Commuting – How to Help Your Employees

Good news – more and more employers are introducing sustainable mobility measures to help their employees get to work without clogging roads even more. A look at best practices.

In this era of ecological transition, driving alone in your car is no longer an option. Companies know this and more and more of them are aware of the role they have to play in making a difference. After all, they are the first to be affected – in a context of labour shortage, overloading of the road network sometimes deprives them of good employees who can no longer stand the hell of road traffic. To promote retention, save money (for example, by reducing parking space) and to play their part as good ecoresponsible corporate citizens, they are taking more measures.

A discount for public transit
In the Montreal metropolitan area alone, more than 400 companies recently implemented such measures, according to the Smart Commuting organization. Territory manager Nadège Gaillard confirms that “the most popular measure is the 20% discount on public transit passes. Companies are free to offer a more substantial discount if they wish to make this investment, and in some cases the employer offers it entirely free.”

Renovating for cyclists
At Desjardins, in the offices at Lévis and Montreal, major investments have been made in recent years to install showers and changing rooms. “We’re already short of lockers, because this option is so popular!” says Pascal Laliberté, senior advisor in the Sustainable Development Branch. “In Montreal we also offer a discount on subscription to the self-service bicycle system.”

Car pooling incentives
Like other organizations of similar size, Air Transat is a partner of the website ridesharing.com, which its employees use for free to connect and organize routes together. Each ridesharer accumulates reward points through this website. Other organizations have also provided reserved parking spaces for car poolers and a budget for emergency returns home by taxi, in case a child is sick and it is necessary to return home without the fellow passengers.

Rewards
Fondaction has set up Carbo-Point, a reward program based on GHGs avoided by those who avoid travelling solo. An excellent idea! Others offer a year-end bonus to employees who use sustainable transport.

In France, the government has even passed legislation to allow companies to pay a premium of the equivalent of $500 to each employee who commutes by public transit. There’s an idea that the Canadian government could take on…

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