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What if getting to work was one less thing your employees had to worry about?
In this episode of That Transit Show, we talk about Community Transit’s Small Business Partnerships Program. Host Monica Spain sits down with Alessandra Gonzalez to explain how small businesses can offer transit benefits to employees at no cost.
From unlimited ORCA passes to real-world outreach, this episode covers how the program works and why it matters for both employers and workers across Snohomish County.
If you’re a small business owner or someone looking for an easier commute, this is worth a listen.
Creators and Guests
What is That Transit Show?
That Transit Show is produced by Community Transit in Everett, WA. It highlights the people, services, and stories behind public transportation in Snohomish County, Washington.
(bright music)
- Welcome to "That Transit Show."
I'm Monica Spain.
Today on the show,
we're talking about small
businesses and transit.
And whether you're the
employer or the employee,
you'll want to hear
about this free program
that gives people unlimited access
to public transit across Puget Sound.
We're talking with Alessandra Gonzales,
who runs the Small Business
Partnerships Program
here at Community Transit.
Welcome aboard.
(upbeat jazzy music)
Well, Alessandra Gonzales,
welcome to "That Transit Show."
It's great to have you here.
- Hi Monica, thanks for having me.
- Yeah, you know, one of the reasons
I'm so excited to have you here
is because you're one of the people
here at Community Transit
who is out in the field all the time.
So I don't always get to see
you and talk to you (laughs)
because you're out talking to
people who ride our service
and prospective businesses
that may want to work with your program.
So, tell me about your program.
- Okay, I'd love to, thank you so much.
I know I miss being in the
office because I feel like,
but I also do love my job
because I get to go around the community
and look for small businesses
that are looking to get
started with transit benefits.
So, everyone that I'm
meeting out in the community,
whether it's a rider or
whether it's a commuter,
I'm just looking to engage
them with transit resources.
So, it's fun.
- Yeah, I'll bet it is.
I mean, I have heard that you
literally pound the pavement,
like looking for small businesses
to bring into this program.
What are you looking for?
- I'm usually riding our transit services,
trying to identify like
if I was an employee,
like, where are locations and bus stops
that I would take to get to work.
So, riding those services,
getting off at these shopping centers,
and going straight to the
businesses and being like,
"Hi, we have, I work
for Community Transit.
We do have these vehicles that you may see
around the community,
but we also work with employers
to offer transit benefits
to their employees.
And everyone has to get around
and there's a way that you
can get started for free
to provide ORCA cards that have
an unlimited pass for a year
to hop on all the transit
services in the Puget Sound.
Does that sound like something
you would want to offer your employees?"
- Tell me about the first
business that you signed up.
I think it was Claypit.
- Yeah.
So Claypit, I was riding
our Swift Orange Line
and I was like, let me get
off on Mill Creek Town Center.
And just kind of give a flyer
and give an elevator pitch
to all of these businesses around here.
And I stopped at Claypit
and I had no idea.
- [Monica] It's an Indian restaurant.
Is that right?
- It's an Indian restaurant,
Yeah, so yes.
Claypit is a phenomenal Indian restaurant
and it's right on the corner.
And we went over, or I walked over,
and I just introduced myself.
I said, "Hi, Community Transit.
Like, I don't know if you know,
but we have these bus
lines that are right here
and your employees might be
able to use it to get to work."
Because I've just had all this
different range of people,
like people's knowledge with Transit.
- [Monica] Sure.
- [Alessandra] And so then,
I told him that, and then he was like,
"Oh, I know Community Transit.
I used to work for Community Transit."
And I was like, "Oh, well, okay.
Then you know these bus
routes better than me."
And then he was like-
- This is so serendipitous, right?
You didn't know?
- I didn't know.
I was just like walking around, and.
- What did he do at Community Transit?
- He was a coach operator as well.
So, yeah, he was like,
"Yeah, my employees do
use it to get to work."
And then he called me the
next day and he was like,
"How do I get started?"
- [Monica] Okay.
- And then that was the first
account that I signed up,
which is really fun.
- Well, you mentioned saving money
and one of the employees at
Claypit, we interviewed them,
and he had some interesting
things to say about that.
So, I want to take a listen to that.
- My name's Joshua Staller,
and I am a dishwasher
and a part-time server.
I ride Route 166 every
day to and from work.
Transportation is probably one
of the most important things
for people who do not work
from home, (laughs) so.
But the fact that it's free
is absolutely fantastic.
Considering the price of
vehicles and the price of fuel,
I estimate it saves me
about $1,000 a month.
- So, $1,000 a month.
I mean, that's significant
when you think about
what goes into owning a car, right?
There's insurance, there's maintenance,
gas.
- Filling up your tank.
- [Monica] Yes.
- [Alessandra] Which hurts.
And everyone has to get around.
Everyone has to get to work.
So, having an option that
even if you have a car, right?
Even if you can afford
the gas costs these days.
Your car could break down.
And it's good to know your
local bus stops, you know?
You have another option.
And we are constantly
traveling out in the community.
So, I don't know, next
time you're thinking like,
"Oh, I'm stuck in traffic."
Like, I always tell people like,
I love being a passenger princess
because when I'm behind
the wheel, I'm road raging.
Like I'm so annoyed.
And so I just like the fact
that I can have a professional
driver do that for me
instead of me having to be
stressed out behind the wheel.
- So, for a business like
Claypit in that case,
like how did you get them started?
How did you walk them through the process
of getting started?
- So, they sign up with
me and I walk them through
the enrollment for ORCA
for Business Passport.
They-
- Just sort of the paperwork
aspect of it, yeah.
- Once that's done,
we schedule a time for me
to meet with employees.
So whenever work's best
for their employees.
Everyone has been completely different
as far as whether it was a
6:00 AM employee orientation
or whether it was a 5:00
PM on a Friday. (laughs)
- Or multiple shifts.
Haven't you had multiple shifts?
- Or multiple shifts.
It's kind of fun, I never
know what to expect,
but I always do have
like a group of employees
that are coming into like
a break room or an office
and I'm like, "Hey guys,
these are your travel options.
This is your new ORCA card."
And my favorite fun fact is like,
"Do you know what ORCA stands for?"
Because a lot of people don't like, it's-
- Remind me.
- (gasps) Monica.
- I know I should know this.
- Okay, so it's One Regional Card for All.
So I think that helps
people remember that,
yes, we have a lot of transit
agencies in the region.
What is this ORCA card?
Is it just for the bus
or it's because of whale.
Like there was a reason
that it was created
and it was to connect
all of these agencies
and have one form of payment for riders.
So like, even though it sounds like
I'm explaining what an acronym is,
it feels like this is
to remind you though.
Like, more than just a little like boop.
It's like your way to get around.
- Yeah, I love that.
And, you know, there are other options.
If they have a credit
card, they can tap to pay.
Cash is still an option too.
But yeah, Orca is just,
it's a really nice system
and knowing that you can
go anywhere in the region
is just so great.
- Yeah, I think that too, a
lot of people still do use cash
because they don't know
what an ORCA card is
because they're not English speakers.
And I've been coming across that
when I'm at these employee orientations.
There's people who are riding transit,
but they don't have an ORCA card
because they just didn't know.
So, I'm grateful that I speak Spanish
and can have presentations.
One time I did an employee orientation
and I was speaking in English, Spanish,
and there was another employee
translating Ukrainian for me.
- [Monica] Whoa. Yeah.
- So it's like,
we're reaching a lot of people
and it's important that we can reach them
in the languages that they speak too.
So yeah, ORCA stands for
One Regional Card for All.
I walk them through all
of their new options
and all of the ways that
they can get around.
And I think what's important to remember
is that even though they're
receiving this benefit
from their employer,
they can use their ORCA
card to get around any time.
So it's not just for work.
They can use it to get to
fun, to the Seahawks game,
to the concert, to their friends.
At the end of the day,
like when we're choosing
a new way of traveling,
we're going to try it
first on our day off.
We're not going to try
it when we get to work.
So it's important that they have
like such a holistic benefit
to explore their options, and.
And yeah, so I walk them through all that
and all the time I love
being a transit nerd
and just telling them
everything that I know.
And they do enjoy it.
There's a lot of things
that they don't know about.
- Yeah, what are the
big questions they ask?
- Okay, what are the
big questions they ask?
A lot of people always ask me like,
how do I get one for my daughter?
How do I get one for my husband?
Because ORCA cards don't travel alone.
Like, they're going to go together.
And so I love that question, and.
- Bringing even more people on transit.
- [Alessandra] Yeah, I'm like, and then-
- I can tell this is your passion.
- It's fun.
It's because Transit is cool.
We live in a really wonderful region
that has so many services that I didn't.
I hate the idea of like,
people not knowing about what
services they have access to.
You know, like what resources exist
and what can help them save money,
just because they don't know
or they don't know how to use it.
So I'm lucky that my job is to
like help people get started
and offer them like that support.
- Yeah. Did you grow up taking transit?
Or is it a newer thing for you?
- No, it's a newer thing for me.
I think that's why I feel so.
- [Monica] Oh.
- When I grew up in California, I didn't,
my mom was,
I was burning my mom with picking me up
and dropping me off everywhere.
So the fact that now she's the one
that like on her days off, she's like,
I'm going to take the 130 to the 117
and I'm going to go to Macy's.
- [Monica] Nice.
- Yeah.
So I love that we can both,
we both get an ORCA card from our employer
and we can just ride around
and neither of us have to
be stressed out on the road.
- So, it's interesting to me
that when you go to these businesses,
you hand them the ORCA card,
but this is more than just
giving people ORCA cards.
This is really, is there follow up?
Are there other things going on?
You don't just walk out the door, right?
- No, so after we get started,
we get the businesses started,
all of their employees get ORCA cards.
They get a presentation
about their options.
We leave them with an employee's
only informational display,
a public facing display
so that people who
frequent those businesses
can get more information
about how they can travel,
and then ongoing support.
So if they're, I got an email last week
about someone being like,
"I need a photo of the light
rail for our hotel website
and it needs to be this professional."
And I'm like, "I got you."
Like, you have a connection
to someone in transit.
Or if it's like, "I need,
my employee wants to get
started with van pool."
I'm like, I have a resource for that.
I can help you with that.
So they get a monthly digital newsletter.
They always have access to me.
They have an ongoing
guaranteed ride home program
that they have access to,
which is-
- Oh, tell me about that.
Like, guaranteed ride
home, what does that mean?
- So essentially, when
we drive to work, right?
Should an emergency happen,
we have more flexibility
to just hop in our cars
and get somewhere.
But if we're taking a sustainable
commute to get to work,
like transit or carpooling,
biking, whatever it may be,
and we feel sick or we have
a family emergency come up,
we don't have that ride out there.
So to support those commuters,
we provide them with a safety net program
so that they can call a taxi cab company
to get them home six times a year.
- So if they had to stay
really late at work?
- [Alessandra] Like unscheduled overtime,
things like that.
- And the bus wasn't running
anymore or something.
- Yeah, if the bus-
- [Monica] That's an option.
- If they miss their last bus
because they were working late,
they would be able to
get home in a safe way.
- Well, I want to hear another clip
from somebody who also works at Claypit.
Let's take a listen to what he has to say
about this program.
- Hi, this is Sai, I was
a full-time manager here,
so I got the benefits from my boss.
So I was like saving a lot
of dollars every month,
so that can be helped to pay my rent.
So that's why I was like
taking the transit every month,
every day, morning and the night.
- Is that a common thing that you hear
when you go out and talk to businesses?
- Yeah, there's,
again, we all have to get around.
We all have to get to work, especially.
And especially at certain businesses,
they're either like
relying on other people
to pick them up and drop them
off and having to wait hours
or they're taking rideshare services
that are way more expensive
than public transit
and they live locally.
And so there's just, there's
a really big opportunity
where you could save so much
money if you rode transit,
but, B, if your employer offered you
that opportunity to get around, it's-
- [Monica] For free.
- For free.
Like you can, your employees
can get to work reliably.
You can help them do that.
And especially when
businesses are struggling,
employees are struggling,
it's a really good benefit.
Even like wages aside, right?
There's also opportunity for businesses
that have a lot of like parking shortages.
So if there's no parking
and your employees
are taking up a lot of
those parking spots,
hey, imagine they took transit
and then there was opportunity
for clients and customers to park there
instead of your employees
taking up that parking.
- Yeah, that's a really
good point, for sure.
How is it that this program is free?
- So, we were awarded a
regional mobility grant.
Community Transit has worked
with major employers for years
offering them commute
trip reduction strategies
and resources.
And so we saw that there was a missing gap
about reaching shift workers
and small and medium-sized businesses.
So this program was designed
to help them with ORCA Passport,
where the employer signs up for a program,
we apply 100% off incentive,
and then they partner with us
to provide ORCA cards to their employees.
But we also provide them with
the employee orientation,
we help them get started,
resources every month,
so that way their employees
not only have like a
key to the Puget Sound,
but so that they also
have all the information
and resources that they
need to get started.
- So if you could, you know,
speak to maybe business owners
who are wondering like, am I
a good fit for this program?
Kind of, what are the specs?
Like, what do they need to know?
Who's the ideal target here?
- Yeah, so our partnership
eligibility is essentially
employers that have between 5
and 49 employees per location.
You agree to host me for
an employee orientation.
So we'll do all the work.
Or, I'll do all the work.
(both laughing)
- It's all Alessandra all the time.
For now.
- Yeah, so I do a lot of the grunt work.
I know that they're busy,
I know that they have a lot on their plate
and that shouldn't be a reason
why they shouldn't offer,
why they can't offer transit
benefits to their employees.
So, I help them get started.
We do the ORCA Passport.
They invite me for an
employee orientation.
And then they sign up for
my monthly newsletter.
They have to answer my emails,
just a continued partnership
because they're helping us
as much as we're helping them.
Every employee that asks them like,
"Wait, how do I use my ORCA card?"
And they're reaching out to
us and engaging with that.
We want to continue the conversation.
So Snohomish County employers
with between 5 to 49
employees per location.
The rest we can take from there.
- And what's the website
that they should go to
if they want to get your information?
- So you start at
ctgo.org/smallbiz, B-I-Z,
and then it has the information there
and how to contact me to get started.
- How many businesses have signed up
with this program so far?
- So, over 30.
- [Monica] Okay.
- [Alessandra] Yeah.
- Since January?
Is that when you started this?
- Yeah, so in a quarter we've enrolled 30,
about 30 employers,
and then that's reached
about 700 employees.
- What an impact that's making.
How does that make you feel?
- Oh my gosh. (laughs)
It feels, every employee
orientation feels really good.
Even every outreach,
like even if a business doesn't sign up,
at least they see us out in the community.
They know about this opportunity,
they know what ORCA stands for and,
but it feels really good.
Affordability is really high.
Gas prices are really high.
And it never hurts to
explore your options.
It never hurts to consider a
different way of traveling,
of knowing your local bus stop,
of knowing that light rail is really cool.
We all love light rail.
I love light rail,
but our Swift buses, I like to tell people
that they're like light
rail, but on the bus.
They're high frequency.
They have lighting and
shelters and a digital sign
that will tell you when
your next bus is coming.
So they're reliable in that
way and I think we can,
there's an opportunity to encourage people
to go beyond the light rail.
- Definitely.
When you're talking about education
and ways to kind of like inspire people,
what other challenges are you
putting out there for people?
I think there's something
coming up, right?
- Yes, there's something coming up.
So now that the sunshine
is out and it's spring,
we have our annual bike and
bus everywhere challenge.
So basically if you're
biking to get around,
if you're busing to get around,
including paratransit,
including the zip vehicles,
we have an annual challenge
where we reward people
for using active transportation
methods like that.
So now that the sun is outside,
we really encourage everyone.
May is bike month, June
is ride transit month.
Like, that's your time to get outside
and explore your options.
- So how does the challenge work?
- So the challenge works
on Rideshare Online.
You can go to this
platform and log your trips
to be eligible for prizes.
So every time that you ride
your bike or you ride transit,
you put it on your calendar and
it enters you into a reward.
So you just have to join the challenge,
do your trips, log your trips,
and then we'll pull a winner
at the end of the month,
whether you were the best biker
or the best transit champion.
We hope that it encourages
people and challenges them.
Just another reason to get outside
and try a different
form of transportation.
- So tell me again the name of the program
and how it got its start.
- So, Community Transit has been working
with large employers in Snohomish County
through a commute trip
reduction program for years.
And we saw that there was this opportunity
to help small and medium-sized businesses
with those same kinds of
resources and benefits.
And that's kind of where
we partnered with Wash Dot
through the regional mobility grant
to come out with two programs,
small business partnerships
and community partnerships.
Small business partnerships,
basically if you're an employer
with between 5 and 49 employees,
we want to partner with
you to help your employees
get ORCA cards that they can
use around the Puget Sound.
- And it's free to the employer.
- And it's free to the employer.
They sign up with us
100%, no cost to them.
- And it's covered by that grant
that you mentioned.
- It's covered by that grant.
Yes, absolutely.
With community partnerships,
we're partnering with
community-based organizations
that are serving one of
our reduced fare groups.
So, our reduced fare groups are key groups
that can ride for a dollar or less.
They're low income households,
people with disabilities,
seniors, and of course youth ride free
throughout the State of Washington.
- Yes, love that.
- We love it
and a lot of people still
don't know about that.
And when you're thinking
about costs for a family,
like that adds up.
So we're partnering
with those organizations
so that not only can we
connect their employees
to transit benefits like
their no-cost ORCA card,
but also to the populations
that they're serving
so that we can bring
those enrollment services
straight to their location
where they're already
meeting with these groups
that could qualify.
So when it comes to the
work that they're doing,
they have this added experience of transit
that they can speak to
their clients about,
rather than being like, "Yep,
there's a bus right there."
They can be like, "Oh that's route.
You can take this route.
You can get this ORCA card.
Community Transit is coming next month
to help people apply for
a LIFT card," for example.
Things like that.
Kind of just strengthening
that partnership
and having a framework where
we're connecting the dots
between everyone so
that people have access
to transportation.
- Alessandra, when you
think about this program
and the future of it, what
do you hope will happen?
- So, it's a pilot program.
We're learning a lot
about the communities that we work with,
about the businesses around
us, about their employees,
and I think there's a
real opportunity there
for businesses to get started
where it's a one-year opportunity
for them to offer transit
benefits at no cost.
If they happen to have a business friend
that also has a business
in Snohomish County
where we have a referral
incentive for them
to offer their second year
for them to continue
their second year free.
And I'm happy that I can give
them a key to the Puget Sound
so that they can start
trying out these services.
But, yeah, I think cars are overrated
and I think we can just
consider a new way of traveling.
And it doesn't, and if you
get it from your employer,
like it's just that much easier
for you to try something new.
- Yeah.
Alessandra, thanks so much
for talking about this today.
It's been great having you
here, hearing the stories.
- Thanks, I'm so happy we twinned.
- Yeah, me too. That
worked out really well.
Thanks for being on "That Transit Show."
- Thank you.
(bright music)