CommuteCon 2018

TOMS is a forward-thinking company that owns a very popular and trendy shoe brand. Travis Murphy, a facilities manager at TOMS, joined us to talk about TOMSportation, the company’s commuter incentive program.

The program launched in March 2016, and is designed to encourage the company’s commuters to maximize their use of smart modes of transportation. To achieve this, TOMS introduced a rewards program that offers incentives to commuters who walk, bike, carpool, vanpool, take public transit, or use ride-hailing services to get to work.

High employee demand for parking was one of the key motivations behind the launch of the TOMSportation program. Through the distribution of commuter survey, the TOMS facilities management team quickly determined that financial incentives were well-positioned to be a meaningful driver of behavior change.

In 2017, TOMSportation posted a company-wide participation rate of about 10 percent, which rose to 15 percent when TOMS took part in Bike to Work Week. The sustained 10 percent participation rate has thus far resulted in a steady reduction in the number of vehicles driven by commuters to the company’s office of about 8 percent. Commuters logged about 8,000 smart trips in 2017 for a total of about 83,000 miles.

The success of the TOMSportation initiative has delivered some valuable insights, which Murphy summarized:

1. Do it. While it might seem challenging to launch a commuter incentive program, the rewards are well worth the effort. To make things easier to manage, Murphy recommends starting out small, then building on successes and consistently expanding the program’s reach.
2. Don’t do it alone. Identify potential partners with unique expertise and insights, both inside and outside the organization. Encourage collaboration. Working with others expands the program’s reach and capabilities while dividing up administrative tasks into more manageable bits and pieces.
3. Tie things together. Incentive programs that directly relate to the organization’s needs deliver benefits for all involved. For example, TOMS needed to reduce parking demand while complying with commuter-related government requirements. The TOMSportation program was purpose-built to achieve these objectives.