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DECEMBER 28, 2005
Legistlative Issues & Incentives
HybridCars.com
Private Companies Offer Incentives
Businesses are helping employees trade in their gas guzzlers and plug into the world of hybrids
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Do you think that only environmentalists or eco-conscious legislators want to promote smart transportation choices? Think again. A growing number of business leaders are seeing the connection between employees' driving habits and the well being of their companies and communities. All across the country, private companies are helping employees to purchase hybrid gas-electric vehicles or to avoid driving altogether.
Any CEOs out there? Maybe these pro-hybrid companies will inspire you to add a hybrid car contribution to your employees' compensation package. If you do, please let us know and we'll add your company to this page.
Employee Incentives Hyperion, a software company based in Santa Clara, Calif., offers their employees $5,000 for the purchase of a hybrid. The company has committed over $1 million a year toward the hybrid purchase incentive, enough for 250 of the company's 2,500 employees to make a painless shift from gas-guzzler to gas-electric. CEO Godfrey Sullivan, who initiated the program, easily justifies the cost to the company. He said, "We receive an enormous amount of good will around the globe for this, far beyond the cost of the program." Sullivan also said that the hybrid incentives help the software company effectively recruit and retain the best employees.
Beyond the bottom line, Sullivan, a hybrid driver himself, sees the intrinsic value of encouraging his employees to do the right thing. Sullivan said, "We know we're not necessarily going to change the world through this initiative, but it's our aim at Hyperion to get people thinking about change, about making a difference." Less than a year into the program, 75 employees are making a difference in their new hybrids.
Google applies its spirit of innovation to the arena of green transportation, with its "Fuel-Efficient Vehicle Incentive Program." The company offers its full-time U.S.-based employees a $5,000 subsidy toward the purchase of a vehicle with an EPA fuel economy rating of 45 mpg or higher. Google contributes $2,500 toward leased vehicles. To qualify the vehicle must also be rated a Partial Zero Emission Vehicle (PZEV). Three hybrid cars qualify for the program: Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid, and Honda Insight. The company places no limit on the number of employees who can take advantage of the program. Google also runs an extensive schedule of low-emission shuttle buses to and from its Silicon Valley headquarters.
STMicroelectronics, one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, augments the company's monthly automobile allowance to North America-based employees who drive fuel-efficient vehicles. (ST's corporate headquarters are in Geneva, and their U.S. Headquarters are near Dallas, Texas.) Vehicles with fuel consumption ratings of 39.2 mpg to 46.9 mpg receive an additional $83.34 in the monthly allowance. Vehicles with 47 mpg or higher receive an additional $166.67 per month.
Outdoor apparel company Timberland in New Hampshire offers $3,000 toward hybrid purchases to any of its 6,000 employees who have worked at least two years at the company. The program was introduced in late 2004. "We want to make this as attractive as possible to our employees because we want to make a significant difference in the amount of carbon dioxide produced when our employees drive," said Terry Kellog, who oversees the multinational company's environmental programs.
Patagonia is giving up to $2,000 to workers who buy hybrids or alternative fuel cars. As reported in U.S. News and World Report, Coley Malloy, a public-relations coordinator for the outdoor gear company, bought a 1984 diesel Mercedes station wagon and had it retrofitted to run on recycled vegetable oil. The company grant paid most of the $2,500 retrofitting costs. Malloy has cut her gas bills down from $300 to about $70 a month. She has to buy about one tank of diesel a month窶蚤nd pays $1.50 a gallon to a local businessman who collects used vegetable oil from fast-food joints and filters it for her. "It is a lot of work to get the oil and maintain the car," she admits. But it's also fun. Whenever she drives by a big gas-guzzling SUV, "I rev my engine and let them smell the tacos."
Seattle-based Topics Entertainment, a publisher of educational learning software, established their "Eco Car Incentive Program" in 2002. Company Founder Greg James cuts $1,000 checks to any of his 55 employees who downgrade engine sizes, and doubles it if they shift from a gas-guzzling V-8 to a fuel-efficient four-cylinder. If Topics employees go hybrid, the company offers $2,000. James, who also started a carpool incentive at the company, told the Seattle Times, "We aren't all going to turn in our cars for bikes."
ABR, Inc., an environmental research firm in Anchorage, Alaska, pays its employees $3 a day if they don't use a car. If two employees carpool, they each get $1.50 a day. Another Anchorage firm, Ecology and Environment, Inc., offers $1 a day for employees using alternative transportation, such as the bus or a dogsled. For each day without driving, an employee is entitled to an entry in a monthly drawing for $500 and a yearly drawing of $1,000. Since the program began in 1973, the company estimates that its employees have avoided 31 million miles of driving, saved 1.7 million gallons of gasoline and avoided the release of 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide.
Employees of MOM's - My Organic Market, in Rockville, Maryland, can qualify for as much as $3,000 as an incentive to purchase and continue to drive a hybrid vehicle. MOM's employees who have been with the company for more than two years are entitled to a $1000 bonus/reimbursement of their down payment on the purchase of any car that gets an average (city/highway) of 45 mpg or more. After that, they are entitled to receive an additional bonus of $1,000 at the end of each of the two years following the first bonus, if still employed at MOM's and owning the fuel-efficient or hybrid car. An employee must work a minimum of 1,000 hours per year to qualify for the fuel-efficient/hybrid car incentive plan.
Customer Discounts The Farmers Insurance Group of Companies offers an insurance discount to California customers who own a hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicle. The discount amount will be 5 percent for auto customers. "Customers are opting more for vehicles with environmentally friendly hybrid or alternative-fuel engines, and that trend is expected to continue because of high gas prices and a growing number of hybrid models," said Kevin Kelso, President of Personal Lines at Farmers. "We are happy to offer drivers who are concerned about the environment a discount," added Kelso.
A number of hotels in California are extending hybrid perks to their customers. Hybrid-driving overnight guests at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, get free parking. The Argent Hotel in San Francisco cuts their rate for overnight parking in half窶杷rom $42.00 to $21.00窶杷or hybrid drivers. And if you provide proof of your hybrid ownership at the Little River Inn, on the Mendocino coast three hours north of San Francisco, you only pay for one night of a two-night stay in one of their ocean-view rooms.
Hybrid-driving students, professors and staff of the University of Miami (Florida) can save up to 50 percent of their parking permit price, which can run up to $352 per year.
For more information about the hybrid incentives, visit HybridCars.com
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