Not all businesses are willing or equipped to offer social responsibility programs to their teams. But if you’re looking to improve your company’s image while doing more for the community and the environment, you can consider offering an office carpooling program. Also known as ridesharing, carpooling can encourage punctuality and reduce the travel time of your staff.
With that in mind, you can expect your employees to get their tasks done on schedule by giving them more time to work and take breaks. And the best part? Such programs can boost employee happiness and satisfaction. If you’re planning to organize a carpooling program for your team, here’s how you can get started:
1. Check who are interested
Before you get excited about drafting your carpooling program, you should first find out who in your team likes the idea. A simple survey can help you the size of departments or teams that are interested in the carpool. This will also allow you to know who among your employees would want to be drivers, passengers, or a bit of both. You can also consider using carpooling simulations to see how effective the carpool would be and show it to your employees.
If you have an extra budget to spare, you can also offer incentives to employees who are willing to participate. Mention the incentives in your survey to get your employees’ attention. You can consider subsidizing fuel costs or giving priority parking spaces for the participants.
2. Choose the carpool type
The type of carpool you will go for will depend on the number of employees and different work factors. One option is designated driver, which means you only have one driver for every set of passengers. It is up to the driver or the group if they should pay on a weekly or monthly basis. The second option is alternating the drivers per car ride.
This is more ideal for employees that belong in one department and have similar shifts. If this seems too limiting for your company, you can consider implementing the carpool organization-wide. Instead of grouping drivers and passengers based on their departments or shifts, you’ll arrange them based on their house locations. This makes it easier and faster for everyone to travel to work and get home.
3. Offer maintenance services
In most cases, the maintenance expenses are included in the total car ride fee of the passengers. However, this isn’t accepted by everyone. To prevent your employees from getting discouraged from carpooling, your company can shoulder the basic maintenance services of the vehicles. Except for the car’s cosmetic needs, you can sponsor regular auto shop visits to ensure the vehicles are road-ready and safe for both the drivers and passengers.
You can consider partnering with a local auto shop and see if you can get a deal for the maintenance services. Besides the usual brake and engine inspection, another important service you’ll likely pay for is tire balancing and alignment. This guarantees safe and smooth driving for your carpooling participants. Only work with an auto shop that uses high-standard wheel balancing systems and has experienced mechanics to service the vehicles. You can include the maintenance expenses as part of your incentives, so you can encourage more employees to participate.
4. Layout rules and guidelines
Lastly, you need to set some rules and guidelines for your carpooling program. Start with ones that relate to the actual carpool rides. These will include vehicle condition and maintenance, pick-up and drop-off time and points, and the number of passengers per vehicle. You also want to have sets of rules of food and beverage, entertainment and silence, and commuting etiquette. Having rules for such things can promote a safe and peaceful carpool ride for everyone.
Passengers must be aware of the actions that could be distracting the drivers, may it be loud conversations or playing games on their phones. Such distractions can put everyone’s safety at risk while on the road. Ensure that all carpool guidelines are discussed and agreed to before even starting the carpooling program. This way, participants will have a clear understanding of what is expected from them as a driver or a passenger. Besides road safety, the goal here is to be courteous and respectful to everyone inside the vehicle.
Corporate carpooling comes with tons of perks, from boosting employee productivity and punctuality, encouraging team bonding, to reducing travel costs. As a bonus, your company and employees can take part in reducing your carbon emissions that are harming the planet. Introduce how awesome carpooling is and start organizing one in your office using these suggestions.
