Innovative Commuter Benefits

Many employers participating in Best Workplaces for Commuters^SM have found success with unique programs. The organizations below offer interesting and effective commuter benefits that have helped increase employee participation.

Bayer Corporation:

Bayer Corp., in Berkeley, California, is exploring a new way to get commuters out of their cars and onto their feet. As part of its Walk to Work Program, Bayer provides employees with $50 gift certificates from REI for the purchase of umbrellas, windbreakers, or shoes. Commuters near and far have taken advantage of this offer—some live close to the worksite and walk from home, while others walk from the nearest train station nearly a mile away.

Any Bayer commuter can become part of the program by contacting the Employee Transportation Coordinator (ETC) and pledging to walk to work at least three times a week for a year. The ETC collects the employee’s information, purchases the gift certificate, and sends it to the employee.

Founded a year ago, the Walk to Work program has a dozen devoted members. Its popularity continues to grow from word-of-mouth and the publicity it receives in new employees’ orientation packets and companywide benefits updates.

Calvert Group:

Calvert Group, in Bethesda, Maryland, has been providing excellent commuter benefits to its employees for almost 20 years. The program began in 1985 with a full subsidy for employees’ mass transit use—a commuting benefit well ahead of its time.

After several years of success, Calvert expanded its commuter benefit package to include bicycling and walking. Since 1992, the organization has offered commuters either a yearly subsidy of $120 to cover the cost of shoes or a one-time subsidy of $350 for the purchase of a bicycle. Employees simply buy their shoes or bicycle, submit their receipt to the benefits manager, and are reimbursed up to the full amount of the subsidy.

Calvert’s employees have taken notice of their commuter benefits program. Several employees walk to work every day, and new hires are impressed by the by the breadth of commuter benefit options Calvert offers to them.

City of Pleasanton:

The city of Pleasanton, CA is committed to encouraging its City Hall employees to pursue environmentally friendly methods of commuting. This northern California city organizes raffles and prize drawings for commute alternative users, giving them a chance to win $25, $50, or even $100 every month. At the end of each year, Pleasanton holds a drawing for all employees who used mass transit, walked, cycled, carpooled, or telecommuted to work more than 50 percent of the time.

Past prizes included:

• Tickets to board the Napa Valley Wine Train—a luxury rail line upon which passengers tour the vineyards of Napa Valley while being served fine food and Napa Valley wine.
  
  
• A trip to Safari West—a wildlife reserve in northern California that allows visitors to get up close and personal with African animals in a natural habitat.
  
  
• A Yosemite Passport—a gift certificate that can be used at any hotel, restaurant, tour activity, or gift shop in Yosemite National Park.

As a result of these innovative promotions, the city of Pleasanton experienced a 7% percent leap in program participation from 2002 and 2003.

University of Vermont:

The University of Vermont (UVM), in Burlington, Vermont is a member of the Campus Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA). CATMA’s incentive programs reward environmentally friendly commuters with gift certificates to Burlington’s downtown shops and restaurants.

Employees who register as “alternate commuters”—those who use mass transit, carpool, bike or walk to work at least twice a week—are entered into a monthly drawing for $10 and $15 gift certificates to local restaurants.

Additionally, employees who can commit to walking or biking to work at least twice a week on a regular basis can register as members of the CATMA “Bike-Walk Bucks Reward” program. Participants record the dates they bike or walk to work on a Bike-Walk Bucks card. After completing four consecutive weeks, they turn the card in to the CATMA office in exchange for a $10 gift certificate good at over 300 shops and restaurants in downtown Burlington. As a bonus, one completed card is randomly chosen each month to receive an additional t$25 gift certificate to downtown Burlington.

CATMA promotes its programs through newsletters, flyers, students’ and employees’ orientation packets, e-mails, and word-of-mouth. Participation in the “alternate commuter” program has grown so much recently that CATMA doubled the number of restaurant gift certificates winners each month.

Yale:

Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, offers a benefit that serves both its employees and the community. Yale provides a one-time grant of $25,000 ($7,000 in the first year and $2,000 a year for the next nine) to employees who purchase homes in neighborhoods near campus.

More than 75 percent of the people who take advantage of this benefit are first-time homebuyers. To prepare them for the experience, Yale invites real estate professionals to teach classes on topics related to buying a home, such as credit management and mortgage insurance. In these classes, employees are also educated about the different neighborhoods near the Yale campus in which affordable housing is available.

More than 600 Yale employees have purchased housing near campus since the program began five years ago. Yale’s efforts have reduced its employees’ commute time, reduced automobile emissions, and helped promote the revitalization of New Haven neighborhoods.