Costco Commute Profile

Ridesharing critical to Costco trip reduction
Costco, long known for bulk goods and economical prices, is now involved in providing numerous services to its members ranging from travel programs to auto sales. This year the Costco Wholesale Corporate Headquarters is presented the Diamond Award for providing exhaustive ridesharing programs to its employees as a part of its commute trip reduction program.

Jan. 18, 2001 Awards Ceremony

Michelle Nordstrom, Michelle Schuster, Karen Mickley and Steve Stachowiak accept the Diamond Award for Costco Wholesale Corporate Headquarters.

Costco's Corporate Headquarters, located at the Issaquah campus for the past five years, is subject to intense traffic and suffers from a less than convenient location for public transit. To help reduce local traffic congestion and offer alternative commute modes, Costco chose to provide ridesharing options to its employees through carpool incentives as well as popular vanpool and transit subsidies. The company also offers complete ridematching services and has hired two part-time employees to coordinate its vanpool program and enhance employee awareness of Costco's commute options.

The company provides extensive commute subsidies to its employees and these corporate contributions to employee commute reduction have resulted in outstanding statistics. Of 2000 Costco headquarters employees, 325 vanpool using provided $60 Metro or Community Transit subsidies and are eligible to park in designated, preferred locations close to campus buildings. Vanpools are given priority over all parking spaces.

Commute reduction saves corporate dollars
Corporate subsidized transportation programs save both the employee and the company money. For example, 72 tenured employees commute to work in vanpools at the Issaquah site. Each of these employees is eligible for his or her own assigned parking space. Costco estimates that it costs $3,000 per space for parking expansion. Seventy-two spaces saved are equal to a one-time savings of $216,000 in parking costs to the company. In addition to saving money, Costco is also saving its parking lots from congestion. The Corporate Headquarters have approximately 900 parking spaces, less than half the number of spaces needed for each employee to park his/her vehicle. Carpoolers are also eligible for a guaranteed ride home in case of illness or emergency.

Costco also provides options for those employees that would rather take public transportation or bicycle to work. All employees are eligible for a $60 transit subsidy, and bicyclists are offered use of lockers and covered bike racks. Currently 65 Costco employees ride the bus to the Issaquah campus on a regular basis and 38 bicyclists pedal to work each day.

Costco Corporate Headquarters employees may soon be eligible for more commute options. Management is planning on further expansion of its CTR program, and possible additions include offering monetary and/or parking incentives to carpoolers.

*Some definitions: An “ETC” is the staff-level employee transportation coordinator responsible for the daily administration of the transportation program; “PM” is the transportation program manager; and “CEO” refers to the top management-level person at the worksite. “SOV” stands for single-occupant vehicle, and “CTR” for commute trip reduction.