Transit Resources

Support from your management team is critical to the success of your alternative commutes program. Without adequate backing and staffing, the program is unlikely to succeed. It will be important for your company’s management team to understand all the major impacts a commute alternatives program might have on your company.

Here are some general tips to help you secure support. Every office or building is organized differently, so you may need to modify these ideas to make them work for you.

Get your foot in the right door.

Meeting with the right people is essential, but in large offices or buildings this is not always easy. Determine which decision makers need to support your program. Who has the ability to make decisions about employee benefits and purchasing? Often it’s someone on the senior management team; possibly HR Manager.

Set up a meeting and make a convincing presentation. 

Managers often are pressed for time. Make your presentation clear, concise, factual, and persuasive. Use maps that illustrate the issues and the opportunities. Select images that represent problems. Focus on the positive benefits that will accrue to your company and/or building if the project is pursued.

Some of the items to include in your proposal to your management team are:

• Estimated start-up and routine or monthly costs
• Potential cost savings
• Potential benefits to employees, the office, and the community
• Potential costs that might be incurred if the program is not implemented
• Internal administrative process of buying passes

Explain what similar businesses or companies are doing or plan to do.

Do any of your competitors or peers already have established alternative commute programs? Have any of them received awards or recognition for their efforts? Does the trade or professional organization you belong to have an environmental policy or program? Emphasize public relations/marketing gains that your company or your building may receive as a result of implementing alternative commute programs.

Highlight the potential benefits from the program.

Alternative commute programs can save companies money on parking and even lower their tax burden. By allowing employees to use pre-tax dollars to purchase their transit passes, companies are effectually passing along a pay raise to their employees taking transit. Connecting to transit helps widen the net to attract top talent not willing to drive for an hour just to get to work. Although more difficult to quantify, there are also less tangible benefits – such as improved morale and satisfaction among employees– that may result in lower turnover rates.

Try to anticipate concerns.

From your initial research, try to determine what issues or concerns management and your fellow employees and tenants might have and address them in your presentation. Common questions include: Who on staff would manage the program and how will you spread the word?

Begin with a pilot program.

Ask to set up a temporary program. Many managers are willing to try something new for a limited period of time, especially if it might save money or generate positive publicity.

Designing a program to fit your company’s and employee’s needs is critical to the success of your alternative commute program. We understand workplace budgets are tight- not to worry, Georgia Commute Options can help! We offer a wide range of incentives that your team members can take advantage of simply by signing up for MyGCO and logging their clean commutes.

Providing an alternative commutes program can be a win-win for both your company’s bottom line and your employee’s wallet. Most companies we work with choose to support their employees alternative commutes by directly subsidize transit passes. This can be done with a company reimbursing employees that have independently purchased transit passes or by the employer purchasing transit passes and then giving away or selling the passes at a discount to their employees. Companies that use this model tend to have high participation rates and are able to effectively use their program as a recruitment tool for new employees.

Once your company’s leadership has signed on your alternative commutes program, it is time to let all of your co-workers know about the new benefit your company is providing. Each person in your company has a unique commute so getting each one the right information can be intimidating.

Where to start?

We’ve found that one of the most helpful first steps in getting employees out of their cars is to identify which employees are currently using commute alternatives or are open to the idea of exploring commute options.

Armed with this information you’ll:

• Get a sense of the scale and scope of your initiative.
• Identify transit-taking employees who will be eager to help you spread the word by providing testimonials and becoming a peer teacher.
• Develop a targeted list of employees that are open (and probably eager!) to trying out something new if it’ll get them out of traffic. By providing these co-workers with information specific to their commute, you can achieve some easy, early wins for your program.
• Ascertain persuasive and supportive data about the program to present to your management team.
• Build an accurate baseline measurement from which you can measure your program’s success.

To assist you in collecting these crucial data points, we’ve created some templates to get you started. First is a kick-off letter that can be emailed or delivered to all staff. The letter announces that your company wants to help its employees find relief from the mental and financial toll of their commutes and also prepares employees to take a short survey about their openness to commute alternatives

Now that you have announced your program, it is time to get people to try to take an alternative commute. After all, your transit program can only be successful if your employees know about it. Don’t miss an opportunity to inform them of the benefits that taking transit can provide.

Here are a variety of ways to spread the word:

• Post signage around the office or on tables in the break room
• Place information in the company newsletter
• Include program information in your new hire packets
• Bring the alternative commute providers by scheduling a transportation fair or lunch and learn by contacting your TMA
• Mention the benefits at staff meetings and ask current commuter to share their thoughts on their alternative commute

Try offering incentives to your employees. It doesn’t take much money to capture an employee’s attention. Have fun picking out prizes and even ask you co-workers to submit suggestions.

Here are some of our favorites:

• Give prizes to the divisions/floors/companies with the highest participation for a time period (e.g., month, quarter, year). This could be branded items from your company or tickets to a Braves game. Get creative about what your co-workers would enjoy.
• Are your new transit riders saving you money on parking? How about every team member that gives up his or her parking space earns a pizza party for his or her department? It will make her a hero and help spread the word about the program.

One of the most important things is don’t lose momentum. Make sure you continue to educate new and current co-workers about their options and how your company would like to help them.

Planning a commuter program that meets the unique needs of your team can be challenging, but GCO is here to help. We offer a variety of tools and resources to make it easier for your employees to explore alternative transportation options. From carpools and vanpools to transit and telework solutions, GCO provides the support you need to develop a successful commuter program.

When beginning a commute alternative program, it’s important to measure the impacts and effectiveness of your program. Tracking your progress will help you to make adjustments as needed, encourage ongoing management support, and even receive recognition from outside your organization. To get started, first, decide what you’ll be measuring.

Here are some example we’ve seen companies use:

• Percentage of employees who are registered as alternative commuters (alternative commuters/number of employees)
• Percentage of commutes taken on transit (trips sold/(number of employees*business days))
• Percentage of employees with a parking space (spaces/number of employees)
• Parking lot capacity (spaces filled/spaces available)
• Number of miles avoided (count alternative commuters reported miles)

Decide on the measures that will be most helpful to the success of your program and then determine if you have the resources available to obtain accurate measurements. Perhaps you can talk to another department or send out an annual employee survey to obtain information. It is helpful to capture as much of this information as early as possible so that you have a solid baseline from which you can promote your program’s achievements.

Once you have your commuters on board and are seeing more and more employees getting out of their cars, look for ways to promote your program.