The Work
August 14, 2008 6:10 PM
Shook Hardy Shaves 180,000 Miles From Monthly Commute
Posted by Zach Lowe
Jason Wilson, a human resources trainer at Shook, Hardy & Bacon's Kansas City, Mo. headquarters, used to make the short drive to work alone for ten minutes every day. He paid about $80 per month to park in a garage near the office. Now he walks out his door and down the block, where he catches the bus for a 25-minute ride that ends at the office door.
The trip may take more than twice as long, but Wilson pockets a $45 bonus each month--on top of his company-paid $50 transportation voucher--under a new program aimed at enticing Shook workers to carpool, walk, or use mass transit to get to work.
"I think of it like I'm getting paid," Wilson says. "I haven't had to fill up my gas tank in a month."
Nearly 350 employees across the firm's eight domestic offices have signed up for the program since its July 1 launch, says Shook chairman John Murphy. The majority--92 percent--are support staff; the rest are associates. The firm's human resources department calculates that in July alone, carpooling and bus-riding reduced employee driving by about 180,000 miles, Murphy says.
Murphy helped create the program after several employees at his quarterly public meetings asked if the firm would do something to help them with rising gas prices. Some employees asked for raises or cost-of- living increases, Wilson says. Murphy ultimately settled on the incentive program that pays up to $45 per month depending on how many work days an employee utilizes alternate means of transportation.
Partners are not eligible for the program, Murphy says: "They can afford to take care of it themselves."
Three times a year, the firm will cover taxi fare for those employees who carpool to work and on occasion need to leave the office before the car pool.
Not all offices have embraced the program. Associates in Orange County, California, seem least willing to ditch their cars, possibly because using public transportation is inconvenient in the area.
"It's pretty consistent with everything I've heard and read about Southern Californians really liking their cars," Murphy says.
Shook Hardy will continue tweaking the program to encourage greater participation. Next month it will host a conference of major Kansas City-area employers, including Hallmark and Sprint, to discuss ways to encourage green commuting.
"We're in this for the long haul," Murphy says.
Make a commentComments (1)
Save & Share: Facebook |
Del.ic.ious |
| Email |
Reprints & Permissions
Comments
Report offensive comments to The Am Law Daily.
From the Law.com Newswire
 |
Sign up to receive Legal Blog Watch by email |
 View a Sample |
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
Subsidizing commutes may help people pay for their commute, but it does not in any way result in better use of fuel.
A better solution would be for companies to lease offices from Remote Office Centers for their employees. This would allow workers to cut out their long commute and save gas, highway congestion and time.
Remote Office Centers are a fairly new concept in telecommuting/office leasing. They lease individual offices, internet and phone systems to workers from different companies in shared centers around the suburbs. They allow workers to work remotely from a location near where they live by providing professional grade infrastructure and office space.
Remote Office Centers can be found by searching the internet for "Remote Office Centers" - in quotes.
Comment By aullman - August 15, 2008 at 12:39 AM