Carpooling/Ridesharing
What are the benefits to me as an employer?
Increased carpooling among employees offers businesses several benefits. Key among them is reduced need for parking which can offer significant savings if you currently pay for or subsidize employee parking. Also, employees who carpool are shown to have less commuter-related stress, improved morale, and greater productivity. Along the Wasatch Front where carpool lanes are becoming increasingly common, carpoolers can more easily avoid traffic congestion.
What can my company do?
- Survey employees to determine interest in carpool benefits, making sure to accurately represent potential savings to employees. This survey should include what kinds of incentives would make them more likely to carpool. These incentives can include things such as preferential parking, or reduced cost or free parking. The Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) provides a Commuter Mode Survey in their Transportation Demand Tool Kit, which can be ordered at www.actweb.org.
- Contact UTA Rideshare (www.utacommuter.com) to take advantage of their carpool matching software.
- Consider vanpooling options. UTA's Rideshare operates a vanpool program where employees form a commuting group using a UTA Rideshare vehicle. Tax benefits are available to employers who contribute up to $115/month to employees' transit benefits tax free.
- Offer employees a Guaranteed Ride Home benefit. This can be accomplished relatively inexpensively by simply paying for cab fare when an emergency or sickness arises. In reality, Guaranteed Rides Home are not often used by employees and the cost of providing this security is minimal.
Case Study: Novell, Provo, Utah
Novell's vanpooling program includes 9 UTA vans carrying 10% of their workforce from areas in both Salt Lake County and Utah County. Enrollment has tripled in the past year and employee morale and retention have improved since its initiation.
Source: Human Resource Department, Novell
Case Study: Walt Disney Company, Southern California
Currently, about one-third of employees participate regularly in Disney's comprehensive Travel Demand Management program, which includes ridesharing. Some of the benefits Disney has realized from this program include:
- Reduction in size of parking structure due to level of rideshare participation. ($2M in savings)
- Significant cost savings of $200,000+ by hiring outside consultants to provide commuting data in development planning.
- Competitiveness in hiring.
- Promotion of the company as environmentally aware.
Source: ACT USA and Linda Ballew, Manager Corporate Commuter Transportation, Walt Disney Company
Case Study: Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Cornell has a campus population of about 30,000, with about 9,000 of that being faculty and staff. With only 10,000 parking spaces on campus, the University decided against building more parking to keep up with projected demand and instead to offer a carpool incentive program to limit single-occupant vehicles on campus. Parking fees were increased to create a disincentive to drive alone. Carpool parking permits are heavily subsidized by the University and under certain conditions, carpools are eligible for a cash rebate on an annual basis.
Currently, Cornell has 1,370 people participating in 625 carpools with an average vehicle occupancy of 2.2 people. In addition, the University offers parking coupons for the occasional days when a carpooler needs to bring their own car to campus.
After the first 10 years of the program, Cornell estimates that its net savings were approximately $36 million, mostly from eliminating the need to provide additional parking. Through the carpool program and other commuter benefits the university provides, Cornell has reduced the number of cars coming to campus each day by 2,400 vehicles. The university estimates that they have reduced commuter miles by 10 million annually.
Source: Best Workplaces for Commuters, Carpool Incentive Programs: Implementing Commuter Benefits as One of the Nation's Best Workplaces for Commuters, USEPA, Office of Air and Radiation, November 2005
Case Study: Chevron's Vanpool Program, Antioch, California
Commuting takes a toll on drivers and the environment. That's why Chevron's efficiency and conservation programs inspire employees and others to leave their cars at home.
Angela Spinelli, a Chevron recruiter who volunteers to drive one of Chevron's 155 active vanpools, shares one of the additional benefits of the vanpool program. "It becomes like a little family type thing," she says of the co-workers who ride her vanpool.
Vanpool service helps Chevron employees exhausted from high traffic congestion. Right now Chevron has 155 active vans in our fleet, and with a reputation built on safety, we have some of the safest vans on the road today.
For more info about Chevron's program visit www.willyoujoinus.com.
Source: www.willyoujoinus.com
Weblinks
www.bestworkplaces.org/pdf/carpool_June07.pdf - Carpool Incentive Programs
www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm34.htm - Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Ridesharing: Car and Van Pooling