Frequently Asked Questions

Should my business register as one or can we break it down into work groups?
It is a matter of scale. We encourage you to decide what makes the most sense to you. If your business has different locations and you think competing against the other locations would be fun then you can use that. If your organization is just too big to rally everyone, then register your team like this: Business Name: Work Team. So with different locations your team might look like this: Northwest Community Credit Union: Springfield Office. A business with 30 employees could have several teams if that is how your teams are working.

I rode my bike to the bus, how do I count this in the report? Or I walked to get to the Vanpool?
If you are walking or biking to get to the bus or car/vanpool, then count this as a bus trip or car/vanpool trip. If you are walking or biking a substantial distance then feel free to add your mileage in to indicate this. For Example: If you walk 1 mile to get to the bus and the bus continues another 4 miles to get you to work, and you do this all week. Then report 5 day as busing, and click the walking check box and enter 5 miles there. This will keep the stats pretty accurate. Otherwise, just report for your primary mode.

The Business Commute Challenge is a pretty simple incentive program to try to get a few more people to try alternate means to get to work -- and reward the folks that already do.

By the very nature of the bus, all trips that involve the bus involve another type of transportation. We are not trying to create a comprehensive commute log but we are really just trying to identify the number of commutes that are not in a single occupant motor vehicle. The rest is just a way to have an estimate of the number of miles saved when employees chose to leave their car at home. It really does make a substantial impact.

I take lots of work trips during the day, can I get credit for these?
The Challenge is a simple program and we want to keep it that way. When reporting, you can edit your mileage on the second screen before you submit your commute. Now you won't be able to report all your trips individually, but what ever your primary mode is and the total mileage can be recorded.

The Business Commute Challenge aims to help you choose to get to work without driving a car by yourself. The mode and miles are reported to help give an overall estimate of the impact we all can make when we work together.

All my employees do not have internet access?
We understand that everyone is not able to report online. We do have an Admin Area for Coordinators to enter and report for their employees (for info on this contact Paul Adkins), and we also have a paper reporting form for groups that have that need.

You can download the Paper Reporting Form here.

Is there a Deadline for me to report?
Yes, we need all the online reports by Midnight on the 21st, and for those reporting on paper, we need those faxed to the office by 5pm on Friday the 21st. The fax number is 541-682-6111.

What is the best size for work teams?
That depends on your business. Generally I would recommend working with the people that work together daily to best encourage and pump up your group.

What do Coordinator's do?
A team coordinator needs to be an enthusiastic ambassador for commute options. They should be willing to communicate with their team about the Challenge, what prizes are up for grabs, and what each participant needs to do to report. Can you pump people up, like a good challenge and like leaving the car at home? Then you would make a good coordinator.

Need help?

Email, Paul Adkins at paul@commutechallenge.org or call Marcia Maffei at point2pointSolutions – 541-682-6206

Challenge Totals

7 Days
2,241 Participants
169 Business/Work Teams
5,540 Member Reports
63,904 Miles
51,744 lbs CO₂

Total Miles

Biking: 16,331 miles
Walking: 1,902 miles
By Bus: 13,007 miles
Carpooling: 23,024 miles
Telecommuting: 8,914 miles
Other: 726 miles Sponsors -Prizes
Amtrak, The Hult Center, REI, Mezza Luna, Hutch's, Wheelworks
More...

2009 BCC Results:
1,173 Participants
85 Businesses
4,221 Daily Reports
45,976 Miles
And we are wanting to blow last year's totals away.