SEPTA Key Advantage Helps Employers Incentivize Sustainable Transportation
Single occupancy vehicle (SOVs) trips create road congestion and cars are responsible for a tremendous amount of carbon emissions. Using alternative transportation methods is an important way to reduce climate impacts, and an effective way to improve air quality in the Philadelphia region. The Council’s transportation team works to address the impacts of emissions from single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) by making it easy for employers to adopt programs that encourage their employees to commute (and travel in general) in sustainable ways.
Commuter benefit programs help employees save on the cost of taking public transportation, and the Council has worked for years to give people as many options as possible to reduce the environmental impacts from transportation. In the past year SEPTA launched a new, employer-based, all access pass called SEPTA Key Advantage, which is a new option for employers to incentivize their employees to travel sustainably, and the Council’s transportation team is working to encourage eligible workplaces to offer this benefit to their employees.
Through this program, employers offer all access monthly SEPTA passes as a benefit to employees at a heavily discounted rate, which gives employees a great incentive to use public transit. The program was first eligible to employers with 500+ employees, but now SEPTA has expanded the program eligibility to mid-sized employers with 50 to 499 employees (workplaces with fewer than 50 employees will be eligible for the program in May). The large discount is possible because this program is not opt-in – all employees who are eligible must be enrolled – meaning even more potential new transit riders!
SEPTA passes can help facilitate back to office plans, and be used as a hiring and retention tool – because employees can use the passes for all the public transit trips they take, not just their commute to work. You can learn more about the program here.
This program’s rollout coincides with Philadelphia’s Employer Commuter Transit Benefit Ordinance that took effect earlier this year, requiring that employers in Philadelphia with 50+ employees offer some kind of transit benefit. While there are other options that fulfill this requirement – for instance pre-tax transit benefits – SEPTA Key Advantage is one of the most exciting, because of how it will lead to expanded public transit ridership, all while making life more affordable for people who already rely on public transit.
Currently the Council’s Transportation team is working with employers to get them to adopt SEPTA Key Advantage (as well as other employee transportation benefits programs). If you work for an employer that qualifies (workplace with 50+ employees) and would benefit from becoming part of SEPTA Key Advantage you can fill out a quick interest form here.
If you want to learn more about the program or would like to have the Council’s help advocating for Key Advantage to be implemented at your workplace please reach out to Maya Frydman, Transportation Outreach Coordinator at mfrydman@cleanair.org
