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Businesses Offer Employees Incentives To Conserve Gas

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By JACOB SCHNEIDER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

TAMPA - When consulting firm Tindale-Oliver and Associates asked employees recently what they wanted from the company, one request kept coming up: more support for alternative commuting.

So the company launched a program in conjunction with Thursday's national Dump the Pump Day in which Tindale-Oliver provides employees with free bus passes and holds a monthly gift certificate drawing among the employees who don't commute alone in a car.

Senior project manager Laura Everitt said she hopes to increase the number of employees who walk, bike, bus or car pool to work from six to as many as 20.

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon, local transit advocates said that Tindale-Oliver is just one of an increasing number of Tampa Bay area businesses coming to the aid of commuting employees by offering incentives to use alternative forms of transit.

Donna Chen, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit's special services and business development liaison, said she has noted a definite increase in interest in public transit subsidy programs in recent weeks. Through the federal Commuter Choice program, employers can receive a tax deduction for providing up to $115 a month per employee for use on public transportation.

"We have been going out and promoting this program to employers quite a bit and hadn't had a lot of bites up until recently," Chen said. "Now, rather than me going out and pounding the pavement ... I'm getting calls on a daily basis from employers who have employees who are concerned with the affordability of getting to work."

Scotty Schrier, marketing director for Bay Area Commuter Services, said the organization received more applications in May for its EZ-Ride car pool matching service than it did during the first four months of the year combined.

Those companies are probably responding to the fact that some workers are willing to switch jobs to avoid a costly commute, said Phil Winters, Transportation Demand Management program director at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida.

"Going green is certainly contributing to it, but most of them are trying to be responsive to the pressures that their employees are facing," he said. A 2005 survey by the center showed that 20 percent of Bay area workers said that they had changed jobs because of a commute - and that was before gas prices spiked.

Reporter Jacob Schneider can be reached at jschneider@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7850.

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