As employees and staff continue to return to the office, many organizations are finding commute management to be increasingly challenging. Employee carpool programs can be an effective solution to these challenges, but successfully planning and implementing a solution that fits your organization’s needs can feel like a daunting task.
Due to the complexity of the planning, software, and logistics required, many managers responsible for addressing their organization’s transportation demand don’t know where to start.
If that sounds familiar, Liftango is here to help!
But first, let’s talk a little more about what problems carpooling can solve for an organization like yours.
Why does my organization need carpooling?
Organizations across the world are facing complex challenges stemming from inefficient commuting:
- Peak period traffic congestion is making it difficult for staff, customers, and other important visitors to reach offices and corporate campuses.
- On-site parking facilities don’t have the capacity to accommodate all commuters, but expansion requires hefty capital and real estate.
- Commuters with long travel times are experiencing higher rates of stress, as well as lower rates of productivity and job satisfaction.
Carpooling provides a solution to satisfy requirements for commute benefit ordinances, workplace travel plans, and corporate sustainability. A well-planned carpooling program can alleviate these problems with minimal expense and management. But to accomplish this, you’ll first need to have a clear idea of what’s required.
So, without further ado - let’s move on to this checklist of must-haves for successful carpooling implementation.
6 strategies to build an employee carpool program that gets results
1. Find your champion
One of the first things to do is appoint your carpooling 'champion'—the person who will be the face of the new program and will drive others to get onboard. Look for someone who can get along well with people and has the energy to generate excitement. It’s a big bonus if your champion is in a position where they’re already a familiar face to most of the departments within your organization.
2. Nail communication
To ensure your carpooling program attracts and engages users, you need to be able to communicate its benefits, the problems it solves, and how it works. Coordinate with the right stakeholders on what needs to be highlighted in your internal messaging and how this will be executed.
Ask yourself: is this the most effective way to communicate these points and achieve our goals?
3. Establish your uptake triggers
To build a healthy group of users, you will first need to identify triggers that will incentivize uptake. These are ideally benefits that address your users’ most significant pain points and will motivate them to convert to carpooling. Examples of powerful uptake triggers include exclusive parking, discounted parking in premium locations, and ongoing monthly rewards. In fact, we recommend you make the hassle of parking on-site the main driver for uptake by providing carpoolers with parking benefits that single occupancy vehicle drivers don’t get.
4. Gamify your system
Your program should have incentives not just for uptake, but also for continued usage. “Gamification” of your program can reward positive behavior in users when they reach certain milestones or achieve a specified amount of activity. Rewards can take the form of digital vouchers or other low-investment, high-gratification gifts like configurable referral bonuses.
5. Build your group of advocates
Have a plan in place for identifying and cultivating program advocates once you’ve gained your first crop of users. Like your designated “champion”, these early adopters should have the personality and energy conducive to reinforcing your program’s messaging and converting more of their peers into users. Give them the information and tools they need to be effective evangelists.
6. Find your balance through analysis
Your program’s initial run will likely reveal that some fine-tuning needs to be done when it comes to managing supply and demand. Review the data to ensure a healthy balance of available drivers and rider trip requests. Ideally, the software platform you choose should collect all relevant information and present analytics in a way that makes it easy to assess program health and performance.
By following these steps, you can help build a carpooling program that will create a more satisfied, climate-positive, and productive workforce!
Liftango’s Climate-Positive Carpool program is helping Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations from all over the world transform the way their people get to work. To learn more, contact us today to get in touch with one of our mobility specialists.
