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Commuter Benefits
Best Workplaces for CommutersSM are required
to offer at least one of the following primary commuter benefit options
at each qualifying work site:
As an alternative, participating employers may propose another primary
commuter benefit that provides a similar impact to reduce drive-alone
commuting.
Employers also agree to offer an Emergency Ride Home
and three or more additional commuter benefits.
Primary Commuter Benefit Options
- Tax-free transit passes.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows employers to pay up to $100
per month, tax-free, for employee commuting costs. As part of Best Workplaces
for Commuters, employers must provide at least $30 per month in tax-free
transit passes to employees (if an employee's monthly commuting cost
is less than $30, the employer agrees to pay the full amount of the
employee's commuting cost). Transit passes include unlimited ride passes,
tokens, farecards, or tickets. Employers may also provide transit
vouchers for employees to exchange for passes.
- Tax-free vanpool benefits.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows employers to pay up to $100
per month, tax-free, for employee commuting costs. As part of Best Workplaces
for Commuters, employers must provide at least $30 per month in tax-free
vanpool passes to employees (if an employee's monthly commuting cost
is less than $30, the employer agrees to pay the full amount of the
employee's commuting cost).
A vanpool is any highway vehicle carrying at least seven adults
(including the driver) primarily between their residences or common
pick-up locations and the workplace. Typically, vanpool fares depend
on the commute length, van size, and total number of passengers. Employers
can run their own vanpools or hire an outside contractor to provide
vanpool service for employees.
- Telework. Teleworkers/telecommuters
work part-time or full-time, either from home or from smaller offices
with communications access to the main workplace, but closer to the
employee's homes. The term does not apply to home-based businesses,
branch offices, or occupations in which there is no regular work location
(e.g., truck drivers or airline pilots). The benefits of teleworking
include reduced office space requirements, increased employee productivity,
and a decreased use of sick leave. Many employers find that these benefits
easily offset the cost of supplying teleworkers with the necessary hardware
and supplies. As part of Best Workplaces for Commuters, employers that
choose to offer teleworking must ensure at least a 6 percent participation
rate, on average.
- Parking cash out.
Employers that offer free or subsidized parking to employees can give
employees a choice to keep a parking space at work, or to accept a cash
payment to give up the parking space. Cash-out programs are a very effective
means of allocating scarce parking if employers face a parking shortage.
Parking cash-out can offer a financial incentive to use other means
of transportation, such as vanpool, transit, carpool, walking or biking,
or to begin teleworking. Furthermore, this option is perceived as fair
to employees, because nobody is forced to stop driving or give up free
parking, but those who do are rewarded financially. Although any employer
that pays for parking can implement parking cash-out, it works best
for employers that lease, rather than own, their parking areas.
Emergency Ride Home
The Emergency Ride Home (ERH) program provides employees who commute
via transit, carpool, or vanpool with transportation home in the event
of a personal emergency or unscheduled overtime. Although some employers
run their own programs, others participate in programs administered by
rideshare organizations, transportation
management associations, and transit agencies. By offering an emergency
ride home, employers remove a major barrier to alternative commute methods—employee
fears of being "stranded" at work due to unforeseen circumstances.
To learn more, review a brief fact sheet
(1,155K PDF) on setting up and managing an ERH program.
Supporting Commuter Benefits Options
Participating employers agree to provide three supporting commuter benefits
from a long list of options, including:
- Membership in a Transportation Management Association (TMA), or participation
in a voluntary regional air quality program (e.g., Spare the Air) or
another employer-based commuter program
- Membership in a local ozone awareness program, in which you agree
to notify employees of expected poor air quality and suggest ways that
they might minimize polluting behaviors
- Ridesharing or carpool matching, either in-house or through a local
or regional agency
- Pre-tax transit or vanpool benefits
- Parking cash out less than $30 per month or less than 75 percent of
the actual parking benefit
- Shuttles from transit stations, either employer-provided or through
a local TMA or similar service provider
- Provision of intelligent (i.e., real-time) commuting information
- Preferred parking for carpools and vanpools
- Reduced parking costs for carpools and vanpools
- Employer-run vanpools or subscription bus programs
- Employer-assisted vanpools
- Employer-provided membership in a carsharing program (visit www.carsharing.net
to learn more)
- Secure bicycle parking, showers, and lockers
- Electric bicycle recharging stations
- Employee commuting awards programs
- Compressed work schedules
- Teleworking (less than 6 percent of commute trips on a monthly basis)
- Lunchtime shuttle
- Proximate commute (where employees work at locations closer to their
homes)
- Incentives to encourage employees to live closer to work
- Incentives to encourage employees to use alternative transportation
(e.g., additional vacation time)
- On-site amenities (e.g., convenience mart, dry cleaning, etc.)
- Concierge services
- Other options that you may propose: Ask
About an Option
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