Businesses love a win-win like this.

Providing solutions for commuters is more than just a good idea. It’s a best practice that pays real dividends. When employees lower their stress levels and save money, employers see attitudes improve and turnover decrease. Consider some of the benefits for your business:

• More easily recruit and keep the right people
• Better manage parking needs
• Address scheduling challenges
• Improve productivity
• Address office space needs
• Reduce traffic congestion
• Improve air quality

There are many options that you can offer, including:

• Teleworking
• Flex-Time / Compressed Work Week
• Tax Incentives
• Facility and Property Design
• Parking Management

Through well planned promotions, Commuter Club can help you launch and maintain an effective commuter solutions program.

Teleworking

Time and people are your company’s most important resources. To attract and keep top people, it’s important to provide flexible work arrangements. Teleworking — or telecommuting — can help you do it. Employees can telework occasionally, or even daily.

Teleworking helps employees balance work and family life, and can actually increase productivity while taking cars off the road. Companies that offer teleworking can better accommodate staff increases. And because employees want the advantages of teleworking, recruitment and retention are enhanced.

Georgia House Bill 194 provides tax credits to employers that implement telework programs. This bill provides a one time tax credit of $20,000 for the assessment of a telework program, and $1,200 credit per employee that participates in the program. Consult your local tax advisors regarding eligibility and enrollment.

Commuter Club can provide free professional assistance to create a telework pilot program at your site. In partnership with The Clean Air Campaign, Commuter Club offers the highly successful Telework Leadership Initiative for interested employers. GE Energy benefited (PDF) from this assistance; your company can, too. Contact us to get started.

Flex-Time / Compressed Work Week

Flex-time and Compressed Work Weeks, like teleworking, can improve recruiting and retention because they offer enhanced balance between personal life and work. Companies frequently report happier employees and productivity increases when these programs are implemented. These schedules may provide increased customer coverage since work hours can be staggered over longer periods.

Flex-time

On a flex-time schedule, employees work their regular number of days and hours each week, but they choose their starting and ending times. Typically, they are at their job during a specified "core" time. Flex-time allows employees to begin work early in the day or stay later in the evening, depending on needs and preferences.

Compressed Work Week

Compressed Work Weeks allow employees to shorten their work week by one or more days. Employees work their regular number of hours in a shorter than normal number of days per week or per pay period. For instance, 40 hours in four days (4/40) or 80 hours in nine days (9/80).

Tax Incentives

Provide a great, low-cost benefit, such as helping employees pay for transportation fares, and you’ll save on taxes. IRS rules allow companies to provide employees with financial assistance that reduces their commute costs while saving the company money. Employers simply finance bus, rail or vanpool seats for their employees.

Employers may provide up to $110 per month, or $1,320 per year, per employee for bus and rail passes and vanpool vouchers. This is tax-free for the employee and tax deductible for the employer.

Commuters save more than $200 in taxes each year. Employers also can save in payroll taxes and other related expenses — a win-win solution. For example:

• Company A provides $110 a month, through payroll, designated for CCT, MARTA, and/or a vanpool seat. Benefit: The company takes a deduction and doesn't pay any payroll taxes. Employee receives a tax-free benefit.
• Company B provides $110 a month worth of CCT/MARTA passes, and/or vanpool vouchers. Benefit: The company takes a deduction. Employee receives a tax-free benefit.
• Company C provides $110 a month through a salary increase not specifically designated for CCT, MARTA, and/or vanpool seat. Benefit: The employee receives additional income to ease commute costs, however there are no tax benefits.

Employers may also split the cost of the fares with the employee and only pay a portion. This will benefit the company and the employees up to the designated limits.

Facility & Property Design

Keeping the Cumberland Galleria area office market vibrant and attractive is paramount to its success, and developers and property managers play a crucial role. Their design of facilities can encourage — or discourage — a variety of transportation options. Buildings that are easy to access by vanpool, foot or bus, and not just single-occupant cars, will be necessary in the future as the area continues to grow.

To assist in the process, Commuter Club offers a comprehensive site design handbook that includes:

• Pedestrian walkways
• Parking considerations
• Building orientation
• Passenger loading areas
• Transit access and visibility
• Bicycle amenities
• Access to services and amenities
• Information areas
• Blueprint Cumberland, the area’s transportation and development master plan

Parking Management

The success of the Cumberland Galleria area can have a frustrating side effect: parking problems. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help.

Preferential Parking

By rewarding employees who carpool or vanpool with the “best” parking spaces, you’ll offer a strong incentive to rideshare, meaning fewer cars in your lot. Preferred parking may include:

• Covered parking to protect from the weather
• Assigned space near the building entrance
• Level-one spot in a multi-story garage
• Priority position on a waiting list

Parking Pricing

Charging for parking based on vehicle occupancy is a powerful way to free up spaces. Pricing eliminates free parking, while lowering the cost for employees who carpool or vanpool. In addition, this saves your company money by not fully subsidizing the cost of employee parking. The proceeds can be used to fund bus passes, rideshare incentives, etc.

Transportation Allowance (Parking Cash-Out)

A transportation allowance gives employees with a choice between a “free” (i.e., company subsidized) parking space or cash to pay for a bus pass, a vanpool seat or other option.

Employees are given the freedom to choose any commute method they want, as long as they pay for all associated costs. Offering employees a choice of how to spend their travel allowance provides them a financial incentive to choose something other than driving alone and paying for parking. The result is reduced parking demand.

Promotional Materials and Ideas

Promotional Ideas

Commuter Club can help you promote an effective commuter solutions program. Some ideas to consider:

• Provide commuter information and ride match forms in new hire packets
• Develop a commuter information page on your intranet; link to www.commuterclub.com
• Award prizes for participants (free lunch, vacation time incentives, recognition at meetings, casual Mondays, etc.)
• Give away bus and rail passes
• Subsidize vanpool seats
• Offer free lunches for participants on 'Smog Alert' days
• Develop newsletter or intranet articles
• Reserve parking spaces for carpools and vanpools
• Allow preferential work hours for participants
• Invite a Commuter Club guest speaker to staff meetings, blood drives, book sales, etc.
• Host a Commuter Fair and invite bus, rail, vanpool and bike groups
• Place a commuter information board in a cafeteria or other common area
• Hang a banner in the parking area
• Distribute a CEO memo encouraging participation

 

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