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Category:
Diamond Ring, Costco Wholesale Corporation, Issaquah
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Listen to one of the ads featuring this winner. (Produced and broadcast by KUOW.) |
| View our online video "Stories of Success," which includes an interview with Karen Mickley. |
Results speak for
themselves: 333 Costco employees vanpool to work
Costco
Wholesale is an international chain of membership warehouses, designed
to help small-to-medium-sized businesses reduce costs in purchasing for
resale and for everyday business use. The company’s strong commitment
to its commute trip reduction program is evidenced by the amount of capital
it uses to provide subsidies to employees that use alternative commute
modes, its willingness to try new and creative program elements, and its
consistently low SOV rate. Having won three times in the past, Costco
receives a 2003 Commuter Challenge Diamond Ring Award for its Organizational
Leadership and Outstanding Program Over Time.
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March 16, 2004 Awards
Ceremony
Accepting Costco's Diamond Ring Award are Michelle Schuster, Karen Mickley, and Andrew Castaneda. |
The mode that sees the highest number of riders at Costco is vanpools. Approximately 333 Costco employees share the ride to work in more than 45 vanpools. Each vanpool rider receives a $60 subsidy each month to offset their out-of-pocket cost. Management sought an Employer Services Grant in 2003 that added a carpool subsidy to Costco’s CTR program. Carpools, made up of three or more employees, receive a monthly $25 Costco Cash Card and priority parking at the worksite.
The rising cost of gasoline is one reason Costco employees have become more interested in sharing the commute. The introduction of the carpool program also proved beneficial in turning SOV commuters on to the benefits of ridesharing. "Carpools have been a good intermediate step," said CTR Program Manager Karen Mickley. "It has helped to introduce ‘sharing the ride’ to employees who otherwise would not have quit driving alone." In fact, many carpools ultimately develop into vanpools. Since February 2003, five new vanpools that started out as carpools have formed.
Employees are not the only ones benefiting from the CTR program at Costco. While the company invests significant capital into its CTR program every year, it sees significant savings to its bottom line because of the program. It has eliminated the need to add parking spaces because of the high number of employees who use alternative commute modes. In 1995, when the company moved from Kirkland to Issaquah, the vanpool program also proved highly effective in retaining quality employees.
Costco began a new Flexcar promotion in 2003, made possible by a grant from the City of Issaquah. Through its partnership with Flexcar and King County, the program provides discounted Flexcar memberships to employees who use alternative commute modes to get to work. Easy access to Flexcar encourages employees to leave their car at home on days they might otherwise have driven in order to run personal errands.
The ETCs and Program Manager actively promote the CTR program at Costco each and every day. Weekly "Rider’s Wanted" messages go out to employees, alternative commute modes are discussed at new hire orientations, and management is provided with program growth statistics and other results of the CTR program. This level and quality of communication has helped to keep top decision makers invested in the program. Program Manager Karen Mickley also is a member of the City of Issaquah’s Citizen Transportation Advisory group. Appointed by the City’s Mayor, Mickley’s work with this group focuses on the needs and issues of Issaquah’s commuters.
Mickley credits the CTR program’s success to the fact that the variety of alternative commute options Costco provides works for so many employees. It also helps that she herself has been a vanpool commuter for over 9 years. "When you can say ‘I do it and have done it for 9 years,’ people listen," said Mickley.
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Commute Program
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*Some definitions: An “ETC” is the staff-level employee transportation coordinator responsible for the daily administration of the transportation program. “SOV” stands for single-occupant vehicle, and “CTR” for commute trip reduction.