Learning From The TDM Pros: An Interview With Peter Williamson

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Here at RideAmigos we love celebrating the success of our partners and helping others learn from their wisdom!

Peter Williamson is the Employer Outreach Coordinator for the San Luis Obispo Council of Government’s (SLOCOG) commuter program, the Back ‘N’ Forth Club, which supports employers in shifting commuter behavior. Peter is also one of the all-star members of the RideAmigos Academy, where he’s a frequent webinar conversation partner and a leader in our Coffee Talk X initiative.

Peter was recently recognized as one of the Association for Commuter Transportation (ACT) 2017 “Top 40 Under 40.” We sat down with him to learn more about his work helping employers support smart commute choices in their workplaces:

Peter Williamson - SLOCOGRideAmigos: Congrats on your recent award, and on a successful Rideshare Week 2017! I know you’re still crunching numbers and analyzing outcomes, but are there any things you learned from this year’s challenge? Any lessons for next year?

Peter Williamson: The goal of Rideshare Week is to develop an awareness of how we commute and the impact that our commute choices have on our wallets, health, and community. We asked community members to pledge to make at least one smart commute choice during Rideshare Week (October 2-6th) to reduce the number of single occupant vehicles on our region’s roadways. In SLO County, 683 commuters pledged to commute by carpool, vanpool, bike, foot, or bus, and then logged their trips at iRideshare.org.

Our Back ‘N’ Forth Club challenge put employers into two categories: 20+ employees or 60+ employees. The usual suspects (Cal Poly and SRAM) made the biggest impact and won this year’s Rideshare Week Challenge. Our winners receive a paid Best Workplaces for Commuters designation. This award puts our employers on the national map, and provides them with a valuable recruitment tool.

In addition to an online pledge, we asked willing employers to host a roll-up banner that employees could sign. One unexpected outcome was that some employees went outside of the box and expressed mode pride (i.e.: signed Peter – [draw a picture of a bike] 3 x a week!). I would like to do our part to encourage this next year (perhaps by having Lead Super Commuter/ETCs set the precedent).

For the challenge, I want to make it more competitive for Cal Poly, MINDBODY, and all other employers. I hope to accomplish this by mirroring what I did with the county my first year at SLOCOG. This would mean breaking Cal Poly and MINDBODY into sub networks by department. These departments could compete against other employers and departments based on size, making it more competitive for everyone. This effort simultaneously improves program communication at these larger employer sites.

Rideshare Week 2017 Trip Log Stats:

  • 2,749 single-occupant vehicle trips eliminated
  • 39,022 less vehicle miles traveled
  • 9.8 tons of CO2 prevented
  • $12,339 in commute costs saved
  • 156,415 calories burned

RA: As an Employer Outreach Coordinator you spend a lot of time and energy working with organizations to help them promote and support alternatives to solo driving. How do you help employers see the value in promoting alternative commuting options?

PW: The two biggest factors when approaching a new employer are: what is the time/money commitment, and who else is doing it? I take employers through the following outline:

  • What is the expected return on investment for starting a program?
    • Free extension of human resources and benefits
    • Reduced parking demand
    • National and regional recognition
    • Recruit talent from big cities
    • Retain employees that live further away
    • Payroll tax savings
    • Measurable environmental impacts
    • Reduced employee stress and health costs
    • And support for the local community
  • I highlight a few of the many tools, incentives, and services we offer participating employers.
  • I explain different participation designations and similar employers participating in each designation.
  • I ask the employer to nominate a program liaison (Lead Super Commuter / ETC).

RA: Transportation demand management (TDM) programming is obviously a year-round endeavor, but do you have any particularly favorite seasons or annual programs? What makes them your favorite?

PW: Of all SLOCOG/RIDESHARE’s campaigns, nothing compares with the community participation and awareness associated with Bike Month. It’s very well established, likely because our staff used to spend half of the year focused on this campaign. For me it’s valuable because Bike Month is the perfect opportunity to grow employer support of the Back ‘N’ Forth Club. Each year, I’m pushing employers to take their commitment a step further. Spring means employers are calling me, rather than the other way around.

RA: From transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft to autonomous vehicles, technology is rapidly expanding the options people have for transportation. How do you see emerging technologies impacting your TDM programs in the future?

PW: Uber and Lyft have already had an impact locally, whether good (less drinking and driving) or bad (more cars in higher-traffic areas). Our guaranteed ride home policy is very flexible, so we’ve noticed a trend in people selecting Uber/Lyft over the original options of a taxi, rental car, or shuttle. I hope technology continues to make data collection and program enforcement easy. I also hope technology reduces traffic congestion, and does not increase it, the fear being that people send their autonomous cars home to park themselves resulting in twice as many trips!

RA: Any parting advice or morsels of wisdom for someone who is new to this movement of shifting commuter behavior for the common good?

PW: Every day is filled with highs and lows that deliver the inspiration I need to keep moving towards a multi-modal world. What started as training for a 200-mile bike ride has grown into a career and lifestyle full of passion. It takes time to change commute behavior, but with a lot of persistence, passion, and patience, TDM professionals do make a difference. What seems like a dead end now will turn into an opportunity next year!

RA: Thanks for your time, and congratulations again on your recent recognition and all your programs’ success!

PW: Thank you!

We’re proud to count Peter and the whole team at SLOCOG as partners in the RideAmigos family, working together to transform transportation. To learn more about how you can shift commuter behavior more effectively and efficiently, contact us today!

 

Announcing New Commuter Benefit Solutions Integration

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RideAmigos and Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions are teaming up

The RideAmigos team has exciting news: we’re adding new platform integrations with Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions, and we couldn’t be more excited about the ways this will benefit our partners.

Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions is the nation’s only comprehensive commuter benefit solutions provider and number one resource for commuter savings. Since 1985,Edenred has served Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, top third party benefit administrators and the nation’s largest metropolitan area transit authorities.

With its premier solution offerings; Commuter Check, a nationwide commuter benefits program for employers; and WiredCommute, a private label program for third party administrators, Edenred is able to provide a one-stop total solution experience.Edenred’s mission is to make tax-free commuter benefits a staple in employee benefits packages nationwide.

Here’s a snapshot of some key Commuter Benefit Solutions numbers:

  • The company serves more than 12,000 employers representing over 1.9 million
    employees, including many Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies.
  • The company also maintains partnerships with over 50 national third-party
    administrators, more than 350 transit agencies, hundreds of bike shops, and over
    5,000 parking locations.

Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions has a strong core focus on managing and delivering both employer and employee-based commuter pre-tax benefits programs. These programs help enterprises generate savings of up to 7.65% per year on their payroll taxes while helping employees generate huge savings on their taxable incomes. They provide extensive support, including dedicated account managers, nationwide coverage, convenient product delivery, and a complete suite of support services.

RideAmigos is proud to be creating connections between Edenred Commuter Benefit Solutions products and our industry-leading commuter management software. Our partnership will give the businesses and organizations that use our platform easy access to one of the world’s most powerful commuter benefit management programs. The goal is to make generating, tracking, and maximizing both employer- and employee-based tax savings as convenient and profitable as possible.

To learn more, check out the recent Coffee Talk webinar we held with Commuter Benefit Solutions to discuss their product and our plans, or contact us directly.

How to Get Your Employer to Start a Commuter Benefits Program

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Employers and employees generally want the same thing when it comes to the daily commute: they want to arrive at work happy, relaxed, and on time. The problem is that while solo driving may often seem like the most convenient commuting option, it’s actually the most stressful. Long commutes, traffic congestion, bad weather, and construction all conspire to reduce a solo driver’s chances of arriving at work happy, relaxed, and on time.

With rising awareness about the many benefits of skipping the solo drive, more and more employees want support from their employers to help make better alternatives more accessible. Commuter benefits programs provide incentives and support for a wide array of commute options, yet they remain a relatively new concept to many employers. In some cases, it’s the commuters themselves who are driving companies to support smarter ways of getting to work.

If you’d like to encourage your employer to provide more support for commuters who want to use alternatives to solo driving, there’s a simple strategy you can use:

Get your employer to see how starting a commuter benefits program can add value to your organization’s bottom line!

Do this by emphasizing the tangible and intangible benefits of fewer solo-driving employees:

  • Active modes of commuting deliver a long list of health benefits. Beyond the obvious goal of building a healthier workforce, this means that businesses stand to save on health insurance costs while reducing illness-related productivity losses.
  • When fewer employees drive to work, businesses can reduce demand for parking and the costs associated with them. These costs can be steep, so chances are good that management will listen.
  • Supporting a commuter benefits program sends a strong message about the company’s values. This is a particularly important aspect of attracting and retaining the best and most qualified employees, since more and more people want to work for companies with a proven track record of providing commuting support for their employees.

Getting started is simple. First, conduct a survey among your fellow commuters to learn more about the current commuter behaviors in your company. Then, created a custom-tailored appeal based on your findings that speaks to the specific interests of the commuters you work with and the needs of your organization.

Once you’ve sold your organization on the value of a commuter benefits program, they’ll need the right tools to get a program going. With powerful ridematching, incentives programs, automated trip tracking, data analysis, reporting, and administration tools, RideAmigos can help your employer implement and manage a commuter benefits program easily and efficiently. Learn more about commuter benefits, or get started with RideAmigos today!

Encouraging Employees to Use Transit

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Even though trends are changing, we still live in a car-centric culture. That means a lot of people are still choosing solo driving even when convenient and cost-effective alternatives are available. For example, encouraging employee transit use delivers many benefits.

First, studies show that commuters who choose modes other than solo driving tend to have higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction. Experts surmise this is because they spend less time stressed out behind the wheel of a car in congested traffic. Using transit also helps commuters save money on gas and vehicle maintenance costs, all while reducing parking demand and benefiting the environment.

Here are some easy and proven ways to encourage employee transit use:

  • Provide subsidized or free transit passes to employees. This is one of the most direct and effective ways to get people off the solo driving habit and into buses, trains, and subways.
  • Play up any available tax benefits of alternative commuting, which can help employees and businesses alike. By taking advantage of a monthly tax-deductible allowance for alternative commuting expenses employees can cut their tax burdens by hundreds of dollars a year, all while helping businesses reduce their payroll tax obligations.
  • Create last-mile vanpool programs that provide easy point-to-point access between your business and local transit hubs. One of the main reasons commuters avoid transit is because destination stations are too far from the workplace. Vanpools solve that problem, easily and efficiently.
  • Offer first-mile connections using ride-hailing services like Lyft or Uber. By providing free or subsidized passes for employees to use between their home and transit hubs you can knock down one more barrier to smarter commuting.
  • Offer a guaranteed ride home program to ensure employees that they have a fast, efficient ride home in their back pocket in the event of an emergency or unforeseen circumstance.

Chances are you’ll experience the best results if you combine several of these strategies, or use all of them. Watch your employees’ reliance on solo driving diminish, and enjoy the benefits of a happier, less stressed, and more productive workforce.

Managing multi-layered commuter programs using strategies like these can start to seem complicated in a hurry, but don’t let that overwhelm you. Even complex programs are easy to implement using the tools available through a commuter management platform like RideAmigos. Want to learn more about how RideAmigos can help you use these ideas to increase employee transit use and decrease solo driving? Get started today!

Rideshare Month Ideas

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Use these Rideshare Month ideas to get people excited about trying smart commuting options

Rideshare Month is an increasingly popular way for regions, businesses and organizations to encourage commuters to give smart commuting alternatives a try. Like National Bike Month, Rideshare Month is built on awareness campaigns and friendly commuter challenges designed to get people excited about taking part.

Rideshare/Carpool Month (or Week) is most often observed in October within the US and during February in Canada. Start planning now for a successful program!

Effective Rideshare Month ideas engage commuters in creative ways, drumming up interest in your initiatives and getting more people on board. If you’re looking to get started, here are some popular approaches that have proven track records of success

Team Challenges

Use team challenges to get people to take part in numbers. Encourage carpoolers to register as teams and engage in friendly competition to see which team can log the most commutes (and/or the most miles) over the course of the month. Top-performing teams can qualify for prizes.

Social Media

Harness the power of social media, much like the Region of Waterloo, a RideAmigos partner, recently did to great success:

 

Pledges

Get rideshare pledges to commit early. Pledge programs engage individuals who want to take part by getting them to promise to carpool a set number of days over the course of Rideshare Month. Reward your pledges by giving fantastic prizes to those who meet their commitments, or with special prizes for those who carpool for a certain number of days. 

Point Programs

Create a point program. Allow commuters who carpool to accumulate points every time they log a smart commute. You can even extend this strategy into other smart commuting modes, like cycling and public transit, allowing participants to earn bonus points. Once a certain point thresholds have been reached, participants can cash in their points for rewards. Check out Commute.org’s STAR store as an example:

Use the Right Tools

If you’re planning to launch or run a carpool-focused initiative, be sure you’ve got a comprehensive set of Rideshare Month tools to put your ideas into action and maximize your impact. Surveys, ridematching software, gamification platforms and other tools can make the difference between a ho-hum program and a movement that inspires lasting behavior change.

What is a TMA / TMO?

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What is a Transportation Management Association (TMA) /
Transportation Management Organization (TMO)?

A transportation management association (TMA), sometimes known as a transportation management organization (TMO), is an administrative body designed to manage the transportation needs of a particular venue, district, or community. In most cases, TMAs are non-profit organizations, and they are usually controlled by members.

Most TMAs also use partnership models that combine private investment with public resources, thus casting a wider net of stakeholders.

TMAs operate on various scales, with larger-scale organizations holding jurisdiction over entire cities or regions, and smaller-scale associations governing the transportation needs of medical facilities, shopping centers, business districts, or industrial zones, among others. They play an important part in shaping and implementing transportation demand management (TDM) programs with specific objectives that typically include:

  • Single occupancy vehicle (SOV) commuter trip reductions
  • More efficient allocation of parking resources
  • Reducing peak-period traffic levels
  • Shifting traffic to off-peak periods
  • Promoting alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles
  • Improving transportation accessibility and system performance

Member-controlled transportation management organizations are more responsive than most government-run TDM initiatives, since they are not encumbered by administrative red tape and can implement new policies with greater speed and flexibility. They also play a key role in supporting smart growth initiatives and land-use patterns that conform to the mixed-use models being favored by a large number of forward-looking municipalities.

The RideAmigos commuter management platform is an ideal tool for TMA’s

The RideAmigos platform is a valuable ally to TMAs of all sizes, thanks to its proven ability to make smarter modes of transportation more accessible to a broader base of users. Transportation management organizations around the world are now using the groundbreaking RideAmigos TDM software package to:

  • Access network and reporting tools that provide an excellent basis for policy creation and implementation
  • Bring a broader range of sustainable transportation options to a larger number of community members
  • Generate meaningful statistical insights into network-specific transportation patterns
  • Manage parking demand
  • Reduce vehicular traffic during peak periods
  • Create and distribute commuter surveys that help program managers better understand the needs and desires of commuters and travelers

RideAmigos is specifically designed to address the TDM needs of organizations operating in both the public and private sectors, and it has become an indispensable tool for businesses, government agencies, and TMAs across the US.

Do you help run a TMA or TMO that could use a more efficient system for managing your programs and shifting commuter behavior? Get started with RideAmigos today to learn how we can help maximize your impact.

TDM + Local Bike Shops = ❤️

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Bicycle advocacy powerhouse People for Bikes recently shared a great blog post highlighting the mutual interests of transportation demand management (TDM) and local bike shops.

From TMA’s & TMO’s to universities, enterprises and municipalities, organizations concerned with shifting commuter behavior usually promote biking as a great alternative to single occupancy vehicle (SOV) commuting. In the TDM industry, we know bikes take up less space on roads and in parking lots, cut carbon emissions, and create happier commuters.

Local bike shops are also well aware of all these advantages of biking over driving, so for TDM programs looking for partners to help promote and empower bike commuting, local bike shops are a match made in transportation heaven.

The People for Bikes article mentions the success that our partner Sonos has had with their earn-a-bike program for employees, including partnering with local bike shops. The University of Louisville has also implemented a similar program for students who can trade parking passes for bikes.

When it comes to cycling-related TDM challenges and incentives, local bike shops are great resources for collaborations like prize donations and event leadership. Bike shops are eager to become known as the go-to location for local cyclists, especially new cyclists, and are often willing to be creative partners in bike-related TDM programming.

Here’s a great success story from the People for Bikes post:

Ginny Politz owns Bikesport in Trappe, Pennsylvania. When the Greater Valley Forge TMA approached her seeking prizes to distribute to local winners of the National Bike Challenge, Politz’s enthusiasm was instant. “I said ‘Yes, and why don’t we host a wine and cheese event to kick off the competition?'”

Bikesport’s early buy-in has paid off. “We are the only bike shop member, so they send everything our way. If they have a corporation contact them and say ‘we’d like to do a Lunch and Learn bike program,’ I get an email introducing me as the solution.”

Read more at the People for Bikes blog …

Why Indirect Emissions Matter and How Your Company Can Reduce Them

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Indirect emissions, also known as Scope 3 emissions in the framework of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, are an often-overlooked aspect of a business’s carbon footprint. They are defined as emissions from non-direct sources engaged in peripheral activities such as:

  • Shipping and product distribution
  • Goods and services procurement from outside parties
  • Waste disposal
  • Franchise management
  • Investments and leased asset management
  • …and, of course, commuting

While the exact percentage of business-related greenhouse gas emissions that come from commuting has been a notoriously gray area in terms of analysis, current estimates show that transportation is responsible for a staggering 20 to 27 percent of all GHG emissions in the United States. Obviously, businesses have a key role to play when it comes to reducing these emission levels, and one of the most direct ways to address the issue is to encourage smarter, more ecologically responsible modes of commuting.

To that end, here are some popular commuter management strategies that reduce employee reliance on single-occupancy vehicles:

  • Building a company-wide or cooperative, community-based rideshare program
  • Offering free or subsidized transit passes
  • Creating vanpool shuttle services linking company facilities with local public transportation hubs
  • Supporting bike-to-work initiatives by adding secure bike parking areas, lockers, and on-site showers
  • Participating in local and national challenge programs
  • Launching commuter gamification programs that reward participants for logging trips using alternative modes of transportation
  • Implementing earn-a-bike and/or parking cash-out programs

The transportation demand management professionals at RideAmigos can help you set up and run these and many other commuter programs as part of a concerted effort to help reduce the emissions generated by employee commutes. The RideAmigos software platform is also the ideal tool for tracking the impact of your commuter programs, and features a comprehensive suite of next-generation management and reporting tools.

Get started today and help your company build toward a cleaner, greener tomorrow.

How to Lower Employee Morale

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In their efforts to cut costs, reduce overhead expenses, and boost profit margins, employers must balance the need to maintain employee morale while dealing with these economic realities. Unfortunately, many actions (or inactions) taken by employers can unintentionally lower employee morale, rather than raise it. Many studies have shown that happy employees perform better and are more productive, and recent research also suggests that the modes commuters use to get to work can have a strong impact on overall levels of employee satisfaction.

With that in mind, here’s a look at some ways commuting-related workplace practices can lower employee morale and thus take a negative toll on company culture:

  • Only incentivizing solo driving. Free employee parking is a great perk, but if it’s the only commuting-related advantage you offer, you risk alienating team employees who prefer other modes of transportation. Instead, adopt a robust array of commuter support options, like subsidized transit passes and secure bike parking, to make sure everyone’s needs are met.
  • Not offering alternatives to costly parking. Parking is a major expense, and it’s one that a lot of companies deal with by (a) raising the prices of their products and services or (b) having employees pay to park in third-party lots. Parking cash-out programs, ridesharing initiatives, vanpools, and other alternative commuting modes can all be used to reduce parking demand and thus cut costs for employees and employers alike.
  • Inflexible policies on where and when employees work. Strict policies of this nature make it more difficult for employees to arrange carpools and can contribute to traffic congestion. Employees really appreciate the convenience that flexible hours and telework programs offer.

It’s important for employers to make a concerted effort to cultivate a businesslike yet vibrant, fun, and engaging company culture. People feel more invested in their jobs when the company feels more like a community, and building this kind of environment requires a focused, calculated effort that begins at the management level.

Commuting-related initiatives that help foster a workplace community include commuter challenge and incentive programs that encourage informal competition while engaging your workforce in pursuit of positive and beneficial objectives. Commute options like ridematching and bikepooling can also help to create relationships among co-workers. All these can easily be implemented using commuter management software.

RideAmigos can help businesses and organizations of all sizes avoid lower employee morale while building robust commuter programs with high impact levels. Get started with raising employee morale today!

Why Free Parking Isn’t Necessary for Happy Commuters

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Challenging assumptions behind workplace parking privileges

Employers tend to assume that providing employees with free parking is just a necessary cost of doing business. The underlying assumption is that free parking makes commuters happy, and happy commuters make for a happy workforce.

While it’s probably true that many car-centric commuters wouldn’t be happy if they were suddenly told they had to pay for their own parking, it’s still worth asking whether the chicken or the egg comes first when it comes to free workplace parking. Do businesses provide free parking because commuters drive, or do commuters drive because businesses provide free parking?

It’s a question without an easy answer, but what we’ve seen in our years of experience in the transportation demand management industry is that commuters are more likely to adopt smarter modes of transportation if they’re given a strong incentive to do so.

Free Parking Isn’t the Only Path to Happy Commuters

If you’d like to reduce employee reliance on single-occupancy vehicles, cut parking costs and encourage commuters to use smarter modes of transportation more often, all while keeping commuters happy, there’s a smart, simple way to go about it:

Give employees the option of trading in their free parking privileges for a different form of transportation incentive, like a free monthly transit pass, credit toward a new bike, or a monthly parking cash-out program designed to encourage carpooling.

This way, you empower commuters to make their own choices, all while protecting the goodwill you generate by offering free parking in the first place. Not only that, these programs can even be seen as added employee benefits for those who prefer transportation modes other than driving!

Check out our learning center for more information on alternatives to free parking that save businesses money while encouraging smarter commuting. You can also find out about incentives to promote ridesharing and tools to manage parking right here on our blog.

If you’d like to learn how our industry-leading commuter management platform can power your parking incentive programs, contact RideAmigos today.