Companies offer subsidized bus passes as employee benefit
Enrollment in the Metropass program allows employers to provide their employees with annual bus passes. Most companies elect to offset part of the cost of program participation by assessing employees a small monthly fee-usually $20 to $30-a significant savings over the comparable pass price of $76.
Nevertheless, human resources firm William M. Mercer Inc. began offering its employees free, unlimited use bus passes Jan. 1. The company is subsidizing the full cost of employee passes to encourage transit use. In addition, Utility Engineering Corp., a subsidiary of Xcel Energy Inc., will join the program with a full employee subsidy beginning Feb. 1.
Mercer recently moved offices from Bloomington to downtown Minneapolis, prompting a need to help its 105 employees avoid the high cost of parking. Since enrolling in Metropass, 30 employees-none of whom had ridden the bus before-joined the plan.
"Joining this program allowed us to give our employees free transportation, eliminating their need to fight congestion and search for parking," said Mercer office leader Bill O'Donnell. "It helped greatly in our transition to downtown, and helped us retain employees."
Utility Engineering's 64 employees also have unlimited free transit service. "Conserving energy is important to us," said Randy Zellmer, supervisor of procurement services for Utility Engineering. "Participating in this program takes cars off the roads and reduces demand for fuel."
The Metropass program now has 40 participating companies, making bus passes available to nearly 61,000 commuters. Metro Transit is the 17th largest bus system in the United States and operates 125 local, express and contract bus routes in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
Managing Editor, HRHub.com
Starnoff@vertical.net
Source: Metro Transit