PASADENA, Calif. - Given the rapidly rising price of gasoline, not to mention the often mind-numbing commutes on Southern California freeways, interest in Wescom Credit Union’s vanpool program for its employees should be in the fast lane, right?
“Not necessarily,” said Joe Schaeffer, the credit union’s senior vice president-planning and development. He said ridership peaked a year ago when Wescom covered all costs, but plummeted when the credit union asked staffers to share expenses.
A large part of the impetus for establishing the program was the 2006 decision to relocate an operations center to Anaheim, approximately 50 miles from Wescom’s headquarters here. Schaeffer said the credit union offered free vanpools as a retention tool.
“We’ve had the vanpool program since 2006,” he explained. “Three or more riders constitute a vanpool, and, at first, we covered the costs because we wanted to retain our good workers. We had 25 vanpools throughout 2007 and over 100 riders at peak.”
After an examination of the costs of the vanpool program, Wescom asked employees to share some of the burden effective Jan. 1. Schaeffer said the move “dramatically reduced” the number of participants down to eight vanpools with 35 riders.
“Today, some of the workforce has changed, and other people have moved closer to the operations center in Anaheim, so demand has changed,” he said. “Even as gas prices approach $4 per gallon, we do not see additional people asking to join the vanpools, but I would expect some interest soon.”
Wescom does not yet have a carpool program in place, but Schaeffer said management is examining establishing a program for two or more riders. It would not cover costs, but would give carpoolers preferred parking, he said.
