RECOMMENDATION MEMO

SUBJECT: Workforce Transportation Habits

As you know Ms. Suarez, our company is the largest private employer in our area with 43,500
employees. City and county transportation officials have brought to our attention that our large
number of employees have greatly impacted the local traffic of our city. When they came to you
looking for help in finding possible ways to reduce the impact on the local traffic, you assigned
me the task of analyzing the workforces habits of transportation and attitudes to try to identify
solutions to this situation. In the report, I have shown four responses to data collection from the
employees on transportation needs. I asked employees about their frequency in using carpool
habits, their use of public transportation, the effect of potential improvements to public
transportation, and if telecommuting was an option. Towards the end I posed two solutions that I
think fit the best with the information that I found. I then closed the report with a summary of the
information found throughout the report.

Transportation Habits and Needs

Figure 1: Employees Carpool Habits

Frequency of Use: Carpooling Portion of Workforce

23%

11%
64%
2%

Every day, every week Certain days, every week

Randomly Never

As you can see from Figure 1, the majority of the employees never use carpooling. Out of the
43,500 workers 28,018 (64%) do not use carpooling to get to work. On the other hand, the
second largest portion of the workforce do use carpooling when coming to work. Around 10,138
(23%) do use carpooling every day of every week to arrive to work. On certain days of every
week, the third largest portion of 4,361 (11%) randomly uses carpooling. More than half the
employees do not use carpooling making it a difficult option to impose.

Figure 2: Use of Public Transportation

Frequency of Use: Public Transportation Portion of Workforce

28%

54%
13%
5%

Every day, every week Certain days, every week

Randomly Never

As you can see from Figure 2, out of 43,500 workers about 23,556 (54%) said they use public
transportation every day of every week. Only about 12,053 (28%) never use it making it the
second biggest portion. Randomly using public transportation is 5, 862 (13%) of the workforce
while only 2,029 (5%) use it on certain days of every week. From this information you can
deduce that public transportation is the most used option of transportation to work because more
than half the workforce use it every day. Due to this, it can be a good route to take on finding a
solution.

Figure 3: Effect of Potential Improvements to Public Transportation

Which of the following would encourage you to use public transportation more frequently? (Check all that apply).
Increased perceptions of safety

Improved cleanliness

Reduced commute times 16%

26%
3%

Greater convenience: fewer transfers

Greater convenience: more stops 23%

18%

3% 10%
Lower (or subsidized) fares

Nothing could encourage me to take public transportation

Note: This question was asked to those respondents who use public transportation
randomly or never, a subgroup that represents 17,915 employees or 41% of the
workforce.

As you can see in Figure 3, by changing aspects of public transportation more than half of the
workers who said randomly or never to using public transportation would change their mind. Out
of the 17,915 workers that are represented 8,294 (46%) said that nothing could encourage them
to take public transportation. On the brighter side, when adding up all the possible changes 54%
of the workforce said they could be encouraged to try using this method to get to work. To
convince the workers we would have to increase perceptions of safety for 4,932 (28%), improve
cleanliness for 852 (5%), reduce commute times for 7,285 (41%), give greater convenience with
fewer transfers for 3,278 (18%), give greater convenience with more stops for 1,155 (6%), and
lower or subsidize fares for 5,634 (31%). This might seem like a lot but it would be a good
option to lighten traffic.
Figure 4: Is Telecommuting An Option?

Does the nature of your work make telecommuting a realistic option?

8%

20%
42%

30%

Yes, every day Yes, several days a week

Yes, random days No

As you can see from Figure 4, a big portion of the workforce can telecommute for work for most
if not all of the days of the week. When the number of employees that can work from home are
added more than half the employees can work from home a certain amount of days. Out of the
43,500 employees 3,460 (8%) can telecommute every day, 8,521 (20%) can do several days a
week, and 12,918 (30%) can do random days. The remaining 18,601 (42%) cannot telecommute.
The majority can look at this is an option for some days or even permanently.

Possible Solutions
From the information I gathered concerning transportation habits and work needs from the
employees, I have explained the two answers that I think match our problem the most in the next
section. I had to find an answer that would neither upset nor inconvenience the workers while
satisfying the officials at the same time. Both options help with reducing traffic in the area. The
decision comes down to what possible effects are acceptable to both the company and the city.

Solution 1: Telecommunication

Telecommunication is a good option to lessen traffic in the area because it will get a lot of the
cars off the road. Since the employees are working from home there is no reason for the workers
to be traveling in mass to their work office. The workers who can do their work from home
always, which is 3,460 (8%), to those that can do it on certain days of the week, which is 8,521
(20%), can be given the option of a smooth transition in their schedules to integrate
telecommunication of work. This can reduce the traffic on most days and when you add those
that can do it on random days, which is 12,918 (30%), it is a big amount of people that can get
their cars off the streets. The permanent 18,601 (42%) who have to work from the office is less
than half the workforce meaning that we could reduce the traffic by almost half on most days
with this solution.

Solution 2: Improvements to Public Transportation

As you can tell from Figure 2, more than half our workers, 23,556 (54%) to be exact, already use
public transportation as a means of getting to work. When you add 2,029 (5%) who use it on
certain of every week it sums up to 25,585 (59%). This only leaves 17,915 (41%) of the
workforce using their cars. In Figure 3, it shows that we asked if improvements made to public
transportation would encourage the remaining 17,915 employees to use this method. A high
number of them viewed this positively. In fact, only 8,294 (46%) said nothing could encourage
them to take public transportation. When analyzed, this is a small portion of the workforce. By
working with the county officials and our employees together we can reassure everyone and
increase the number of people using public transportation as their method of getting to work.
This would take a lot of cars off the streets. As an incentive, we can even offer subsidized bus
passes to convince employees of this option. This could make it a great solution.

As you can see Ms. Suarez, in Figure 1 it shows that not many people use carpooling so it would
have been difficult to convince a lot of people to use this method. On the other hand, Figure 2
and 3 combined shows that a lot of employees use the method of public transportation to get to
work and a big amount can be encouraged to try this method of getting to work. This makes it a
possible solution. From Figure 4, you can deduce that when added up, a lot of your employees
have the option of working from home. This also makes telecommunication a viable solution to
reduce traffic. If you can contact me we can set up a time to further discuss the data collected and
the solutions that I drew from that information.