Analysis
3 Jul 19

10 ways to tackle a stressful commute

Traffic congestion is getting worse and worse, which does not only impact quality of life in urban areas but also the productivity and well-being of your employees. Therefore, we present 10 tips and tricks to tackle the consequences of traffic congestion on productivity and overall well-being of your employees.

According to the Dallas Business Journal, people with long commutes tend to pay more for petrol, typically get less sleep, have more fat, and are less happy than others. Even a daily commute of 30 minutes ends up in 125 hours spent commuting a year.

1. Flexible hours

Allowing employees to arrive before or after peak hour and to leave the office again before or after peak hours can save valuable time, energy and money. Flexible working hours make sure your employees make the most out of their day both at the office and on the road. 

2. Flexible office

More and more employers and employees are asking for flex offices and home offices. Thanks to digitisation many of our tasks can be fulfilled remotely without reducing the quality. Allowing employees to work from home or from a coworking place gives them the opportunity to skip traffic and start the day right away.

3. Carpooling

Encourage your employees to carpool to work, being together in one car during the commute does not only reduce the number of cars on the road but it also turns a boring and stressful commute into a social event. 

4. Public transit

Skipping traffic jams can easily be done by working with a mobility budget or giving your employees the opportunity to use public transit. As such, they not only save time and money by not getting stuck, but they might spend their time usefully by getting some work done on the road to/out of work, or they can just relax and sit back so they arrive at work stress-free. 

5. Microtransit

Add to the public transit the opportunity to use bikes or scooters either via a commercial bike and/or scooter sharing company such as Jump and Bird, or via a corporate bike and/or scooter pool. They are perfect for the first and last mile, can be parked at the train, tram or bus station or even be taken onto the vehicle. For a fast, active, agile, and cheap first and stress-free last mile. 

6. MaaS 

Companies can choose to work with MaaS companies such as Whim, which allow your employees to pick the most suitable transportation mode considering the current situations, from weather – bus over bike – to timing – ride hailing over bus. 

7. Ridehailing

Sometimes if no other commuting option is available for a certain route, it makes sense to outsource the driving part to a ridehailing or taxi company, so your employees don’t have to worry about traffic jams, and looking for parking. 

8. Route planning

Encourage people to use route planning apps with real-time traffic information, so they cannot only adapt the usual route to work, but they can even be encouraged to opt for another transportation mode. All roads blocked, maybe the train or the bike, or the combination, provide a faster and less stressful alternative. 

9. Parking 

Besides mobility apps it makes sense to install parking apps and connect them to the company budget or allow your employees to recover their parking costs easily. It is well known that much time is lost while looking for parking spots, hence knowing where and when a parking spot is available avoids not only losing time but getting stressed as well. 

10. Future: autonomous?

Using your commute as an office-on-wheels where you can prepare some office work, do some phone calls or even have a meeting, or having some leisure time on your way home, is what the future of autonomous cars promises. No worries about driving, parking, traffic jams or routing, just sitting back and relax. 

Authored by: Fien Van den steen