Corporate sustainability has become increasingly important to both businesses and employees. In fact, about 68% of workers claimed in a recent IBM Institute for Business Value survey that they would be more likely to accept a job at a company that prioritizes sustainability. But many businesses overlook a key way to reduce their company’s carbon footprint: providing transportation for employees. Transportation benefits allow your company to take cars off the road, while attracting environmentally minded candidates to fill open positions.
The Environmental Impact of Commuting
Transportation is the leading cause of direct greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). About 2/3 of commuters in the United States drive themselves to work, contributing more than half of total transportation-related emissions. You can actually calculate the total amount of emissions generated by your employees' commuting habits in three different ways: fuel-based, distance-based, or average-data. The math can get a little complicated, but any of these methods will show you just how much your employee commutes are contributing to your carbon footprint.
Traditional gas-powered cars are also associated with health concerns such as asthma, cancer, and heart disease. These effects are worsened by traffic congestion, a growing problem in rural areas as well as big cities.
Even when public transit is available, it is often inefficient, requiring multiple transfers for employees to get to work. In most places, public buses are still powered by fossil fuels, meaning that employees who must make long and inefficient bus trips are still contributing to the overall environmental impacts of your business. These challenges can feel hopeless, but there is a solution. Let’s dive into how transportation benefits can help address the environmental impacts of commuting.
Lighten the Load With Transportation Benefits
When implemented in a thoughtful way, commuter benefits solutions can be a key factor in both environmental sustainability and business growth. For example, SHARE Mobility recently partnered with a packaging manufacturing company that wanted to reduce its carbon footprint. Since implementing a highly customized corporate transportation program in June 2023, that company has saved more than 40,000 individual commute miles and prevented over 18 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are four key ways that commuter benefits can boost both your sustainability and your overall business objectives.
Reduce Cars on the Road Through a Shuttle Service
A customized employee shuttle service can help you reduce the number of cars on the road, even if you aren’t in a rural area. Maybe your business is in an urban center with strong public transportation, but most of your employees live in a bedroom community outside the city. If you have 100 employees, but only a dozen of them are able to take public transportation to work, that leaves a lot of single-occupant commutes. You could offer door-to-door service from their homes to the commuter train station in the morning, and a reverse route after work.
Perhaps you have a huge facility in an area that has little public transit at all. This was the case with a home improvement company based in Louisville. Adding commuter benefits in the form of a dedicated employee shuttle led to 95% vehicle seat utilization. Each of those filled seats represents a person who would likely otherwise drive alone to and from work for every shift.
Optimize Schedules Using Transportation Management Software
When you partner with an all-in-one transportation management system like SHARE Mobility, you can design the solution that meets your unique business needs. Early morning and late night shifts are no longer an issue, because you can offer customized transportation schedules based on operational requirements. Importantly, you can give your employees the ability to book their own rides in advance through the website or app, with support in 11 different languages. This helps to ensure that vehicles are filled, and that routing is as efficient as possible.
Adapt Routes Based on Real-Time Demand
A robust transportation platform allows for dynamic routing and scheduling based on business and employee requirements. Look for a platform that lets you can easily view and adjust your current and future routes and scheduling all in one. This helps you assess employee needs in real time and make data-driven decisions to ensure that your shuttles go where they’re needed—and only where they're needed. Importantly, the ability to dynamically schedule routes means your transportation offerings can adapt to changing business needs over time, whether your company opens a new facility or experiences a sudden surge in business demand.
Measure Success With Regular Reporting
Naturally, you want to make sure that you’re getting the best possible return on investment. When you partner with an all-in-one transportation management system like SHARE, you’ll have the reports and data analytics you need to measure your success and tweak your program as needed. You’ll also have a dedicated customer success team by your side to help you interpret the data and optimize everything from shuttle sizes to routes.
Boost Sustainability Initiatives with SHARE
You likely already have a sustainability business strategy plan in place, but the environmental impacts of commuting are often overlooked. As the number one cause of direct greenhouse gas emissions, transportation plays a vital role in your environmental impact. Incorporating a commuter benefits program can help you meet your sustainability goals by getting a lot of individual cars off the road. This is also an easy way to attract more top-tier candidates for your open positions, since you can promote the program to job seekers who prioritize environmental responsibility.
At SHARE Mobility, we have been in the transportation business since 2016. We specialize in creating cost-effective, hassle-free commuter benefits programs that are individually tailored to each company’s needs. Our goal is to become your trusted long-term transportation partner, so we are ready and willing to help you evolve your commuter benefits program as your business grows and changes.
Are you ready to learn more about how SHARE Mobility can help you reduce your carbon footprint while hiring faster and boosting employee retention? Schedule a live demo and Q&A session with one of our transportation experts today!
