Best Workplaces for Commuters

Commuter Services’ partner LEGOLAND FL was the first fortune 500 employer Partner in Polk County to achieve the regional Commuter Services Gold Level status and awarded the National Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) elite designation for their outstanding commuter benefits.

LEGOLAND demonstrated a commitment to marketing, outreach and program development efforts. This included participating in healthy initiatives to encourage and increase walking and bicycling, transportation events and campaigns, offering incentives like preferred parking for carpoolers, free universal transit subsidies, onsite company shuttles, bike racks/showers, on-site amenities, a commuter information mode center, along with demonstrating a high percentage of employee participation.

Commuter Services Outreach team members worked aggressively with LEGOLAND FL and stakeholder partners during the initial construction stages prior to the park opening to the public. Our team established new commuter benefits, modified resources, surveyed each employee to develop a strong employer plan, and encouraged key management and stakeholder involvement and support by setting up partnership meetings. Our team determined commuter program goals and Gold Level Partner eligibility, and assisted with completing the BWC application.

An official Commuter Services kick-off event was launched at LEGOLAND FL on May 17, 2012 to encourage one-on-one conversations with employees, to help them find a commute that worked into their schedules. Partners and transportation stakeholders staffed tents and tables and helped register over 400 employees during the first 3 hour event. An educational commuter campaign followed the initial kick-off event and provided over 3,100 carpool matches for their employees. LEGOLAND FL assigned 30 preferred Commuter Service’s carpool spaces to new commuters and now offers free unlimited access transit service to all employees and guest staying at partnering hotels. It took six months to complete the three-party agreement among Merlin (LEGOLAND FL), Polk Transit and the Polk County Commission. Two busses were wrapped and a new bus line that passes the theme park has been named LEGOLAND Route 30. An official new bus service dedication and commuter awards ceremony was held on August 23, 2012 at the LEGOLAND FL entrance area. The awards were presented to Human Resources Director, Virginie Schena. Presenters in attendance were; Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) Senior Research Associate, Julie Bond, Citrus Connection Director, Tom Phillips, Florida Department of Transportation Commuter Services Project Manager, Jan Parham, and Commuter Services Program Director, Christine Diaz-Pagan.

As another benefit for Best Workplaces for Commuters’ members, on Tuesday, August 7, 2012 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. EDT/Noon PDT, we are holding Introduction to Commuter Benefits web conference to share the 2012 Commuter Benefits brief.  More

Join the Race to Excellence at http://www.bestworkplaces.org/race-to-excellence-2/2012-race-to-excellence-registration/

Race to Excellence Participants:

Akari Energy,  Amerigroup, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, County of Orange, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CoStar Group, Inc., Cisco Systems, Compuware Corporation, City of Aspen, City of San Ramon, Halifax Regional Municipality, Inova Health System, L3 Communications, Pfizer, Inc. – Pearl River, Pfizer – GreenWheels, Precor, Quicken Loans, Raytheon, U. S. Department of State, Yale-New Haven Hospital, American Society of Landscape Architects, Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc., Boise State University, CSU Northridge, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Davis, University of California, Irvine – Transportation and Distribution Services, University of North Carolina Greensboro, University of Pennsylvania, University of South Florida, West Virginia University, Virginia Tech, A Better City TMA, Bishop Ranch Transportation Association, Campus Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA), Commuter Services (FL), Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), Fairfax County DOT, Genzyme Corporation
Hacienda Owners Association, Missoula In Motion, Smart Trips Knoxville, South Florida Commuter Services, Tampa Downtown Partnership, Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA), TeleworkResearchNetwork.com

We invite you to join us for the 2012 Race to Excellence Kick-Off and Gold Employer Spotlight Virtual Meeting!

The Race to Excellence is a challenge that encourages, recognizes, and highlights dedicated professionals throughout the country who promote commuter benefits, transportation options and the Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC) designation in their workplaces and throughout their local communities. Winners receive a gold, silver, or bronze medal along with an award certificate.

Are you constantly seeking new, low cost but effective ideas to promote commuter benefits? Join this Race To Excellence web conference to hear from a 2011 Gold Award Winner – Tindale-Oliver & Associates (TOA). TOA is a 55-person transportation engineering and planning firm with 5 offices that proves you don’t have to have a large budget or be a large firm to earn Gold recognition from BWC. TOA’s Laura Everitt will describe how they effectively weave the promotion of commuter options into their corporate culture from their pre-employment efforts to leveraging promotions with events like the World Cup and Super Bowl. Using small prizes, employee creativity, and internal recognition, TOA’s “Commuter Bowl” resulted in 42 employees actively participating and 434 trips by alternative mode.

Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Time: 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. eastern time

During this informative session, learn how to successfully participate in the 2012 Race to Excellence and receive national recognition for your efforts. An Employer Spotlight will feature Laura Everitt with Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc. highlight their innovative Gold Level program. A Q & A session will follow the presentations.

Speakers:

Julie Bond, Program Manager

Best Workplaces for Commuters

Laura Everitt, Esq., AICP, LEED GA
Senior Project Manager

Tindale-Oliver & Associates, Inc.

To participate in the 2012 Race to Excellence, registration is required at this link: http://www.bestworkplaces.org/race-to-excellence-2/2012-race-to-excellence-registration/

Yale-New Haven Hospital is the first hospital in Connecticut to be named one of the best workplaces for commuters in the United States. The designation is given by Best Workplaces for Commuters (BWC), a program managed by the National Center for Transit Research based at the University of South Florida.

http://www.elmcitybeat.com/2012/06/yale-new-haven-hospital-listed-among.html

BWC TOP 10 LIST FOR EMPLOYERS

1.  Provide employees with subsidies for using public transit & vanpooling.

Federal government allows most employers to provide up to $125 per month tax free to employees for transit and vanpooling and up to $240 per month for parking. Employers also don’t pay payroll taxes on this subsidy.

2.  Provide employees the option of pre-tax dollars for public transit & vanpooling. 

Similar in concept to medical reimbursement but without the “use it or lose it” constraint, employees can get more buying power by using pre-tax dollars of up to $125 per month for transit and vanpooling and up to $240 for parking.  Most employers save 7.65% in payroll taxes.

3.   Reimburse employees for commuting by bicycle.

Federal government allows most employers to provide up to $20 per month tax free to employees. Employers also don’t pay payroll taxes on this subsidy.

4.   Provide employees with bike racks, lockers and showers. 

Employees are more likely to bike or walk to work with these amenities at their worksite.

5.   Reduce the number of days employees need to travel to work.

Offer a compressed work week program where employees work the same number of hours in fewer days.

6.  Offer employees a telework option.

For knowledge workers, work is what you do, not where you go.  Equip and train employees and managers to work from anywhere – telework.  Employers can also reduce overhead and see increases in productivity.

7.   Replace parking subsidies with a transportation allowance.

Cash out the value of parking and provide a transportation allowance to employees.  The employees then have a choice as how to use a transportation benefit provided by the employer.

8.   Offer employees an Emergency Ride Home.

Reimbursement for those employees who use an option other than driving alone to work so they won’t be worried about being stranded in the event of a carpool partner needing to leave work unexpectedly or that they need to stay later to complete a task.  (Many regional carpool agencies provide Emergency Ride Home programs at no cost to employers and employees for occasional use)

9.   Offer employees flexible work options.

Flexible Work Options are a valued tool for supporting employee efforts to balance the demands of work and personal life.  Happy employees are more productive.

10.  Provide employees with a Carpool Incentive programs.

Carpool incentive programs may incorporate a variety of means to encourage employees to carpool. Possible incentives include reduced cost or free parking, preferred parking, or reward programs (such as prize drawings).  Employers can help employees form carpools through rideshare matching, which helps potential carpoolers locate others nearby with similar schedules

Receive recognition for your efforts!  Become a Best Workplace for Commuters here: http://www.bestworkplaces.org/join/online-application/ .  Contact Julie Bond, BWC Program Manager at bond@cutr.usf.edu or call her direct at 813.974.9799.

 March 29, 2012 – Six Knoxville, TN, Smart Trips participating employers have earned the designation as Best Workplaces for Commuters by the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) at the University of South Florida.

The local businesses are Elizabeth Eason Architecture, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Mast General Store, Metropolitan Planning Commission, Red Chair Architects, and Tennessee Valley Authority. These six businesses join the one other employer in the state to earn this designation.  Each business received a plaque and congratulations at a ceremony on Thursday, March 29 at Market Square in downtown Knoxville. 

Awards recognize companies who offer highest level of commuter benefits

TAMPA, Fla. (Jan. 26, 2012) – Best Workplaces for Commuters^SM, a program designed to encourage sustainable transportation innovation singled out 15 employers nationwide Thursday, January 26 during the annual “Race to Excellence”  Virtual Awards Ceremony.  The awards recognize organizations who have taken exemplary steps to offer transportation options such as vanpool and transit benefits or telework and compressed workweek for their employees.

“The annual Race to Excellence provides national recognition for employers who offer high level commuter benefits,” said Julie Bond, NCTR’s national program manager for Best Workplaces for Commuters. “Offering commuter benefits is a win-win situation for both employees and employers. Employees change their commuting habits, save time, money and stress while employers gain a competitive edge in employee recruitment and retention.” 

Best Workplaces for Commuters provides qualified employers with programs and services along with national recognition and an elite designation for offering outstanding commuter benefits, such as free or low cost bus passes. Employers that meet the National Standard of Excellence in commuter benefits – a standard established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and maintained by the National Center for Transit Research (NCTR)– can become a member of Best Workplaces for Commuters (http://www.bestworkplaces.org).

And the winners are: 

• “Best Of”
• Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

• Gold Employer/Champion
• Bishop Ranch Transportation Association (San Ramon, CA)
• Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)
• State of Arizona (Phoenix, AZ)
• Tindale-Oliver & Associates (Tampa, FL)
• GVF (King of Prussia, PA) (Champion & Employer)
• Gold University
• Stanford University (Stanford, CA)
• University of California, Irvine
• University of California, San Francisco
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• University of South Florida (Tampa, FL)
• Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)

• Silver Employer

• BLiNQ Media (New York, NY)
• Booz Allen Hamilton (McLean, VA)
• Central Arizona Project (Phoenix, AZ)
• Suburban Transit Network, Inc (Blue Bell, PA)

Best Workplaces for Commuter ™ is a program of the National Center for Transit Research at the University of South Florida.  NCTR is funded by Florida Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Transportation. The theme of NCTR is to make public transportation and alternative forms of transportation, including managed lanes, safe, effective, efficient, desirable, and secure.

The University of South Florida is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of only 25 public research universities nationwide with very high research activity that is designated as community engaged by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  USF was awarded $394.1 million in research contracts and grants in FY 2009/2010. The university offers 232 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The USF System has a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves more than 47,000 students on institutions/campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

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The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT), in partnership with the University of South Florida’s National Center for Transit Research, has designated nine Fairfax County employers as “Best Workplaces for Commuters” for 2011. The employers were recognized for the range of transportation options offered to their employees. 

The “Best Workplaces for Commuters” designation acknowledges employers who have excelled in implementing green commuter programs including ridesharing, transit benefits, biking and walking, teleworking, alternate work schedules and other Transportation Demand Management strategies. The employers are: 

• National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
• Computer Sciences Corporation
• Reston Interfaith
• Energy and Security Group
• Fort Belvoir
• CALIBRE
• Cascades Technologies, Inc.
• Price Waterhouse Coopers
• High Performance Technologies, Inc.

 For information about the Fairfax County Employer Services Program, visit www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/employer.htm.

BLiNQ Media has met the Standard of Excellence and is designated a Best Workplace for Commuters^SM by offering a significant Transit Benefit Subsidy program to employees. BLiNQ Media provides employees with a diverse package of Commuter Benefits that improve quality of life and help support work-life challenges. Over half of employees at BLiNQ Media in New York City take advantage of their Transit Subsidy program.

 BLiNQ Media has opened their New York City office in 2009 after the company was first founded in Atlanta in 2008.  They’ve implemented not only a Transit Subsidy, but also a Teleworking program. And most recently they added a Commuter Options program through 511 NY Rideshare. Employees received free Ridematching and door-to-door Transit Routes and are now eligible for Guaranteed Ride through 511 NY Rideshare.

Working to provide employees with a greener, healthier and better work environment, BLiNQ Media takes pride in being recognized as a “Best Workplace for Commuters^SM”, “Healthiest Employer” and “Best Places to Work”.

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