garage run by women for women, even if it was in Cornwall I would drive. And I don’t live anywhere near Cornwall!”
“I just don’t know why it’s so slow to wake up to the fact that we’re [women] nearly half of your customers!”
“I just feel like I’m going to be ripped off, I don’t know where to trust. I’d really like to go to a garage as I did and be met by a woman, because I’d trust her more.”
“It just seems to me like an opportunity missed that mainstream driving instructors could do some additional training to make them actually able to teach people to drive.”
Notes to editors
ABOUT ERIN BAKER
Erin Baker is an award-winning motoring journalist and Editorial Director of Auto Trader. She writes a monthly driving column for Vogue, is a World Car of the Year judge, consults for Goodwood and hosts She's Electric, a national roadshow bringing women and electric cars together. Erin is passionate about narrowing the gender gap, both in the automotive industry itself and between car brands and female consumers, through more targeted language, marketing and experiences. She is a single mother of two boys.
ABOUT LIZ WARNER
Liz is one of the Founders and CEOof Different Kind, a retail business that sells only goods that do good, which has just opened its first store. Each product is “different“ - stylish, exceptionally well made and “kind”, in that it seeks to change the world. Liz is a passionate advocate for social business.
She was CEO of Comic Relief, founder of TV production company Betty, which she ran for nearly 14 years and which made The Undateables for which they won broadcast diversity champion. At channel 4 she was commissioning editor responsible for grand designs, location location, river cottage, Nigella and more (mmm and the first Big Brother - sorry about that – she says)
She is a fired up, big hearted rebel Who wants to change the world. Mother to three young people aged 21, 22 and 23 and married to a very resilient man. Two hens, two cats and a mother with dementia completes the home that never seems to sleep!
She spends a lot of time in her car … it has been her office, sanctuary and thinking place ..
ABOUT LISA THOMAS
Lisa Thomas is Chief Marketing Officer at Motability Operations where she has been for 3 years. Prior to this, Lisa was Global Chief Brand Officer for Virgin Group following a long career in advertising. She is a proud member and ex-president of Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership and has held several non- executive roles. Lisa is married to Giles, with two almost grown-up sons, Milo and Morgan, two even more grown-up stepchildren, Zac and Darcey, and an Australian Labradoodle, Scout. She is always on the go, seeking out new challenges and is never happier than when surrounded by great friends with a spicy margarita in her hand.
ABOUT AUTO TRADER
Auto Trader Group plc is the UK’s largest automotive platform. It listed on the London Stock Exchange in March 2015 and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index.
Auto Trader’s purpose is Driving Change Together. Responsibly. Auto Trader is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture, it aims to build stronger partnerships with its customers and use its voice and influence to drive more environmentally friendly vehicle choices.
With the largest number of car buyers and the largest choice of trusted stock, Auto Trader’s marketplace sits at the heart of the UK car buying process. That marketplace is built on an industry-leading technology and data platform, which is increasingly used across the automotive industry. Auto Trader is continuing to bring more of the car buying journey online, creating an improved buying experience, whilst enabling all its retailer partners to sell vehicles online.
Auto Trader publishes a monthly used car Retail Price Index which is based on pricing analysis of circa 800,000 unique vehicles. The same data that powers the Index is used by the Office for National Statistics to make the UK’s official measures of inflation more robust, as well as the Bank of England to feed the broader UK economic indicators.
For more information, please visit: plc.autotrader.co.uk
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