Business Benefits

Why Should Employers Care How Their Employees Get to Work?

As many Washington State employers can tell you, providing commute options and benefits to their employees improves their bottom line while reducing traffic congestion, supporting the business community and supporting their employees. Here’s how businesses like yours benefit by offering transportation programs.

Attracting & Keeping the Best Employees

Trip reduction programs are often viewed by employees as a benefit, and organizations can use them as a recruiting and retention tool. Providing transportation benefits gives you a low-cost way to reduce turnover, improve employee retention, and save money by reducing training and hiring costs for new employees.

Increasing Productivity

Employees who are given flexibility in their schedules feel better about their jobs, which in turn increases productivity. Likewise, people are more likely to arrive at work on time if they catch a bus, carpool, or vanpool. A transportation program can reduce tardiness and absenteeism, while improving your business productivity.

Increasing Employee Satisfaction

Transportation programs increase employee satisfaction in a variety of ways. Having an alternative work schedule gives an employee a guilt-free opportunity to make doctor appointments or attend a child’s sports activity. Employees who share the ride to work often note that camaraderie is an important benefit, and many prefer transit options to driving alone because of its ease and reliability. Providing a benefits program that includes transportation is a great way to show that you value employees, and leads to a more productive and engaging work environment.

Freeing Up Parking

Fewer employee cars in your parking lot can free up spaces for customers, visitors and vendors. It also means you don’t have to worry about the extra cost of leasing parking.

Being a Business Leader

Local press and awards often highlight employers that are progressive in the benefits they provide and their efforts to ‘green’ their business. A transportation program can be a valuable and highly visible element in your business practices. Your community appreciates you, too, when you reduce employee spillover parking in neighborhoods surrounding your worksite.

Expanding your labor pool

Not all workers can drive, have access to a car, or can work conventional 8am - 5pm hours. Flexible schedules and support for ridesharing allow more people to apply for a job and increases the labor pool from which to draw qualified candidates. Recruitment costs go down too when jobs are filled more quickly.

Expanding Your Customer Base

Extended business hours when you offer such benefits as flextime, compressed work schedules, and telework improve your ability to serve customers in different time zones or ones with time sensitive needs.

Reduce Work Space Demand

When employees can telework or work a compressed work week, work space can be shared or repurposed, and space needs reduced.

Savings on Taxes

Federal tax law allows tax breaks for transit and vanpool commuting costs up to $265 per month per employee. There are also tax breaks for bike commuting. As an employer you can deduct the cost of providing such benefits and reduce payroll taxes as well. Employees save too when they pay their own commuting costs with pre-tax dollars. Learn more about tax benefits here.

Moving People and Freight

Congestion impacts everyone’s ability to deliver goods and services which cost your business valuable time and money. With fewer cars on the road you save money by helping to reduce freight costs and the time it takes to make business-related trips.

Emergency Management

In an emergency (severe weather, earthquake, strike, etc.) established ridesharing and work options programs can keep a business operating.