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Bicycle Friendly Business shows that it pays to encourage bicycling in the workplace
According to a new survey and report, platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) in Bloomington, Minn, has improved employee health and has helped the company save an estimated $170,000 in three years through its “Health Reward” program. The program credits employees $110 towards QBP products in addition to their generous commuter reward program, which pays out $45,000 annually. Both programs are keeping QBP employees healthy, happy and productive. According to Jason Gaikowski, QBP Marketing Director, their new report “definitely shows that QBP is healthier – and as a result more productive – than the general population. It also clearly indicates that the commuter population health care claims costs are massively lower than claim costs compared to QBP non-commuters.” If you need prove that it pays to encourage bicycling in the workplace, look no further.
By encouraging QBP employees to commute by bike through 2007-2011, the company found the following:
- The company experienced a 4.4% reduction in per member per month health care costs associated with an estimated 3-year savings of $170,000
- Approximately 100 commuters incurred an estimated 3-year savings of $600,000
- The business benefitted with an annual savings of $301,136 in employee productivity.
Click here to see the full report.
Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU
Dewey joined the League in 2008. For four years prior to that, Dewey worked for Massachusetts- based Landry’s Bicycles and served on the board of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. Dewey has a MA in International Relations and Communications from Boston University and is a graduate of St. Olaf College. She spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.
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July 27th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Your average employee works say 20 miles from work in big cities. Not realistic and a unfair reward to those that happen to live closer. Also, getting hit and killed by a car isn’t worth a hundred buck a month REWARD.
July 28th, 2011 at 10:25 am
[...] of well-being. TBD on Foot steps back to 1994 to take stock of American bike commuting. And the Bike League Blog shares the story of how bike friendliness boosted one business’s bottom line. [...]
July 28th, 2011 at 10:37 am
[...] Bicycle Friendly Business shows that it pays to encourage bicycling in the workplace [...]
July 28th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
We live where we choose and where we can afford. Its makes no sense to NOT encourage alternate transportation for those to whom it is a viable alternative. If enough folks do live close in, that can translate into employer savings.
Here in Los Alamos, a large fraction of the work force lives in town. That’s typically a commute under six miles. We should be doing a lot more to encourage healthy alternatives to the daily drive than we are presently.Esp. since health care costs are one of the two primary drivers of our fringe benefit overhead. The other, of course, is the effect of a recently cratering stock market and shrinking work force on retirement plan solvency.
If people live elsewhere, that is their choice. We often trade commute time for housing affordability, but also trade off commuting costs for affordability. Nothing much a company can do about that.
Spare me the scare tactics on being hit and killed. We lose more people to preventable heart attack and stroke than to bike deaths. By a long shot.
August 1st, 2011 at 10:02 am
[...] Being a bicycle-friendly business pays. [...]
August 1st, 2011 at 4:36 pm
LAME’s arguments are hilarious. As Khal said, we choose where we live. If the “average” commuter lives 20 miles from their work, they chose that lifestyle. They can also choose to spend a bit more to live closer to their workplace (which saves them time, money, and is better for the environment and their health), and commute to work by more inexpensive means (transit, walking, bicycling, or even just shorter car trips).
Tens of thousands of people die in cars every year and many more are seriously injured – injuries that can affect their ability to work or play for the rest of their lives. People tend to discount this as a necessity, but as we’ve seen a greater focus on street design and public safety we’ve seen that’s simply not true. Bicycling becomes more safe as more people bicycle, and we shouldn’t forget to note that the cars are the ones killing people on bicycles, not the bicycles themselves. Very rarely does die from simply falling off their bike due to their own fault.
August 1st, 2011 at 4:56 pm
[...] Bicycle Friendly Business shows that it pays to encourage bicycling in the workplace [...]
August 3rd, 2011 at 11:31 pm
@lame my bike commute is 20miles each way. Since starting this I’ve lost about 20lbs and feel tons better. Although the increased productivity hasn’t really paid off for me at work since I’m a ups driver the more I do the more I get. Plus your more likely to be killed in a car accident than a bike accident.
August 9th, 2011 at 7:44 pm
LAME, I don’t have any idea where you get your statistics, but according to the USDOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 68% of work commutes are between 1 and 15 miles, and another 10% are between 16 and 20 miles.
A whopping 51% are 10 miles or less.