Working the Oracle for stressed commuters

Victor

Not sure if this is 100% the right place to post this ....

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From: http://home.eircom.net/news/Breaking/story.asp?id=42

Working the Oracle for stressed commuters
From: Ireland.com Wednesday, 17th July, 2002

The stress of Dublin commuting has been eased for staff at Oracle Ireland by a new scheme encouraging employees to use alternatives to driving to work.

The first initiative in the Republic to offer such a range of eco-friendly services, Oracle's dedicate travel office aims to provide a "one-stop-shop" to relieve commuting pressures.

So far 400 of the 975 staff at Oracle have registered with the car-pooling scheme which brings with it priority parking at the company's base in East Point Business Park. There are currently 64 car-pools running which involves 200 employees, a spokeswoman said.

'Orabikes' are on offer for those who need to get out of the office during business hours. Staff can borrow bikes, supplied with helmets and locks, to cycle to surrounding areas including Dublin city centre, Clontarf and Sutton.

The centre also provides concierge services such as dry cleaning and photograph processing to reduce the need to bring a car to work.

Those using bus or dart services can buy tickets at the centre and avail of tax breaks. Details on public service timetables and safety information for all commuters are also available.

The spokeswoman said: "Oracle hopes to influence commuting habits of its employees and to encourage other companies in the business park to set up the same scheme. Every company faces the same problems."

Oracle devised the scheme as it faced problems with limited parking space in the business park, she said.

The company conducted an internal survey of staff which showed the problem of traffic congestion was also affecting employee satisfaction. In May 2001, over 85 per cent of the staff participated in the survey which highlighted need for car-pooling, safe cycle ways and more accessible public transport.

The Minister for State for Transport, Dr James McDaid, at today's official opening of the scheme congratulated Oracle for recognising the role employers had to play resolving the issue of traffic congestion.

"It's a perfect illustration of people taking ownership of the problem of congestion and saying 'we are all part of the problem but we'd rather be part of the solution'," the Minister said.

By Aoife O'Reilly

seamus

A great idea imo. Happy Workers = productive workers. Also if people are car pooling, esp. within their own sections of the company, they'll arrive to work pretty much all together, and the fact that they have to car pool is further incentive to make them get up on time, etc etc = less lateness overall.

Vodafone, on moving out to Leopardstown have 3 dedicated bus services for employees - Blanch-Leopardstown, Tallaght-Leopardstown, and City Centre-Leopardstown. These buses also stop and pick people up so a huge amount of staff are covered. Other than that though they've done nothing. They made a 'deal' with a bike shop where employees get free lock gloves and helmet and €50 off a moped *heh*. If loads of big corps did what Oracle are doing, traffic would be eased a hell of a lot imo. Plus a concierge dry-cleaning service, fs.....brilliant. Is there any jobs going there?

I reckon this will save Oracle a hell of a lot more than it will cost.

Now we just need to allow motorbikes in the bus lanes..........